As a lead in to the release of the complete Indiana Jones films on blu-ray later in the month, Paramount will be releasing Raiders Of The Lost Ark into Imax theaters for a limited run from September 8th to the 13th.

The conversion was done at the same that the film underwent its high-def restoration for the upcoming video release and was overseen by director Steven Spielberg.

Although Paramount has yet to make an official announcement about the re-release, Spielberg talked with the New York Times about it, gushing enthusiasm for the opportunity for people to see the film on as big a screen as possible.

For me, it’s always been the bigger the screen, the better… It’s the only marked contrast we have to the generations that are seeing our movies on phones and hand-held platforms. It’s a complete relief to be able to see a film that many people have just experienced on a palm-sized platform technology, suddenly hurled at that them on an Imax-sized screen.

Presumably, Raiders won’t be reformatted to the traditional IMAX 1.43:1 ratio screens but it still should look pretty impressive, as I assume it will also look that way in the subpar, “LieMax” format as well. You can find a complete list of theaters where the film will be screening at the Imax website.

Spielberg noted to the Times that during the restoration process no changes were made to the film outside of remixing the audio for the surround sound capabilities of IMAX.

When the boulder is rolling, chasing Indy through the cave, you really feel the boulder in your stomach, the way you do when a marching band passes by, and you’re standing right next to it…. Raiders is a movie of my own, that I can actually stand to watch from beginning to end. In that sense, it has a special place in my heart. I don’t rewrite it in my mind; I’m not kicking myself for what I didn’t do. I’m just going along for the ride like everybody else. It’s one of the few films that I’ve directed that I can sit back objectively and observe and enjoy with my family or whoever I’m with, or even alone. Most of my other films, I’m hypercritical of them.

Paramount and Lucasfilm have officially announced the extras that will be included on their upcoming Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures blu-ray box set due to hit store shelves September 18. (Though I’m not quite certain as to how complete the set is without The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles..)

Paramount’s press release gives us some information on the new high-def restoration given to Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Raiders of the Lost Ark has been painstakingly restored with careful attention to preserving the original look, sound and feel of the iconic film. The original negative was scanned at 4K and then examined frame-by-frame so that any damage could be repaired. The sound design was similarly preserved using Burtt’s original master mix, which had been archived and unused since 1981. New stereo surrounds were created using the original music tracks and original effects recorded in stereo but used previously only in mono. In addition, the sub bass was redone entirely up to modern specifications and care was taken to improve dialogue and correct small technical flaws to create the most complete and highest quality version of the sound possible while retaining the director’s vision.

The set will include all four movies as well as a bonus disc of extras. The breakdown is as follows-

Disc 1 – RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 2.0 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The disc includes the following:
- Teaser Trailer (HD)
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)
- Re-Issue Trailer (HD)

Disc 2 – INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 2.0 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The disc includes the following:
- Teaser Trailer (HD)
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Disc 3 – INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 2.0 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The disc includes the following:
- Teaser Trailer (HD)
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Disc 4 – INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The disc includes the following:
- Theatrical Trailer #2 (HD)
- Theatrical Trailer #3 (HD)
- Theatrical Trailer #4 (HD)

Disc 5 – Bonus Features
Bonus features are presented in standard and high definition (as indicated below) in English with English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

NEW – On Set with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
- From Jungle to Desert
- From Adventure to Legend

Making the Films
- The Making of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981 documentary previously unavailable on DVD)
- The Making of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
- The Making of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM
- The Making of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
- The Making of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (HD)

Behind the Scenes
- The Stunts of Indiana Jones
- The Sound of Indiana Jones
- The Music of Indiana Jones
- The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones
- Raiders: The Melting Face!
- Indiana Jones and the Creepy Crawlies (with optional pop-ups)
- Travel with Indiana Jones: Locations (with optional pop-ups)
- Indy’s Women: The American Film Institute Tribute
- Indy’s Friends and Enemies
- Iconic Props (CRYSTAL SKULL) (HD)
- The Effects of Indy (CRYSTAL SKULLl) (HD)
- Adventures in Post Production (CRYSTAL SKULL) (HD)

Legendary conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie has died in his Los Angeles home. He was 82.

McQuarrie was working as a technical illustrator (most notably at CBS  for their coverage of NASA’s Apollo program) and film poster designer when a fan of his in the film industry came to him with an offer. The fan had an idea for space epic featuring robots, star ships, knights, weird aliens and exotic planets that he needed to be conveyed to financial backers and studio executives. This fan went to McQuarrie and asked him if the artist would give his ideas shape and substance.

