The Nathanson Draft

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Over the past 15 months, we've gotten Darabont's, Koepp's, the Raiders Transcript, and the third revision of Crusade (trust me, you haven't read this before). That's nearly half of our script library. These things just stumble in from who-knows-where. It's been a great year.

Happy hunting, Gonzo. Here's what you're looking for:
Lucas/Spielberg/Nathanson story conferences, August 2004, May 2005
First Draft, November 2005
Second Draft, 2005
Third Draft "Atomic Ants" December 2005
Lucas revision
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Thank you Moedred my friend...
So it's a waiting game you say...
Let the wait begin...
I'd like to see Boam's draft too...
Let the wait begin.

In all honesty it has been a pretty generous year, I never thought we would see the raider story transcripts.

"What are you thankful for Dr. Gonzo?"
"The Indy documents we have...
and the rest of this god damn wild turkey."
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
I would like to officially announce my theory of what the Nathanson script may have been based on some things from over the years.

I believe that Nathanson obviously revisited the idea of Indy having an offspring... but instead of a daughter it became a son... but he was not the "biker"/"greaser" son. I think Nathanson's draft included the nerdy more academic dorky son that we heard about in the Crystal Skull special features. That is more of Nathanson's handle anyway, akward and out of place characters. Once again I have never read this script but, it seems logical that this is what the Nathanson draft brought to the table.

I'd love to get my hands on the Nathanson draft. So the search still continues...

(I know I can't let it go... My desire to read the Nathanson draft is insatiable)
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Don't blame ya, Dr. Gonzo. I'm pretty keen on reading this script too. Thing is though if it was a boy in his script, than who had the daughter version of offspring?
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Violet Indy said:
Thing is though if it was a boy in his script, than who had the daughter version of offspring?

There is one other writer whose script has yet to see the light of day...

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=15836

that would also be a great script find!

As far as we know the only confirmed writers are Stuart, Boam, Darabont, Nathanson and Koepp. We have 3 of the 5. The more I think about it the more I start to believe that the Boam script must have included the daughter idea that george liked but steven hated. Then 2 drafts later Nathanson revisits the idea of an offspring but as a nerdy academic bookworm dork of a son... which of course one draft later is changed to rebel without a cause biker/greaser. It think that's very plausible.
 
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Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Dr. Gonzo said:
The more I think about it the more I start to believe that the Boam script must have included the daughter idea that george liked but steven hated.

I thought that occurred during the Darabont phase? Remember, though the script that's on the internet is often referred to as "The Darabont Draft," it is the final of multiple revisions. All the writers involved probably turned in more than one stack of paper over the course of their multiple month tenures on the project. It was my understanding that Darabont worked in the teenaged daughter, possibly on Lucas' suggestion and as a tribute to the Young Indy episode where female offspring is referenced, but Spielberg vetoed it, and the result was no child at all, before the idea was revisited again during the Nathanson era. That's all a combination of speculation and fuzzy memory on my part, though.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Okay... after some research in my spare time I have come to the conclusion that we are not gonna see the Nathanson draft anytime in the near future. He is a very private guy... really really private. He did an interview with the former head of New line Cinema and what i got out of it is that he is a very secretive person. he has like twelve screenplays that he's just sitting on... and even though he is capable of selling them... he just won't.

So I officially yield my search

...for now
 

Toht's Arm

Active member
Almost five years since the last post here, and I'm desperate to discover what was in that draft.

I'd like to think it was radically different from that which came before and after - and the rumours of 1949 suggested some kind of change, at least - though surely it was most likely to be a mix of City of the Gods and Kingdom...
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Everything not yet leaked would be fascinating to read. Even Darabont's earlier drafts (we have #3) would have potentially been different enough to be of great interest. Aren't his earlier efforts rumored to include Indy's daughter and a heavier Nazi presence?

I'd also love to see Lucas' revision of Darabont's draft because it would articulate what exactly he didn't like about Darabont's work.

Remember, we still don't have any of Jeffrey Boam's work, either, only Jeb Stuart's. Lucas was not satisfied with the saucerman concept until Boam's last draft. For all we know, that's the one that actually makes a decent case for Lucas's idea.

As far as the date...I don't think it would have changed much, at least not implicitly. I think any year after Roswell would have functioned about the same. It's clear that the only significance of 1957 specifically is that it's 19 years after 1938. It's also much easier to sell the age of Harrison Ford if it's closer to the truth.
 
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Toht's Arm

Active member
I'd forgotten that Stuart's work was far from the final version of Saucerman. Just as well, since I barely even recognised it as an Indy script... Of the unfilmed Indy scripts I've read, that seemed the most un-Indy...
 
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