Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Interesting Stuff

Here’s a list of 25, Wow! Is that true? No way! Really interesting, Stuff.

1. The part of Indiana Jones was originally offered to Tom Selleck but three weeks before filming began he had to turn the part down because he was committed to play Magnum P.I. in the T.V. Series.
2. The original idea for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was developed while George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were on holiday in Hawaii (George was supposedly trying to escape from what he thought may be the disastrous opening of “Star Wars”). Apparently, they were building a sand castle together and decided they’d like to recreate the adventure serials of the 1930’s that they’d enjoyed as children.
3. Indiana Jones’s full name is Henry Jones Junior but he calls himself Indiana after the pet dog he had as a child. In real life the name of the pet dog George Lucas had in the 1970’s was also Indiana.
4. During the filming of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in Tunisia, nearly everyone in the cast and crew fell sick apart from Stephen Spielberg. A possible explanation was that he only ate the food he’d brought from home – cans and cans of “Spaghetti O”s’.
5. A kangaroo hide bullwhip used by Harrison Ford in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Temple of Doom” and “The Last Crusade” was sold at Christies in September 1999 for a cracking £27,600.
6. Sharon Stone was originally one of the top choices to play the heroine Willie Scott in “The Temple of Doom”.
7. The Russian soldiers in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” were cast from Russian actors so their accents would be as authentic as possible.
8. If you carefully watch the airport scene in the beginning of “The Temple of Doom”, you’ll see Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas both making cameo performances as missionaries.
9. The fedora hat and leather jacket that Indiana wore in “The Last Crusade” are now on display at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum in Washington D.C.
10. Kate Capshaw met her future husband, Steven Spielberg, for the first time as she auditioned for the female lead, Willie Scott, in “The Temple Of Doom”.
11. Even though George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were both 100% behind the filming of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, every studio in Hollywood originally turned the idea down.
12. Initially Danny Devito was all ready to play the part of Sallah (Indy’s Arab guide) but due to conflicts with the filming of the hit T.V. sitcom “Taxi” he had to drop out and the part went to John Rhys-Davies.
13. To get himself fit enough to play Indy for the fourth time and complete all his own stunts, 64 year old Harrison Ford, spent three hours a day in the gym and lived on a high protein diet of only fish and vegetables.
14. The robots R2-D2 And C-3PO surprisingly feature as hieroglyphics in the Well of Souls scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and they also feature on a post to the right of Indy and Sallah as they remove the Ark.
15. Pat Roach, the British wrestler and best known as Bomber from “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet”, seems to get killed more times than anyone else in the Indiana Jones films. In “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, he’s a giant Sherpa who dies in the burning Nepalese Bar. Then he’s the German mechanic who gets splattered by an aeroplane’s propeller. Finally in the “The Temple of Doom”, he’s the chief guard who’s crushed by the rock crusher.
16. Next time you watch “The Last Crusade”; look out for the scene where Indy and his father are talking at a table aboard the Zeppelin. It was so hot on set that day, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery acted their parts with no trousers on.
17. Originally there were supposed to be five Indiana Jones films made but it was only in 2000 when Steven Spielberg’s son asked when the remaining two films would be released that the director rekindled his interest in the project.
18. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was the biggest movie hit of 1981, earning more at the box office than three of it’s closest rivals combined: “Arthur”, “Chariots of Fire” and “For Your Eyes Only”.
19. Stephen Spielberg wrote the script to “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” during filming breaks in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He dictated the story to Harrison Ford’s then wife, Melissa Mathison who’s profession was a screenwriter.
20. The glamorous dress that Kate Capshaw wears in “The Temple of Doom” was a unique creation comprising of rare 1920’s and 30’s beads. However, in a scene where the dress is seen drying out over a tree, an elephant took a liking to it and decided to munch on it for lunch. As a result the production team had to fill out the unusual insurance claim “Dress eaten by Elephant!”
21. Before “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was chosen as the title for the latest Indiana Jones film, several other titles were considered including “The City of Gods”, “The Destroyer of Worlds”, “The Fourth Corner of the Earth”, “The Lost City of Gold”, and finally, “The Quest for the Covenant”.
22. Harrison Ford had to fly back to the United States for emergency surgery during the filming of “The Temple of Doom” as he ruptured a disc in his back from learning to ride an elephant.
23. The temple that’s carved into the rock in “The Last Crusade” is not in the fabled city of Alexandretta but actually located in Petra, Jordan.
24. A lot of the filming for “The Temple of Doom” took place in Sri Lanka where the authorities weren’t exactly happy with having live pythons brought into the country. So animal handler Michael Culling had to book the snakes into a hotel room under false names – that of Mr and Mrs Longfellow.
25. In “The Last Crusade” when young Indy is in the lion’s compartment on the train, he cracks a whip that cuts him on the top of his chin, giving him a scar. In real life though Harrison Ford actually got that scar in his mid-twenties when he crashed his car while trying to put his seatbelt on.