PHOTO ESSAY

Indy Spirit

Raiders of the Lost Ark: the remake

By Katrina Onstad

Steven Spielberg with the filmmakers

"After the Vanity Fair piece ran, we got hooked up with a few studios and we signed our life rights to Scott Rudin at Paramount. We’ve all worked very hard in our lives and sometimes, good things happen to good people. All three of us are extremely grateful. Everything has changed.

So we were driving our car through the streets of L.A. about a year after we got the letter from Spielberg, and Eric’s phone rings. It’s our agent telling us that Spielberg just called and wants us to stop by. I thought: I’m going to throw up. It was a childhood dream come true. We drove onto the Amblin lot and spent about an hour with him. He was charismatic and kind, very relaxed, a gentleman. Regardless of his status, he looks you deep in the eye and listens to what you have to say. We watched outtakes and gag reels from Raiders and Temple of Doom that nobody will ever, ever see.

We did ask him for advice about how to handle the attention, and you could see he was a little uncomfortable. But he was happy to share some of the simplest advice I still adhere to as a writer and aspiring filmmaker. He said, ‘Just decide what story you want to tell and tell the best story you can.’

Of course we asked him about the long-delayed fourth installment of Indiana Jones. He told us it will definitely get made. I just hope it gets done before something happens to Harrison Ford."

Raiders: The Adaptation plays at Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children May 4th.

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