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Watch: 'Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made' Trailer

by Alex Billington
October 23, 2012
Source: YouTube

Every scene. Every shot. Every stunt. We're taking a short tangent here to feature an outstanding trailer for a book that many movie fans should be interested in. It's called Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, and it's a complete account of the making of the greatest fan film ever made - Chris Strompolos & Eric Zala's Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, completed in 1989, a shot-for-shot remake of Spielberg's original Indiana Jones movie. You've probably heard a bit about the story, or even seen the epic fan film itself at a screening, but now you can read the full story behind it. The trailer for it comes in at a whopping 4 minutes and features some interview segments and a lot of background. Check it!

Tailer for Alan Eisenstock's Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made via YouTube:

Here's the intro to the book and Raiders!: In 1982, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Chris Strompolos, eleven, asked Eric Zala, twelve, a question: "Would you like to help me do a remake Raiders of the Lost Ark? I'm playing Indiana Jones." And they did it. Every shot, every line of dialogue, every stunt. They borrowed and collected costumes, convinced neighborhood kids to wear grass skirts and play natives, cast a fifteen-year-old as Indy's love interest, rounded up seven thousand snakes (sort of), built the Ark, the Idol, the huge boulder, found a desert in Mississippi, and melted the bad guys' faces off. It took seven years.

Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made was written by Alan Eisenstock with Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos, and will be published on November 13th. In the meantime, you can visit the official book site or Facebook, or check out Amazon for more info or to pre-order. Who doesn't love Indiana Jones?!

Filed under Cool Stuff, To Watch, Trailers

From around the web:

Scotty97

The question is: when or where will the fan-film itself be available to purchase, watch or download?
http://www.facebook.com/thomas.carroll.3557 Thomas Carroll

This is sad, why couldn't they just make their own film?
- http://twitter.com/Cpt_Guess Zdenek Smolka
  
  sad? i think it's amazing that they did something like that
  - http://www.facebook.com/thomas.carroll.3557 Thomas Carroll
    
    Yeah but think if they put that amount of energy and enthusiasm into their own project? They could be celebrating their own unique awesome grindhouse feature, rather than borrowing the sails of an established success.
    - Baron the Curse
      
      I agree with Thomas. Fandom is great and all, but dedicating seven years of your life to remake a film on a franchise that the creators themselves have recently crapped on is pretty damn sad.
Nathalie

I actually don't think they worked on it everyday for 7 years. They probably worked on it as a hobby while working/being with family, kind of reliving the "inner child" while doing it. If two best friends loves something and want to make a tribute of it together, why is that sad? I actually think it's pretty cool that they were able to finish it all, to the very end. It is far better than doing nothing at all.
http://twitter.com/cjp39 Christian P.

This looks cool, but Jamie Benning's "Raiding the Lost Ark" is a monumental feat. Check it out and be prepared to be up for three nights straight watching all of his filmumentaries!!! https://vimeo.com/36011979