Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot remake...

Ain't It Cool News is reporting that the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin is showing a shot-for-shot remake of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". What makes this so special, you may ask?

It was done by fans, over the space of six years... starting in 1982, when they were 10-12 years old.

:whoa:

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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.

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More info at http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15348 .

Wow, talk about dedication to a movie. That puts my playing as Indy (using a jump rope as a whip) when I was a kid, to shame. I'd love to see some scenes from their production.

I'm not sure I could sit through a feature length showing of this film with wanting to go out and watch the real deal instead.

I bet it's funny to watch it all the way through. Watch Indy age rapidly. :-p

Wow, I just read the whole article. And now I REALLY want to see this... If it doesn't become available some other way. I hope some how it gets leaked onto the internet. That of course would be my last resort. :-P

That sounds amazing. Did you see the trailer? That boulder scene is really amazing considering. Props to the guys and gals that put all of that work into it. I'd love to watch the whole movie.

I can't read the message board part of that site. It actually makes me angry reading some of the shit people put on there.

Here's the link to the trailer for those of you who are too lazy to bother scrolling down to the bottom of the article...

http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov

I don't see what the big deal was. Sure, I'll give credit where credit is due- it appears to be very well done, but it seems a shame that their creative energy, time and money wasn't used in something original. I mean, the movie was already made, what's the point of wasting 6 years doing a EXACT, SCENE-BY-SCENE remake?

Very impressive, but a waste of time, IMO.

The big problem there is...that trailer is god awful. It was done by a hack. Done right I'm sure it would give a much better impression.

But if you think about it, this wasn't made for money, these people were kids at the time and just wanted to do it, to see if they could. They didn't make it to show the world, it was for themselves. And they finished it, it just took 'em awhile. By the sounds of it, they went all out and did something I think is very admirable.

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Originally posted by Dolemite
Here's the link to the trailer for those of you who are too lazy to bother scrolling down to the bottom of the article...

http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov

I don't see what the big deal was. Sure, I'll give credit where credit is due- it appears to be very well done, but it seems a shame that their creative energy, time and money wasn't used in something original. I mean, the movie was already made, what's the point of wasting 6 years doing a EXACT, SCENE-BY-SCENE remake?

Very impressive, but a waste of time, IMO.

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From the talkback:

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From: HEADGEEK
Subject: Re: Red Raider & Cash Bailey -- HARRY HERE...
Comment: 1st) Red Raider -- This wasn't done by "film students" this was done by kids that started at age 10 and had no idea it would take 7 years. Spielberg and crew love it, because if you saw it you'd understand that this was a group of kids learning how to do all the tricks by studying and attempting to imitate, to the best of their pre-pubescent ways - the film they loved. The result led them all to a path in life they continue on today - and they have no desire to ever remake another film - that was a place of childhood. ---- 2nd) Cash Bailey --- Once again - this isn't a modern work, this was something done from 1982 - 1989 by KIDS, prior to DV, prior to computers to edit on, prior to all of that. Hell, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell as college kids made a short film called WADERS OF THE LOST PARK. This is a real case of these kids NOT ATTEMPTING TO GET NOTICED. They didn't mail me a copy. A roommate in college made a copy and it floated around for like 7 years - till it got to Eli Roth - then me - then Tim League. Then Eli Roth tracked the filmmakers down - Tim conned them into appearing and showing it -- And Spielberg wrote them a fan letter.

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I understand all that, and that's cool and all, and if making this movie taught them something and made them happy, then I'm all for it. It's just not something I would do. I could understand if they made a short movie that took a few weeks to make (like Rami's WADERS OF THE LOST PARK), but this took years. It's just not something I personally see as having a point. I'm not knocking it at all.

It led them to their careers really though. They loved movies, made one and learned god only knows how much during the process and they took a lot from it. Most of them now work in production. Sounds like it ended up having a point in their lives.

The last showing for this is tomorrow night. My girlfriend is going to go and try to get tickets for it so we can watch it tomorrow. I'll let you know how it is if we're able to get tickets.

--Scourge .