McQuarrie thought that fan’s idea would never make it to the screen–too expensive–but threw himself into the project full-force anyway. He made over 20 drawings to flesh out his fan’s dream, designing numerous worlds, aliens, and characters based on his fan’s script.

That fan, of course, was George Lucas and that concept was what turned out to be Star Wars.  Lucas showed McQuarrie’s concept drawings to potential financial backers in order to shore up financing. McQuarrie’s ability to put Lucas’ words into visual images helped many backers and studio executives see that Lucas’ outlandish script could work–and be beautiful. McQuarrie’s art swayed a lot of doubters to Lucas’ side, including comic legend Roy Thomas, who convinced his friend and mentor Stan Lee to reconsider his decision on Marvel Comics doing a promotional Star Wars tie-in comic book series (which I previously covered in detail here).

While most of McQuarrie’s designs were changed quite considerably by the time they got to the screen, I think it’s safe to say that if it wasn’t for Ralph McQuarrie, Star Wars might have never been made, or at least not as soon as it did and not with the freedom Lucas was given.  Yes, we can probably blame McQuarrie for Jar Jar Binks, the incessant marketing tie-ins, and just about anything negative you can apply to the Star Wars franchise. But without his strong concept drawings, we would never have an indelible part of popular culture that not only shaped my generation, but also the generations that have and will come after it.

McQuarrie went on to do concept art for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, doing matte paintings in all three films. He was offered the chance to do the same for the prequel trilogy, but McQuarrie decided to pass the opportunity on to a younger generation of artist.

Lucas did give McQuarrie a form of immortality few conceptual artist ever receieve. He cast McQuarrie as “General McQuarrie” in Empire. Since almost everyone who has appeared on screen for at least a half a second in the franchise gets an action figure, you can track down a small, plastic representation of McQuarrie to interact with the rest of your Star Wars toys (there are also figures based directly on McQuarrie’s original designs, ).

If the first Star Wars trilogy was the only listing on his resume, you could call his career legendary. But McQuarrie went onto contribute iconic images to other iconic films for more than a decade after the first Star Wars film.

McQuarrie designed the spaceships in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., worked as an illustrator for ILM on Raiders of the Lost Ark, acted as a “visual consultant” on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and did concept design on *batteries not included, Nightbreed, and Cocoon, winning an Academy Award for the latter.

The worlds of Hollywood, art, pop culture and science fiction lost a legendary light today. Rest in peace, Mr. McQuarrie.

It’s well known that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were inspired by the adventure films of the past when they collaborated to create their first movie to feature hero Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. YouTube user StooTV has put together a video showing exactly how much an influence those films have had, by cutting shots from 31 adventure films from between 1919 and 1973 that compare to the opening 13 minutes of Raiders.

While StooTV doesn’t supply a list of all the films that he cites here, many are fairly recognizable. Now I’m certain that Spielberg didn’t set out to ape all of the shots in the comparison here, but it does illustrate how effectively the director managed to capture the tropes of the genre in a perfect distillation.

StooTV is something of an Indiana Jones fan. In his comments he mentions that he’s already working on a similar comparison for Raiders‘ famous truck chase sequence and has posted a number of the bookend sequences from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series featuring George Hall as Old Indy, segments that Lucas neglected to put on the DVD release of the series.

For me, Raiders Of The Lost Ark is one of those rarest of beats, a perfect film. There’s not a false note in symphony of action, humor, thrills and adventure. As a kid, it was the first movie I ever saw twice in a theater during its initial theatrical release and I have seen it numerous times on the big screen at various revival houses whenever I can. What’s amazing is that in this day and age when everyone has familiarized themselves with the film through countless viewings on home video theaters would still be packed for these revival screenings and they will still clap, laugh and cheer at all the same moments that audiences did back in 1982.

Jamie Benning, who plumbed the making of the original Star Wars trilogy in a series of three internet released documentaries, has turned to George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford’s first collaboration. As before, he is taking the film and editing in behind-the-scenes footage, interview clips and other material to present an in depth look at the film’s creation. Currently Raiding The Lost Ark is still a work in process, but Benning has posted the first seventeen minutes of the project online. Check it out-

It is the scene in Raiders Of The Lost Ark that gets the biggest laugh. As Indiana Jones is chasing after the Nazi agents who have kidnapped Marion through the marketplace in Cairo, he is beset by numerous turbaned adversaries. After dispatching them in hand to hand combat, he is confronted with a hulking thug armed with a rather menacing sword.After the swordsman does some impressive posturing with his lethal looking scimitar, Indy just rolls his eyes, pulls out his pistol and casual shoots his opponent.

