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Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation
jonerik writes "Ain't It Cool News has an article on one of the more fascinating fan film projects ever conceived: A shot-for-shot remake of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" filmed in Biloxi, Mississippi between 1982 and 1988 by Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis. What's particularly amazing is that the trio began filming the project when they were twelve and finished six years later when they were eighteen. Now, fifteen years after the project was completed, word of the film's existence has gotten out and audiences who have seen it have reportedly been stunned by the trio's ingenuity, with none other than "RotLA" director Steven Spielberg giving Zala, Lamb, and Strompolis a big thumbs-up. The complete film isn't available online, but a trailer that gives a bit of the feel of the finished project can be viewed. The Austin Chronicle also has a story on the project."
This is awesome news, I love this movie!
What, no BitTorrent link?
I guess if you want it you'll have to check Kazaa for yourself!
Where is the bittorrent link?
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK shot-for-shot teenage remake review!!!
Fandom - Magic - Fate - Passion - Love... They all came together tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse.
In 1981 - I was 9 years old when I saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Some of you, though it boggles my brain, were not even born yet. However, to the crowd right now entering our thirties, heading into our mid-thirties and even stepping well into our forties and fifties... June 12, 1981 was one of those - OHMYGOD moments in history. I actually saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK at a sneak preview at the Fox Theater here in Austin, Tx 4 days before it opened. That theater is now, oddly, a Mercedes Benz Outlet. I was a maniac before and after that film, but I don't think I knew a kid that didn't want to be Indiana Jones.
I was going to central America and South America with my parents to visit temples buried deep in the jungles, and had been for 4 years when I saw that movie. Growing up on serials, it amazed me.
However, in Mississippi - there was a 10 year old boy, also born in 1971 that saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and he didn't idly think... I want to be Indiana Jones... He was determined TO BE INDIANA JONES. His name, Chris Strompolis. He had friends and they all began hatching a plot, "We'll film a shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK!"
We're talking 10-11-12 year olds. Kids at the age where they can do anything, dream of anything. We all dream a lot at 10-12... hell, on up through college and until we hit the real world. Some never cease dreaming, few ever really do the dream. Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis shot a shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Close to Seven years later... they finished.
They grew up in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. They learned to sew costumes, blow shit up good, take molds of their heads, drag under motorized vehicles, be hurled through windows, set themselves on fire, set their basement on fire, take over a WWII Submarine, improvise brilliantly another animal for the monkey, blow up a truck, get a shitload of snakes, build a giant boulder, the first kiss, get a girl to strip and put on Marion's dress while they filmed it in the mirror. They dressed their friends up as Nazis, killed a brother over and over again, made over 40 traditional Arabic costumes, swordfight, beat the shit out of each other, build giant Egyptian statues, con someone out of a Rolls Royce, scour Goodwill's and Salvation Armies for costumes and props.
This was pre-DV so they had to capture things with BETAMAX recorders, VHS Camcorders... They had substandard equipment, but they got their shots. They weren't trained actors, but they knew RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
They started as boys and girls and finished the film as young men and women. They had the hometown screening, they dressed up for it, then Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis went to the four winds. Eric Zala was the director and played Belloq - he went to NYU film school. Jayson Lamb set out to pursue a creative position in film and wound up in Fine Art in College. Chris Strompolis - well he went to become an actor in Hollywood, went to school, studied the craft, got a few bits here and there. Point is, for 7 years these kids shared a dream, and now they were gone.
As fate would have it, the story of their shot for shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK became a bit of a thing of legend. Whispered about at NYU film school. A copy was made. A copy of that copy was made. Then those spawned more, till it began drifting around. Years pass by. To Eric, Chris and Jayson - it had probably become something they'd show a new friend or loved one... "This was my childhood." But otherwise, like most memories of childhood, it became fodder for conversation, but it probably would stay in childhood.
Unknown to any of them - fate was working behind their back.
I had begun to form a friendship with Eli Roth while he was in post on CABIN FEVER. Unknown to Eli Roth - the artist who did the original teaser one-sheet for TEMPLE OF DOOM was doing my Butt-Numb