Portraits from an alternate reality: how Indy characters look in script & storyboard
One of my favorite things to do with movies I like is to go back and look at the concept art, comparing it to the final film. I also like to see how the concept artists interpreted the film's characters--often it's quite different from what you see on cinema screens.
Of all the Indy films, Raiders seems to have the most variation in how the characters are depicted in the scripts, storyboards, and concept drawings.
Early on, in the Raiders story conference, the original idea for the female lead was a German woman, a Marlene Dietrich-type double agent (but ultimately good, unlike Elsa in Last Crusade). Like Elsa in LC, Dietrich had blonde hair. In this same conference, Indy's archrival Belloq was initially envisioned as Chinese, as a throwback to the Yellow Peril of the 1930s. Later, when Marion became an American, Spielberg said her hairstyle should resemble that of famous 1940s actress Veronica Lake (who was also blonde).
Jim Steranko's pre-production paintings for the film show Indy with black hair, probably because Lucas instructed him that Indy should resemble Humphrey Bogart. Steranko's Dr. Jones also wears slightly different equipment--including a US Army web belt for his gun holster--and he smokes cigarettes.
As seen in The Complete Making of Indiana Jones and on the re-release of the Raiders DVD, Kelly Kimball's costume design drawings show Indy wearing a gray fedora (the costume is modeled on Charlton Heston's outfit from Secret of the Incas) and Marion as having brown hair. Another costume sketch depicts Belloq with a nefarious black mustache; the same artist drew Indy without leather jacket, wearing a gray fedora, green shirt, khaki pants, and black knee boots.
And of course, there's SS Obersturmbannführer Toht with his mechanical arm that acts as a machine gun!
Raiders had three principal storyboard artists: Ed Verreaux, David Negron, and Dave Stevens (who very soon afterward would create the Rocketeer comic).
Ed Verreaux drew Indy with brown hair beneath a gray fedora, and his Marion has black hair. (Of all the Raiders artists' drawings, Verreaux' versions of Indy and Marion most physically resemble Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.) Another notable change from the final film's costuming is that Verreaux shows Indy wearing knee-high black boots.
In David Negron's storyboards, Indy has black hair and a brown hat, while his version of Marion has brown hair. Storyboards in The Complete Making show that Negron's Indy sports knee-high brown lace-up boots.
Dave Stevens' storyboards were done in black and white, but he clearly drew Indy with dark, blackish hair. Like Verreaux, Stevens shows Indy wearing knee-high black boots. Interestingly, Stevens depicted Marion as a blonde, the only artist to do so. (Stevens would later draw the hero of The Rocketeer, Cliff Secord, with brown hair, while Cliff's love interest Betty had the black hair of Bettie Page.)
There's also a production painting by Joe Johnston of the Flying Wing fight, which (as seen in much better detail in The Complete Making) shows Indy dressed in a gray hat and knee-high brown boots.
For Temple of Doom, Indy's look was pretty much set in stone, but Willie's was not. Spielberg and Lucas agreed that Willie should have a different hair color than Marion, so Kate Capshaw would have to dye her naturally brown hair. However, while Capshaw and costume designer Anthony Powell wanted Willie to have flaming red hair, Lucas insisted that she be a blonde.
Later, on the abortive Monkey King, Lucas would return to the idea of Dr. Jones romancing a redhead, writing in his story treatment that Indy's love interest should be a "Katharine Hepburn type." Chris Columbus' script describes the female lead character, a Brit named Dr. Clare Clarke, as having red hair and green eyes. (Incidentally, Katharine Hepburn's eyes were blue, as are Kate Capshaw's.)
On Last Crusade, Jeffrey Boam's script describes Elsa as having dark hair and dark eyes, presumably so she didn't look like a sterotypical Aryan Nazi, in order to throw off viewers' suspicions. However, Lucas and Spielberg cast blond, blue-eyed Alison Doody in the role, an actress whose looks harkened back to the initial Raiders idea of a "Marlene Dietrich type."
