As it turns 40, Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…
Since its release Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has been often regarded as the darkest entry of the iconic franchise, with even director Steven Spielberg expressing bitterness regarding the overall experience. Regardless, its still an Indiana Jones movie and one that had a lasting impact on the film industry as you will read on and find out. With the effort celebrating its 40th anniversary we take a look at what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of this controversial adventure actioner.
George Lucas lied to Steven Spielberg regarding a trilogy of stories
Writer-producer George Lucas and filmmaker Steven Spielberg created an incendiary formula when they got together to make Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucas conceived the first Indiana Jones film in the 70s as a way of modernizing serial films of the early 20th century. For the uninitiated serial films were a form of cinema popular during the silent era but lost their appeal with the advent of the sound era and rising production costs. Lucas used that same concept when making Star Wars (1977) and in the wake of its success shared his idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark with his good friend Steven Spielberg.
Having loved Lucas’ concept and the script crafted by him, Spielberg decided to helm the effort which went on to become a smash hit. Two week after the release of the effort Spielberg sat down with Lucas to discuss ideas for a potential sequel but to his surprise the director found out that his partner didn’t have a plan outlined for the franchise as he initially promised, “George said if I directed the first one then I would have to direct a trilogy. He had three stories in mind. It turned out George did not have three stories in mind and we had to make up the subsequent stories.”
George Lucas & Steven Spielberg were spitballing ideas for the longest time
Three years elapsed between the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple Doom. One of the primary contributory factors for this was because it took both Lucas and Spielberg the longest time to settle on what they wanted to do with their sequel. Lucas wasn’t too keen on using the Nazis as the villains for the next installment, and decided to have it be a prequel, that takes place before the events of Raiders. Being impressed with his work on Gremlins (1984) Spielberg brought in screenwriter Chris Colombus to pen a potential sequel script which would have seen Indy duel with the Monkey King, but this idea was rejected.
Lucas even conceived of a motorcycle chase sequence set in the Great Wall of China for the aforementioned premise but Chinese authorities refused permission to proceed. Next Lucas wrote a film treatment set in a haunted castle in Scotland but Spielberg felt it was too similar to the premise of Poltergeist (1982) which he was involved with. A plot involving the discovery of a “Lost World pastiche with a hidden valley inhabited by dinosaurs” was also considered before Lucas shifted the story to India and the Sankara stones.
The sequel’s darker tone was a reflection of some real-life distresses
Once the basic premise of the story was locked in Lucas wrote a story treatment and asked Raider’s Lawrence Kasdan to pen the script. Kasdan, however, was unsettled by the treatment Lucas handed him and promptly turned down the offer. The veteran writer was horrified by the dark elements Lucas had included in the story which involved the likes of ritual human sacrifice, religious cults and black magic: “I didn’t want to be associated with Temple of Doom,” Kasdan revealed. “I just thought it was horrible. It’s so mean. There’s nothing pleasant about it. I think Temple of Doom represents a chaotic period in both their [Lucas’s and Spielberg’s] lives, and the movie is very ugly and mean-spirited.”
During later interviews both Spielberg and Lucas attributed the film’s darker tone to their personal moods following the breakups of their relationships that eventually led to divorces. In fact, the script itself was originally titled Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death before it was changed to Doom.
American Graffiti paved the way for Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz’s hiring
Screenwriter Willard Huyck and George Lucas met as students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, later going on to become members of Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope group of filmmakers. When Coppola challenged Lucas to craft a script that’d appeal to mainstream audiences, during the production of his debut film THX 1138 (1971), the young director sought the assistance of Huyck and his wife and writing partner Gloria Katz to help him out. The collaboration reaped great success in the form of Lucas’ sophomore effort American Graffiti (1973), which was not only a hit with critics but proved to be a major box-office smash as well. After doing some uncredited rewrites for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), both Huyck and Katz were brought on board by Lucas to pen the screenplay for the Indiana Jones sequel based on their past collaborative successes and their knowledge of Indian culture as amateur art collectors.
Supporting characters were named after pets of certain crew members
It’s a well-known fact that the name Indiana was derived from Lucas’s Alaskan Malamute of the same name but very few are aware that two supporting characters in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were also named after the pets of certain crew members. The character of Willie was named after Spielberg’s Cocker Spaniel, while Short Round was named after Huyck’s dog which was inspired by a character in the American war movie Steel Helmet (1951).
Sharon Stone was considered for the role of Willie Scott
Sharon Stone requires no introduction nowadays but back when the Indiana Jones sequel was being made, she was one of 1000 actresses who auditioned for the role of Willie Scott along with Markie Post of The Fall Guy fame. In the end, Spielberg chose Kate Capshaw after viewing her audition tape and showing it to Harrison Ford for his approval. George Lucas based the prima donna lounge singer on actress Katharine Hepburn’s famous performance on the adventure flick The African Queen (1951), and from the get-go he and Spielberg wanted to craft a different love interest to that of the headstrong Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hence, Willie Scott was written to be more of a traditional “damsel in distress” type lead.
