Blogs
on April 20, 2026
That being said, when they first tried to film the scene, none of the spiders moved when they were put on Molina’s back. This was because all of the spiders were male. After they added a female to the mix, however, the spiders got very animated and the shot was achie
**For Lucas and Spielberg, it was a massive movie. Spielberg was coming off 1941 , and there were a lot of budget and time pressures. On set, did you feel the intensity of this movie being a big thing? Or were you just in your own little bubble focusing on your character? How did it work
**Raiders of the Lost Ark is a movie that has its own behind-the-scenes mythology as is. But going back to when you first got the script, what was your impression of it? It's very Lucas and Spielberg, but also unlike anything they'd done previously. What was your first thought
Since Raiders of the Lost Ark was inspired by the pulpy adventure serials of the 1930s , the early conceptual designs for the characters were a lot pulpier. The pulpiest of the bunch was the initial design for the Nazi villain, Arnold Toht. Whereas he’s just a sinister man in black in the final film, he was originally supposed to wear a cartoonishly kitted-out Nazi unif
**That's fantastic. Going back to the start, what was your first impression of Raiders when you were talking to the producers about doing it? Because it's very Lucas and Spielberg as a story, but it's also unlike what they'd been doing previously. What was your first impression of the movie and of Marion as well
**They just started filming Indiana Jones 5 over here in the UK, with James Mangold directing. Have you been following the developments of this movie? Are you looking forward to seeing what they've cooked up? It's going to be quite an interesting movie
The Indy movies are renowned for their over-the-top sound effects, and there’s one legendary sound designer that we have to thank for that: Ben Burtt. Burtt is also responsible for all the sound effects in Star Wars and the voice of WALL-E. The sound of the snakes slithering in the Well of Souls was created by Burtt sliding his fingers into a cheese casserole. The sound of the Ark of the Covenant’s lid being removed was created by Burtt sliding the lid off the back of his toilet. The sound of the boulder rolling after Indy was actually the sound of a Honda Civic driving over gravel. And famously exaggerated punching sounds were created by Burtt beating a pile of leather jackets with a baseball
Schindler’s List , Steven Spielberg’s harrowing cinematic portrait of the horrors of the Holocaust, opens with a completely black frame. Then, a match is struck, dimly illuminating the fingers holding it as it lights a can
So, it was brought up to where I was working on a film in Northern California. It got brought up, and I had to read it in my hotel room with a courier sitting there, waiting for me to finish - and then I had to give it back to him. They took the script away, and I didn't read it for another two or three weeks or something, until they offered me the role. I accepted, and then they sent me anothet version of the script. But I was pretty bowled over when I read the script. I mean, it was the most fantastical story on paper. I don't know that you can do a film like Raiders of the Lost Ark Tips Ark justice on paper, but it was quite extraordinary to r
Most people couldn’t imagine anybody playing Indiana Jones except for Harrison Ford . Ford has even said he never wants to be replaced as Indiana Jones and nobody else wants that either. That being said, Tom Selleck was super close to playing the famous archeologist. Actors such as Tim Matheson, Peter Coyote, John Shea auditioned for the role, but Selleck was offered the posit
The totally black frame could be read to represent the bleak reality of living in Nazi-occupied Poland, while the match could be seen to represent the beacon of hope that emerges in the form of Oskar Schindler, when he comes to his senses, renounces the Nazi Party, and uses his resources to save 1,200 Jews from concentration camps. The majority of this three-hour epic is shot in black-and-white , but it opens in color. It only turns to black-and-white when that candle burns
Steven Spielberg doles out new information with every shot in the opening scene of Jurassic Park , slowly building up the suspense. It opens close on some trees, obscuring something. That something is tearing the trees out of the way, thundering towards us, bellowing booming noises. A couple of closeups then introduce terrified men wearing hard hats bearing the Jurassic Park logo. Some of them are ar
(Lucas resisted casting Harrison Ford for a while, because he didn’t want him to become the Robert De Niro to his Martin Scorsese , but eventually, he couldn’t deny that Ford was perfect .) For Marion, they considered Michelle Pfeiffer, Debra Winger, Mary Steenburgen, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Seymour, and Barbara Hers