I still haven’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, but it brings a smile to my face. Unlike creepy modern fanfic or even creepier modern fan films (seriously, Grayson? Get an original idea, dude), this was a group of kids trying to recreate their favorite movie. What makes it sort of endearing is how they stuck with it for years until they were done. Surely that’s an incredible film school.
Their story was optioned by Scott Rudin, who put Dan Clowes on scripting duties, but legal issues make a DVD release of their film unlikely in the near future (although since Rudin’s deal for the movie is at Paramount, home of Indiana Jones, you never know). It may be that your chance to see these filmmakers in action could come in an original movie of their own devising.
Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos, the now-grown kids behind Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, tell Vanity Fair (the magazine that broke their story wide, after Eli Roth discovered their video tape) that they have a movie script they’re shopping around town. Called What the River Takes, Zala says “It’s best described as a Southern gothic action adventure.
“A young man, haunted by his father’s disappearance and presumed death,
discovers eight years later his father is still alive and being held
captive by a mysterious river cult. In search of his father, he goes up
river, all the while hunted by the man responsible for his father’s
abduction.”
Vanity Fair has some artwork for the film, and some more details. Check it out and help raise awareness of what these guys are trying to accomplish; I love that they’re taking their moment in the spotlight and trying to do something cool with it.