Ke Huy Quan nearly lost out on Short Round’s iconic role
Ke Huy Quan’s stunning return was indeed one of Hollywood’s greatest comeback stories. After taking a 19-year acting hiatus and pretty much disappearing from the public eye the talented actor once again became the talk of Tinseltown after his critically acclaimed performance on Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), which saw him win multiple accolades including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. However, the iconic role that kick-started his acting career was somewhat of an accidental one.
When casting director Mike Fenton arranged open casting calls for boys of East-Asian heritage it was Ke Huy Quan’s younger brother who originally auditioned for the role while Quan merely accompanied him. But after the producers noticed the precociously talkative Quan, they asked him to audition instead, and unsurprisingly he ended up nabbing the part.
Amrish Puri is Steven Spielberg’s favourite villain of all time
To say Amrish Puri is one of Indian cinema’s most important and recognizable figures would be an accurate statement. In a career spanning close to four decades and over 450 films the prolific actor, with his booming voice and intimidating screen presence, has played some of the most iconic villains in Bollywood. When Spielberg and Lucas were looking to cast an actor to play the devious Mola Ram, the duo were not too pleased with the talent they found with resident Indian actors in the United States and UK. So, they approached Puri who was working on 18 movies in India simultaneously at the time, but the performer was initially uninterested in being involved with the production.
However, Puri was convinced to take on the villainous role after speaking with Richard Attenborough with whom he worked on the production of Gandhi (1982) a few years prior. Needless to say, Puri made the role his own striking fear into the heart of western audiences with his unforgettable performance and Spielberg had this to say about the great actor in retrospect: “Amrish is my favorite villain. The best the world has ever produced and ever will.”
Production was shifted to Sri Lanka when shooting was denied in India
Due to the offensive nature of certain elements of the script the Indian government denied the filmmakers from shooting any scenes in India. Needless to say Spielberg & co. needed to find a similar location to shoot their film ASAP. It was in this context, that the island nation of Sri Lanka came up as a viable alternative and thus production was shifted to Kandy, Sri Lanka. Many veteran Sri Lankan actors such as D.R Nanayakkara, Iranganie Serasinghe and Denawaka Hamine played Indian villagers in the film, while the characters in the infamous Pankot Palace primarily consisted of Indian actors. Matte paintings and scale models were used to realize the Pankot Palace, the temple and village following the production shift to Sri Lanka.
Box-office success, a mixed reception & the birth of the PG-13 rating
Made on a budget of $28.7 million Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom went on to gross an impressive $333.1 million worldwide despite the mixed critical reception. However, over the years the effort has gone on to be re-appraised by film critics more resulting in an overall positive and improved reception. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has an approval rating of 77% based on 138 reviews, with the site’s critical consensus reading, “It may be too ‘dark’ for some, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood’s finest filmmaking teams in vintage form.”
Roger Ebert was one of few critics who gave the film a perfect four-star rating, calling it “one of the greatest Bruised Forearm Movies ever made. You know what a Bruised Forearm Movie is. That’s the kind of movie where your date is always grabbing your forearm in a viselike grip, as unbearable excitement unfolds on the screen...Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom makes no apologies for being exactly what it is: Exhilarating, manic, wildly imaginative escapism. No apologies are necessary. This is the most cheerfully exciting, bizarre, goofy, romantic adventure movie since Raiders, and it is high praise to say that it’s not so much a sequel as an equal… You stagger out with a silly grin — and a bruised forearm, of course.”
Similar to film critics the cast and crew too harbor mixed feelings about their effort, with director Steven Spielberg being the most disappointed. Whilst promoting Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, Steven Spielberg had this to say, “I wasn’t happy with Temple of Doom at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom.” During the Making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom documentary, Spielberg added that, “the greatest thing that I got out of that experience was meeting Kate Capshaw”. Even actress Kate Capshaw wasn’t a fan of the character she played referring to Willie as “not much more than a dumb screaming blonde”.
Probably the greatest legacy Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom left in the film industry was the role it played in the creation of the PG-13 rating. This came about when parents who took their children to see the effort complained that certain sequences in the movie were way too violent and disturbing for a PG rating, with the scenes involving human sacrifice and children being flogged being highlighted the most. In response to these complaints and similar concerns being raised about Gremlins, Spielberg suggested that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) alter its rating system by introducing an intermediary between the PG and R ratings. The MPAA concurred, and thus a new PG-13 rating was introduced two months after the film’s release.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
