The Ark provided a source of conflict for the hero and the Nazis, playing off Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's historical fascination with the occult. Kaufman removed Lucas' vision of Smith as a nightclub patron and womanizer, and suggested the Ark of the Covenant as the film's central goal he learned of the Ark from his childhood dentist. Lucas imagined his character as a college professor and archaeologist adventurer, based on his own appreciation for archaeology and famous archaeologists like Hiram Bingham III, Roy Chapman Andrews, and Leonard Woolley. The pair worked on a story for two weeks.
In 1975, Lucas discussed his serial film idea with his friend Philip Kaufman. He shelved the Indiana Smith project to focus on creating his own space opera, Star Wars (1977). Around the same time, Lucas was trying to adapt the space opera serial Flash Gordon (1936), but could not obtain the rights.
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He wanted to make a B movie modeled on those serials and conceived The Adventures of Indiana Smith, featuring an adventurous archaeologist named after his Alaskan Malamute dog. An old movie poster of a heroic character leaping from a horse to a truck reminded Lucas of the early 20th-century serial films he enjoyed as a youth, such as Buck Rogers (1939), Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939), Spy Smasher (1942), and Don Winslow of the Navy (1942). George Lucas conceived Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1973, shortly after finishing the comedy film American Graffiti (1973). Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
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