One of my favorite things to do with movies I like is to go back and look at the concept art, comparing it to the final film. I also like to see how the concept artists interpreted the film's characters--often it's quite different from what you see on cinema screens.
Of all the Indy films, Raiders seems to have the most variation in how the characters are depicted in the scripts, storyboards, and concept drawings.
Early on, in the Raiders story conference, the original idea for the female lead was a German woman, a Marlene Dietrich-type double agent (but ultimately good, unlike Elsa in Last Crusade). Like Elsa in LC, Dietrich had blonde hair. In this same conference, Indy's archrival Belloq was initially envisioned as Chinese, as a throwback to the Yellow Peril of the 1930s. Later, when Marion became an American, Spielberg said her hairstyle should resemble that of famous 1940s actress Veronica Lake (who was also blonde).
Jim Steranko's pre-production paintings for the film show Indy with black hair, probably because Lucas instructed him that Indy should resemble Humphrey Bogart. Steranko's Dr. Jones also wears slightly different equipment--including a US Army web belt for his gun holster--and he smokes cigarettes.
As seen in The Complete Making of Indiana Jones and on the re-release of the Raiders DVD, Kelly Kimball's costume design drawings show Indy wearing a gray fedora (the costume is modeled on Charlton Heston's outfit from Secret of the Incas) and Marion as having brown hair. Another costume sketch depicts Belloq with a nefarious black mustache; the same artist drew Indy without leather jacket, wearing a gray fedora, green shirt, khaki pants, and black knee boots.
And of course, there's SS Obersturmbannführer Toht with his mechanical arm that acts as a machine gun!
Raiders had three principal storyboard artists: Ed Verreaux, David Negron, and Dave Stevens (who very soon afterward would create the Rocketeer comic).
Ed Verreaux drew Indy with brown hair beneath a gray fedora, and his Marion has black hair. (Of all the Raiders artists' drawings, Verreaux' versions of Indy and Marion most physically resemble Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.) Another notable change from the final film's costuming is that Verreaux shows Indy wearing knee-high black boots.
In David Negron's storyboards, Indy has black hair and a brown hat, while his version of Marion has brown hair. Storyboards in The Complete Making show that Negron's Indy sports knee-high brown lace-up boots.
Dave Stevens' storyboards were done in black and white, but he clearly drew Indy with dark, blackish hair. Like Verreaux, Stevens shows Indy wearing knee-high black boots. Interestingly, Stevens depicted Marion as a blonde, the only artist to do so. (Stevens would later draw the hero of The Rocketeer, Cliff Secord, with brown hair, while Cliff's love interest Betty had the black hair of Bettie Page.)
There's also a production painting by Joe Johnston of the Flying Wing fight, which (as seen in much better detail in The Complete Making) shows Indy dressed in a gray hat and knee-high brown boots.
For Temple of Doom, Indy's look was pretty much set in stone, but Willie's was not. Spielberg and Lucas agreed that Willie should have a different hair color than Marion, so Kate Capshaw would have to dye her naturally brown hair. However, while Capshaw and costume designer Anthony Powell wanted Willie to have flaming red hair, Lucas insisted that she be a blonde.
Later, on the abortive Monkey King, Lucas would return to the idea of Dr. Jones romancing a redhead, writing in his story treatment that Indy's love interest should be a "Katharine Hepburn type." Chris Columbus' script describes the female lead character, a Brit named Dr. Clare Clarke, as having red hair and green eyes. (Incidentally, Katharine Hepburn's eyes were blue, as are Kate Capshaw's.)
On Last Crusade, Jeffrey Boam's script describes Elsa as having dark hair and dark eyes, presumably so she didn't look like a sterotypical Aryan Nazi, in order to throw off viewers' suspicions. However, Lucas and Spielberg cast blond, blue-eyed Alison Doody in the role, an actress whose looks harkened back to the initial Raiders idea of a "Marlene Dietrich type."
