For the Raiders fan ...

[MikeKardec]

I've had an early copy of the Raiders of the Lost Arc script for many years that includes, as and additional adventure, the nightclub scene that was eventually used in the beginning of Temple of Doom. Originally, I guess, the Staff of Ra was two separate pieces, the gem that focuses the light and the setting. The gem was retrieved by Indiana Jones in that nightclub scene cut, I'm sure, in order to get Raiders down to a producible and affordable length.

In trying to discover more about that version of the script I ran onto the following link which is to the initial story conference between Spielberg, Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan ... it's interesting to see that there were other ideas developed for Raiders that didn't see the light until the later films.

http://maddogmovies.com/almost/scripts/raidersstoryconference1978.pdf

 

[Brettafett]

Awesome! Its always fascinating to discover the 'arc' and development of a film - often turns out quite different from how it began.
Saying that, these geniuses of film must have oodles of ideas, they have somehow tapped into a creative well spring.
Looking forward to Kasdan's Han Solo story, I read that someone said it was one of the best scripts they have ever read. Mmm

 

[MikeKardec]

Here's a link to the much lauded (possibly just because so many people really didn't Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull) "secret" Frank Darabont draft of Indy 4 -- https://file.wikileaks.org/file/indiana-jones-4.pdf

Personally, I think the wind went out of the Indiana Jones sails immediately after Raiders. The potential was there but there was something that the film makers really didn't understand about the genre, Raiders "got it," possibly by accident but from there on things slipped out of control.

It's odd because there have been so many excellent reinventions of the Western genre in the last 40 years ... a genre I know full and well is absolutely loathed in studio and network world ... yet these classic Adventure movies have fared so poorly. Perhaps it was the success of Raiders that caused all though to stagnate.