After directing the enormous blockbusters Jaws and CloseEncounters of the Third Kind, wunderkind director, StevenSpielberg, turned out one of the biggest commercial and criticalfailures of all time: 1941. The production was phenomenallyover-budget-it was rumored to have crossed the $100 million mark-andalmost universally disappointing. He wanted to choose his nextproject carefully, in order to assure that the quality of thematerial returned to his mid-'70's outputs. Spielberg chose wisely,and with help from his friend and executive producer George Lucasand screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, they produced Raiders ofthe Lost Ark, the first film featuring the character of IndianaJones, the archaeologist who headlined one of the most profitableand well-respected series' to ever grace the silver screen.

The storyline of Raiders of the Lost Ark was, like the'30's and '40's serials it was based on, a constantly evolvingand action-filled story ripe with monstrous sets and stunninglywell-crafted fight sequences. Played with surly determinationand rugged sex-appeal by Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones was botha demure professor of archaeology and a steely action hero fightingand risking his life to have priceless antiquities shown in themuseum setting that they rightly deserved. Upon learning thatthe Nazis are searching for the Ark of the Covenant, an artifactthat would give Adolph Hitler the validation he so desperatelywanted, Indiana puts his foot down and goes to save the world,rescue the ark and get the girl, played by Karen Allen.

During the late '70's though, Lucas had other things-and trilogies-onhis mind besides those featuring a fedora wearing, gung-ho anthropologist. His epic film Star Wars was released in May of 1977 tomuch fanfare and success. Lucas, however, assuming the worstabout how the public would receive Star Wars, had retreatedto Hawaii with Spielberg to get away from the media circus thathe feared would plague him.

While on vacation, the two were discussing what movies they'dalways dreamed of making, when Spielberg professed his desireto direct a more character driven, James Bond movie. At thispoint in the conversation, Lucas mention an idea he'd had thatwas inspired by an old movie poster of a rugged hero jumping fromhis horse to a truck, that he wanted to called Raiders of theLost Ark. Spielberg jumped at the idea, and thus the serialwas born.

While it might seem like a studio executives dream to have GeorgeLucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan working together onan action-adventure movie, Lucas and Spielberg's pitch for Raiderswas turned down numerous times before Michael Eisner, then workingas the president of Paramount Pictures, green-lighted the projectwith strict instructions that Spielberg not go over the $20 millionbudget they had agreed to.

With this now miniscule amount of money under their belts, Spielbergand Lucas went about casting roles for the film. The role ofIndiana (named after Lucas' dog at the time) was, naturally, themost challenging part of the casting decision. Spielberg andLucas agreed that they wanted Indiana to be played by a new face;someone who hadn't yet become stereotyped. Originally, the twofancied Tom Selleck, an up and coming actor who had performedadmirably in several supporting roles he had been given, includingin Michael Crichton's Coma. CBS nixed that idea though,citing that Selleck had already signed a contract to work fora TV series they were developing called, you guessed it, MagnumP.I. After Spielberg saw The Empire Strikes Back though,his mind was made up: they had to have Harrison Ford as IndianaJones. Principle shooting started three weeks after Ford wascast.

Following the ideal of the cliffhanging serials of the '30's,Spielberg wanted to incorporate numerous exotic locales to piquethe interests of the movie-goers. Ultimately, Raiderswas shot in four different countries on three different continents.

the opening scene, marked by a boulder the size of Oprah, rollingafter Indiana, was shot in Hawaii

the dig site in Egypt was shot in Tunisia, a favorite locationof both Spielberg and Lucas

and the interiors of the film, including the burning cabin andthe Well of Souls scenes, were shot on the EMI Elstre Studiossound stages in London.

Outside of the scenes involving the cute, little monkey that wereso difficult to film because of the monkey's desire to do exactlythe opposite of what it was supposed to do (ultimately the producersof Raiders tethered the monkey to a series of wires thatwere designed to pull the monkey in the direction he was supposedto go), Spielberg and company found that shooting went as smoothlyas one could expect.

The production did face several obstacles that most directorsand actors wouldn't ever expect though. The Well of Souls sequencewas one of the more interesting to film. When Indiana discoversthe chamber where the ark of the covenant is resting, it appearsthat there is a thick carpet on the Well's floor. That 'carpet'is, in fact, a slithering mass of poisonous snakes. So many snakesthat "Karen Allen couldn't find her mark because there wereover 6,000 snakes on the ground," Spielberg remembers.

Initially, the Raiders production team had deigned to useroughly 2,500 snakes, but such a 'small' number of reptiles didn'tcome close to filling the set, so another 4,000 were flown infrom mainland Europe. Despite the obvious dangers, Spielberg,ultimately used more than 6,000 live snakes, including pythons,cobras and boa constrictors for the scene.

"We couldn't film [the cobra] scenes without having serumstanding by with a doctor to administer it," snake expertand wrangler, Mike Culling said. "In fact, the day beforewe started shooting, we discovered the serum [we had] was outof date and we had to have a replacement stock specially flownin from Paris, the only place we could find it."

As a precaution against snake bites, every unit member, with thenotable exception of actress Allen, wore protective clothing;high rubber boots and strengthened canvas trousers and jackets. For her part, Allen's costume included a billowy white dressand bare feet.

This Well of Souls sequence gave rise to the most talked aboutfilm flub in Raiders. As Harrison Ford falls to the ground,he comes eye to eye with a venomous and angry cobra (see stillon page 15). In order to shoot this safely-ie: without Ford beingbitten and killed by said cobra-it was arranged for Ford and thesnake to be separated by a piece of glass, through which therewould be no possibility of the cobra biting him. However, asmost people know, glass often reflects light. So, if you watchcarefully during the time Ford is eye-balling the cobra, you cansee quick little reflections of light on the glass in the lowerleft hand portion of your screen.

Ford, for the most part, didn't share Indiana's fear of snakes…or of tarantulas, as Spielberg opted for using the real creaturesduring the opening scenes. Working with about 50 live tarantulas,Spielberg actually affixed them to the clothes of Ford and actorAlfred Molina for their scene in the temple.

The result of all this work in different countries and with cold-bloodedcreatures that generally like to bite you was Raiders of theLost Ark, one of the most significant and successful filmmakingcollaborations in motion picture history.

On October 26, Paramount Pictures, the studio that produced allthree of the Indiana Jones films, Raiders of the Lost Ark,Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jonesand the Last Crusade, had re-released to video widescreenversions of the films, complete with previously unseen commentaryfrom Spielberg, Lucas and Ford on the making of the films.