George Lucas's initial concept of Indiana Jones

I was reading the new book The Complete Making of Indiana Jones and was intrigued by something I found therein: pictures from the beginning of George Lucas' hand-penned 1978 treatment for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Apparently Indy was originally quite the playboy.

The actual book is great, so I'd recommend any fan who wants further info to buy it. However, Lucas's handwriting can be rather difficult to read in spots, so I created a transcript of the page in question. I'm posting it here because I think it might be of interest to board members.

Mods, if this violates board standards, please feel free to delete.

Here's a transcript of the handwritten pages:

It would appear that, unlike the Indy of Last Crusade, this Dr. Jones would have no problem with a private collector hiring tomb robbers to find artifacts for his personal collection, as the gentleman in the Panama hat does with the Cross of Coronado.

Plus there's the mention of the "professor" glasses coming off at night--there's rather a Clark Kent/Superman vibe, with the implication that the glasses are more for disguise than function.

Note too the interest in the occult, very much unlike the ever-skeptical Indy of the final Raiders.

Finally, the whole aspect of Indiana Jones as a playboy is intriguing. As I recall, Spielberg never was comfortable with that aspect of the character, leading to its demise. Nonetheless, it's very much in keeping with the pulp heroes of the era (Flash Gordon, the world-class polo player, springs to mind). Indy even owns an actual Manhattan luxury suite, much like Walter Donovan's.

 

The playboy aspect was eliminated by Kasdan, as is my understanding. He said that it was already complicated enough with the whole Professor/tomb-raider thing that adding this playboy angle just overcomplicated it all and gave too many elements to juggle. I think he was right.

 

Sometimes, the simpler, the better.

A "playboy" angle and a double life would have been a bit too much like Batman/Bruce Wayne.

 

True, but the tuxedo-wearing nightclub-fly aspect was nonetheless restored by Katz & Huyck, Lucas' friends, in the script and final film of Temple of Doom. That of course represents an earlier Indy, so we are to conclude (I think) that by the time of Raiders, he had left the nightlife behind.

 

My understanding was that Jones in the beginning of TOD was just dressing for the occassion--it was a business deal at a swanky black-tie nightclub, so the location really dictated dress. Its not like we see him at a craps table with martinis and blondes and then he goes and does the deal, he shows up with Short Round waiting outside for the getaway and whats-his-name that gets shot undercover as a waiter to make sure nothing funny happens. Its all business.

 

Well, he was supposed to meet someone at that nightclub, and that was only the first 5-10 minutes of the movie.

There's a bit of a difference between occasionally meeting someone at a nightclub and being a playboy.

 

True, true, and true. Clearly it isn't a lifestyle for him. But those elements are still in place -- the nightclub, the tux, the dancing girls. Since we have, via Lucas' notes, some insight into the original conception of the character, it's interesting to see how some of those elements made it into the second, "prequel" film, albeit in modified form.

 

Also, Indy was conceived as a response to not getting to make a Bond film. Bond's the ultimate playboy, so perhaps there was a bit of that behind the initial character sketch too. (And later, the ultimate 'flick the bird' to the Bond license holders in getting Connery to play Indy's dad.

 

Well, for Spielberg, agreeing to make the film was a response to being denied Bond, but for Lucas, who conceived the character, it was colored by Bond certainly, but not based on some rejection from the Bond license holders as it was for Spielberg.

 

Spielberg was the one who was turned down for the Bond directing job, I believe, and this treatment was written in the middle of a five-day conference between him, GL, and Larry Kasdan over story beats. However, based on what I've heard Lucas always imagined Indy as a playboy from the get-go, even before he pitched the idea to Steven.

On the other hand, Toht had a mechanical arm which fired bullets in the early drafts of Raiders, which is definitely Bondian.

I was reading more in the book, and noticed that Kasdan said that his favorite draft of Raiders's script was the second draft. In that draft, Belloq's first name is Emile, and he doesn't show up at the beginning to take the idol from Indy. Instead, Indy manages to escape with the idol and hands it over it to Marcus's museum, but he loses his fedora to the boulder (!!) and has to buy a new hat when he gets back to the States. Also, an archeologist colleague of Indy's, named Calvin Stansbury, is the one who briefs the government men on the Ark.

