Covers of the three-part Marvel comic adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Ron Punter talks to The Elstree Project about his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The Elstree Project is an attempt to make an oral history of films recorded at Elstree Studios.
This includes classics such as Raiders, the original Star Wars trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
They can be followed on Twitter and their Kickstarter campaign can be seen here.
1981 TV spot for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The sun in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Wonderful photoset focusing on Spielberg’s use of the sun in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The sun is a repeated motif across the whole Indy series (think of the closing shot of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and many of Spielberg’s other movies (think of the endings of Duel and The Sugarland Express, as well as the bike chase at the end of E.T.)
I’ll be doing a live Twitter commentary of Raiders of the Lost Ark on Saturday at 9pm (UK time).
The commentary will cover trivia, anecdotes and academic criticism of the film, and will take place on the From Director Steven Spielberg Twitter feed @fdsscommentary
If you can’t actually watch the film at that time, do join in anyway. It should be fairly easy to follow, so even if you’re not watching live, you’ll still understand what I’m talking about. Hopefully!
“I’m very, very proud of that. I have to admit I didn’t think at the time, ‘Oh, this is going to go down in movie history.’ I’d never been in front of a camera before; I’d been working in the theater in England, my now-ex-wife was pregnant with our daughter, and we were absolutely stone-broke. And I was doing plays for 10 people in a garage somewhere … usually in Polish or something.
“Suddenly, this interview opportunity came up: ‘Do you want to go meet Steven Spielberg to talk about this film he’s making?’ Of course, Steven was a star director by then, and I turned up at this very posh hotel in London, and I got the job. At the time, I was earning something like 100 pounds a week, which was the Union basic for theater. For this movie, they offered me 1,000 pounds a week.”
“[It was] a gift from God. I’ve publicly thanked Steven many, many times. That job saved my bacon, in more ways than one. We were able to buy a push chair and a stroller for the baby, and I was able to decorate her little room in our flat. It was our salvation, that gig, and I’ve never had a problem with people coming up to me about it. They’ll shout that line to me, ‘Throw me the idol, I’ll throw you the whip!’ I’m delighted that people still remember it.”
Alfred Molina, who played the back-stabbing Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark, on his gratitude to Spielberg for casting him in the film.
