Back in 1982, when Steven Spielberg’s first film in the classic Indiana Jones trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was released, a group of kids in Mississippi decided to remake the film, shot by shot. 11 year old friends Chris Strompolis, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb took seven long years in an attempt to recreate the entire film, which went on to be known as Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. The fan film even managed to garner attention and praise from Steven Spielberg himself. Now, the documentary Raiders! goes behind the scenes of the story behind the film, as well as finding the now grown up amateur filmmakers to finally finish the much loved remake. Set to premiere at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas on March 14, Raiders! have released a trailer.
Original interest for the fan film came back in 1989, when it was finally finished, albeit missing that famous scene, for just $5000 in total. The boys premiered at a local Coca Cola plant in Mississippi and was later forgotten about when they all went their separate ways. This was until filmmaker Eli Roth (Hostel), was given a copy of the film whilst at film school who then gave it to Harry Knowles of Ain’t it Cool News to screen it at that year’s Butt-Numb-a-Thon film festival. With a gap in the schedule due to the late arrival of Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, they decided to play it to the audience. Much to their surprise, the film was really well received and this led Roth to track down the boys to organise a more official screening, this time at the Alamo Drafthouse in Texas. This move inspired the boys to finally finish the film they set out to do when they were just 11 years old.
Raiders! revolves around the reunion between Chris, Eric and Jayson after more than 25 years since they last filmed a shot for their remake. The only thing missing from the remake was iconic scene where the plane propeller chews up the Nazi bad guy, obviously a difficult stunt for a children’s remake. The omission of this scene is something that has stuck around for both Chris and Eric all these years, something that has inspired them to come together once more to finally finish the project. The documentary sets out to reunite the old crew and cast as well, in an attempt to finally finish the long unfinished project.
The group reunited in Ocean Springs, Mississippi in order to finally film the missing scene. The film looks at how time has changed the boys, now in their early 40s, and whether they still hold the determination of their childhood selves. The film follows their attempts at finally finishing the fan film two decades in the making. But will they still have the same motivation and innovation that drove them as children to film the remake over the course of seven summers, and will they finally finish the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.
Raiders! is premiering at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas on March 14.