Raiders! - The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made

Stoo

Well-known member
The documentary is finally out and is starting to make the rounds at film festivals in the U.S. and Canada. Since mid-March, it has been shown in Austin, Dallas, Chicago and Toronto. Having not heard anything about its release, it came as quite a surprise to read an article about it in a Canadian newspaper a few days ago.

Reviews that I've read have been mixed, mainly for unevenness & editing, but I still cannot wait for the chance to watch this crazy & fascinating tale. (Although vital to the story, one thing I'm NOT looking forward to is seeing more than 5 seconds of that disgusting, fat slob with the unruly red hair & beard.)

Congratulations to Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Angela Rodriguez.:hat: Next step is a "Hollywood" version with actors playing you as tweens!:D

Anyone lucky enough to catch it yet? Please post reviews or upcoming screenings.

Dig the poster design. Reminds me of those 3 Indy mosaic graphics by Maxime Pecourt.

Raiders_Poster_small_zpstgg96ijw.jpg


Mods: Since the documentary has the same title as the book, feel free to merge this with the other thread, if you want: Raiders Adaptation Book Release
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
This looks like a video Stoo would make...

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166559907" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

BiffMan

Member
Just saw this at the Alamo Drafthouse tonight with Chris and Eric (as well as Tim League) in attendance with an awesome Q&A between the Raiders! and Adaptation screenings.

This was the first time I'd seen the 2015 cut of the Adaptation with the plane scene integrated. Chill-inducing and fits surprisingly well with the original footage. If anything it just enhances the craft and intent of the original that much more by showing just how close they can get when given the time and resources.

Just wonderful and I highly recommend catching it for the shared experience of seeing it in a crowd if it shows in a theater near you.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
I saw this at The Cinefamily event in DownTown Los Angeles Sunday with Chris and Eric there.

I've long read about this Adaptation(thanks to this website ;) ) and seen some clips of YouTube, but this was the first time I had ever watched this from beginning to end. It was definitely a riot, as someone who also spent my time making crappy student movies when I was that age(that I said, I never put as much dedication to any particular project as they did). The new scene with the airplane propeller was actually quite impressive(camcorders have come a long way in our HD world).

The documentary was great, as it was a very fun story of fan obsession. Some people could make fun of the lack of originality in Hollywood due to the fact that bio-pic is in the process of development, but watching this documentary it was clear a very entertaining bio-pic could easily be made as their story was a perfect balance of comedy and drama; the story would tackle all of the aspects of human drama from crime and police interaction to parental divorce to friendship betrayal. And the fact that all of this hard work went into something that was a shot-for-shot remake of a classic would certainly make for a hilarious feature in the vein of say Ed Wood. It was nice to see they managed to interview John Rhys-Davis.

Even chatted a little bit with both Chris and Eric before heading out. Fun night.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I finally had a chance to watch this, and it's excellent. The outtakes from the 1980s are just as interesting as the adaptation, so this was the right approach. Releasing a documentary is often the right step towards a dramatization (Jack Abramoff and Harvey Milk features come to mind), if that's still in the cards. There were three and a half decades to work with (Clint Eastwood just made a feature about 3.5 minutes!) and it's moves fast like an adventure film should. This means it was trimmed for speed, and 30 minutes of deleted scenes are on the Blu Ray, for a total of 90 minutes of bonus features. Also it avoids a pet peeve of mine, cropping aspect ratios so everything fits current televisions.

The few dissenters question the pursuit of something unoriginal, someone else's intellectual property. They would call into question any fan creation. I think this is misguided because, that's how you learn. I once worked at a camp in Europe where it seemed everyone could play guitar, and the song book was stuffed with American hits, but I couldn't play a chord, partly because of the expectation to got good enough to create your own thing. It's better to participate in the enjoyment with no timetable in mind. Satire is an outlet to have it both ways, and that can get you noticed professionally.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
The place to buy the DVD/Blu combo by the way is not Amazon, but here from Drafthouse Films, for $15.99.

Maybe pick up something weird on the way to checkout.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Finally saw the documentary on Netflix and enjoyed it very much. A certain amount of tension was created over Eric's negotiations for more time off work in order to get the Flying Wing scene done. Plenty of interviews and outtake footage made it even more engaging. Interesting to see Jayson's cynicism about the project and quite shocking to hear about Chris' period of hard drug use.

I still marvel at Jayson's solution for the Ark ghosts (which was so impressive for someone of such a young age) and love the story about the 'older' teen who was asked by the parents to supervise the fire scenes. He sat around drinking beers and convinced the kids to use even MORE lighter fluid! :eek:

Didn't realize that it was co-directed by Jeremy Coon, the producer & editor for "Napoleon Dynamite".

Now to buy the DVD. It's a worthy companion piece to anyone's Indiana Jones collection.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Drafthouse actually has some hefty shipping and handling fees. Meanwhile it?s about as cheap as it?s going to get on Amazon.
 

BiffMan

Member
Hey folks, excited to share. To celebrate 40th anniversary of the original...

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION is finally now on Blu-Ray!

This is not the documentary, but the fan film itself. Include the Airplane Scene, shot with reunited cast 25 years later.

www.zaladetours.com/store

Thanks for all the support, fellow Indy fans!

-Eric
Fantastic news Eric, order placed! Thanks so much for all your work and sharing it with all of us!
 

Grizzlor

Well-known member
I watched the documentary a few years ago, after the forum went down. I absolutely LOVED it!!! For one, I'm not sure if I'd even seen the original full fan film. Whatever I had was a terrible video in like RealPlayer format. So being able to see it was terrific, and the BTS stuff and having the original folks involved and telling the story was truly amazing. Then to cap it off with Steven's involvement was the cherry on top. BRAVO!
 
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