Lucas and Spielberg confirm on the DVD that they developed the idea of an adventurous archeologist while vacationing in Hawaii.
Indiana Jones was inspired by Saturday afternoon serials from the past.
No CGI enhancements were used in the making of this DVD.

Famed in movie lore is how Spielberg joined Lucas in Hawaii, while Lucas tensely waited to hear the box office returns from Star Wars. When Lucas learned that the intake was staggering, his mood became light, and he turned his attention to new projects that he and Spielberg might work on together. Spielberg had always wanted to direct a James Bond film, yet had been refused the chance. (One can only think the Bond producers wanted to resist the distinctive stamp he would have put on the material.) But Lucas said he had something better than Bond: the tale of an archeologist who gets inveigled in supernatural adventures. Spielberg was fascinated, and the joint venture commenced.

But as Lucas points out in the bonus documentary, his idea to make a film influenced by Saturday afternoon serials had interested him for years. In the early ’70s he’d had two ideas for the setting of such a story: outer space and the jungle. He chose the outer space concept for himself, and went ahead with Star Wars, but the jungle adventure continued to intrigue him. So he worked on the script with filmmaker Philip Kaufman, who was fascinated by the possibilities of the story. Kaufman, an intellectual who would go on to direct The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Henry and June and Quills, suggested that the Ark of the Covenant should be the object of Indy’s quest. Penetrating interviews with Lawrence Kasdan reveal how he took Spielberg’s, Lucas’ and Kaufman’s ideas and molded them into the final script.

The Growing Impact Of The Trilogy
The style of the trilogy remains fiercely contemporary and will certainly gain a new generation of young fans, while causing fans of the original release to wonder where the time has gone. Lorne Peterson adds, “Raiders is like the first Star Wars, it has a certain purity to it. One of the ways I describe both of those films is that you could almost see them blocked out on the screen; they’re simpler shapes, almost like a comic book in a way, and it’s not this layer after layer of things.” Michael McAlister, effects cameraman on the trilogy, sums up the appeal of the films, noting that the trilogy “is not a time dependent story. It’s an adventure that captures people’s imagination no matter what generation they’re from, and the visual effects fit into that story and support it.”

Henry Turner is a writer and award-winning filmmaker, whose Lovecraft-inspired horror feature, Wilbur Whateley, won top awards at the Chicago International Film Festival. His writing on film has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L’ecran Fantastique, Variety and many other publications. A longtime film festival executive, he has programmed for the Slamdance Film Festival, and currently heads FilmTraffick L.A.