Development[edit]
Inspiration[edit]
During the production of THX 1138 (1971), producer Francis Ford Coppola challenged co-writer/director George Lucas to write a script that would appeal to mainstream audiences.[2] Lucas embraced the idea, using his early 1960s teenage experiences cruising inModesto, California. "Cruising was gone, and I felt compelled to document the whole experience and what my generation used as a way of meeting girls," Lucas explained.[2] As he developed the story in his mind, Lucas included his fascination with Wolfman Jack. Lucas had considered doing a documentary about the Wolfman when he attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts, but dropped the idea.[3]
Adding in semi-autobiographical connotations, Lucas set the story in his hometown of 1962 Modesto.[2] The characters Curt Henderson, John Milner and Terry "The Toad" Fields also represent different stages from his younger life. Curt is modeled after Lucas's personality during USC, while Milner is based on Lucas's teenage street racing and junior college years, and hot rod enthusiasts he had known from the Kustom Kulture in Modesto. Toad represents Lucas's nerd years as a freshman in high school, specifically his "bad luck" with dating.[4] The filmmaker was also inspired by Federico Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953).[5]
After the financial failure of THX 1138, Lucas wanted the film to act as a release for a world-weary audience:[6]
United Artists[edit]
After Warner Bros. abandoned Lucas's early version of Apocalypse Now (1979) (during the post-production of THX 1138), the filmmaker decided to continue developing Another Quiet Night in Modesto, eventually changing its title to American Graffiti.[3] To co-write a fifteen-page film treatment, Lucas hired Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who also added semi-autobiographical material to the story.[7] Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz began pitching the American Graffiti treatment to various Hollywood studios and production companies in an attempt to secure the financing needed to expand it into a screenplay,[2] but they were unsuccessful. The potential financiers were concerned that music licensing costs would cause the film to go way over budget. Along with Easy Rider (1969),American Graffiti was one of the first films to eschew a traditional film score and successfully rely instead on synchronizing a series of popular hit songs with individual scenes.[8]
THX 1138 was released in March 1971[2] and Lucas was offered opportunities to direct Lady Ice (1973), Tommy (1975) or Hair (1979). He turned down those offers, determined to pursue his own projects despite his urgent desire to find another film to direct.[9][10]During this time, Lucas conceived the idea for a space opera (as yet untitled) which later became the basis for his Star Wars franchise. At the May 1971 Cannes Film Festival, THX was chosen for the Directors' Fortnight competition. There, Lucas met David Picker, then president of United Artists, who was intrigued by American Graffiti and Lucas's space opera. Picker decided to give Lucas $10,000 to develop Graffiti as a screenplay.[9]
Lucas planned to spend another five weeks in Europe, and hoped that Huyck and Katz would agree to finish the screenplay by the time he returned, but they were about to start on their own film, Messiah of Evil (1972),[7] so Lucas hired Richard Walter, a colleague from the USC School of Cinematic Arts for the job. Walter was flattered, but initially tried to sell Lucas on a different screenplay called Barry and the Persuasions, a story of East Coast teenagers in the late 1950s. Lucas held firm - his was a story about West Coastteenagers in the early 1960s. Walter was paid the $10,000, and he began to expand the Lucas/Huyck/Katz treatment into a screenplay.[9]
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