And for years, we have been told that that humorous moment came at the suggestion of Harrison Ford. During the film’s month long shoot in Tunsia, which was doubling for Egypt, nearly the entire crew came down with dysentery and on the day they were shooting the fight scenes, Ford was feeling particularly under the weather. Rather than go through with the arduous task of shooting yet another fight scene, Ford reportedly grumbled to director Steven Spielberg, “Why don’t we just shoot him?” Spielberg liked the idea, shot it that way and a classic film moment was born.

But Vic Armstrong, legendary stuntman and who doubled Ford on Raiders, remembers a different way as to how that moment came about. In his new book The True Adventures of the World’s Greatest Stuntman: My Life as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Superman and Other Movie Heroesexcerpted over at the LA Times‘ Hero Blog, Armstrong relates a different set of events that lead to the creation of that moment -

In “Raiders” there’s that famous scene where Indy meets this hulking great Arab swordsman and simply shoots him dead. Originally there was an elaborate fight sequence planned and a stunt team went up to the coast for two weeks working it out. They really drew the easy ticket – we heard all this talk about fabulous beaches and topless tourists, and there we were stuck down in bloody Nefta with the dysentery mob. When the main crew finished with us they flew up to the coast to join Peter Diamond, who showed Steven the fight routine. Big Terry Richards played the Arab and he swished his sword about and then the fight carried on through the whole of the Casbah.

Steven watched and said, “Look, I’m going to shoot whatever I can until three o’clock because then I’m getting out of here.” Peter Diamond was dumbstruck: “You can’t do that, it’s gonna take four days to film this fight. It’s a huge fight and the guys have been rehearsing it for weeks.’ Steven said, ‘I’ve got a plane coming at three, I’m out of here, I’ve got enough, I don’t need any more here.’ Tomblin butted in, ‘For Christ’s sake Steven, you’ve got to do this.’ But Steven was standing firm, “No, I’m out at three.” Tomblin said, “Well, it’s stupid doing this whole routine, you might as well just shoot the guy with a gun.” “Don’t be facetious Dave.” Then Steven paused. “I’ll tell you what, let’s try that. Yes, let’s try just shooting him.” And the rest is history.

So, whose version do you believe? Granted, Ford has gotten a lot of mileage out of the version that casts him as the author of the gag. And admittedly it does make a good talk show anecdote. But I have to think that maybe Armstrong’s version might be closer to the truth. Granted, it doesn’t cast Spielberg in a particularly flattering light, but that may be why the other version has been circulated for years.

One thing I continue to find fascinating about movies is the creative process that results in the final product projected onto cineplex screens. From a writer’s first germ of an idea to the completed movie, a story can take numerous twists and turns, growing off of a diet of suggestions and mandates from numerous sources.

Fans of the original Star Wars films may know how George Lucas worked through several, vastly different drafts of the screenplay for the first film before arriving at the storyline that we all know today. In fact, there is a rather good book by Laurent Bouzerea, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays available at Amazon, charting the development of all three original Star Wars films that makes for some fascinating reading.

But what of Lucas’ other famous film series- Indiana Jones? What was the creative journey taken to bring the whip-wielding archaeologist to the big screen?

Well, we now have a look into that process, thanks to the blog Mystery Man On Film, who has pointed the way towards a posting of the transcript of a three day long story conference held by Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan in which they solidify the storyline for Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

I have not read the full 120-plus pages, but the parts that I’ve skimmed through seem to show that perhaps Lucas had a stronger vision of what he wanted to do with this character than he initially did for Star Wars. With a few minor tweaks, Indiana Jones almost springs Athena-like from Lucas’ head. Through the course of the conference, we can see Lucas present the basic idea for the movie, with most of its major plot points already in place. Slowly over the course of the three days, Spielberg and Kasdan help Lucas file down the rough edges, polishing the idea for Kasdan to full flesh out in script format.

Like the Lost Ark itself, this is a great unearthed treasure for Raiders fans. While you may, like I do, have some criticisms of the films that Lucas has made more recently, there’s no denying that as read the transcript you are seeing a gifted filmmaker firing on all creative cylinders.