(There's also the stuff that can be found in the third draft, including the scenes in Shanghai, the medallion having two halves, the life-raft-as-parachute sequence, and the mine car chase as Indy and Marion escape the Nazi island.)

 

Lucas DID write a movie at one point that was based on rejection from license holders of an existing franchise, but that belongs on a different part of the JC.

 

Its strange to think that the Young Indy of both TV series and one movie would ever be a grave robber, kind of a weird schism going on there.

 

Characters evolve.

 

I for one know you nailed it Vort. The early ideas Lucas had for Indiana's charcter is the way I've watched the movies for a long time.
Elements like Indy being nothing but a grave robber and playboy did make it into the movies.
He is romantically envolved with three different women in three different movies, so when you add up the time of those three movies you get about 3 weeks so three women in three weeks that's a woman a week. Sounds like a playboy to me. Don't forget the female students who are talking about him as they're leaving his class in "Raiders" and the girl who has a crush on him. These elements did make it into all three of the movies. It is only in "Crystal Skull" that he's settled down.

It obvious he's in it for the money in "TOD". The entire beginning of the movie revolves around his lust for "fortune and glory" and he really does rob graves in "TOD". That aint no bottle of cologne he's trying to hock at Club Obi-Wan. Look at the guy he's totally dealing artifacts on the black market!

In regards to "Raiders", listen to the unctuous way Markus Brody says, "I'm sure that everything you do for the museum conforms to the International Treaty for the Protection of Antiquities," which means these museums, he sells to, turn a blind eye to the way he gets these artifacts. Belloq even calls him out on it. I mean Indiana goes into Peru and tries to steal the fertility idol from the Peruvian people and even trashes an ancient tomb which was worth more than the idol itself. The guy is clearly a grave robber and fortune hunter. I don't really know if he was in Peru or whatever. It doesn't matter.
But look at the title of the movie itself. "RAIDERS of the Lost Ark". They're not talking about Tusken Raiders. They're all a bunch of tomb raiders even Indiana.

But at the end of both "Raiders" and "TOD", Indiana redeems himself by choosing to help people or a person instead of helping himself to the treasure.

It's not that Lucas wanted Indiana to be a self serving playboy and grave robber throughout the entire movie. He wanted Indiana to be a self serving playboy and grave robber who redeems himself. Just like Han Solo.

 

Well said. Bravo. Keen eye.

 

Especially when they are prequalized and changed after the fact by Lucas.

 

But my DVD cover says Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

Characters always evolve.

 

Indy's first appearance in Temple is very James Bond-like.

 

The original character right up also appears to be an influence on Laura Croft as that is how she seemed in the first few issues I read of the comic to some degree.

Also there are probably more 'raiders' in the archeological world than honorable archeologists. You could right now go yourself intot he Middle East and go relic hunting. You might need friends and guns too. But there are still estimated to be many caves unexplored and the contents of those caves will wind up on a black market sold for a decent profit.

 

Especially when they are prequalized and changed after the fact by Lucas.

What exactly does that mean? And be specific.

 

Lucas changed the character from mercenary and grave robber to someone who seems the opposite of that in the TV show and the Young Indy segment in Indy 3.

 

Well, in Raiders he gives up the Ark for Marion (or makes the attempt to do so), so even in his first outing he proved that he was not just a tomb raider, but a hero with compassion and caring beyond the desire for material gain.

 

People go through changes in their lives because of events, relationships, increased awareness, tragedies and so forth, and do not remain stagnant. Therefore, fictional characters should not remain static either. Good people turn bad, bad people turn good, some people shift back and forth and live in a gray area. In the TV show and the early part of Last Crusade, Indy's a young man, fresh and naive. People do lose their innocence as they get older you know, yet they can grow later on and gain new perspectives as well. Cut the guy some slack.

The only permanent thing in the world is change and besides, the creative process is by it's very nature oriented to trying new things. I've never heard of a creative person in my entire life who had an initial concept of something and just stayed EXACTLY with it as he or she developed it. And not just filmmakers but novelists, painters, songwriters, anyone.

 

Another factor, I think, is that once Harrison Ford was cast, they didn't want the Indy character to be too close to Han Solo. So they had to make him different in some way.