During 1973, George Lucas wrote "The Adventures of Indiana Smith". Like "Star Wars", it was an opportunity to create a modern version of the movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Lucas discussed the concept with Philip Kaufman, who worked with him for several weeks and decided upon the Ark of the Covenant as the MacGuffin. The project was stalled when Clint Eastwood hired Kaufman to write "The Outlaw Josey Wales". In May 1977, Lucas was in Maui, trying to escape the enormous success of "Star Wars". His friend and colleague Steven Spielberg was also there, on vacation from work on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Spielberg told Lucas he was interested in making a James Bond film, but Lucas told him of an idea "better than James Bond", outlining the plot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Spielberg loved it, calling it "a James Bond film without the hardware", and had the character's surname changed to Jones. Spielberg and Lucas made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five Indiana Jones films.