Its like Boyhood meets American Movie: In 1982, a pair of 12-year-oldbest friends, Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala, embarked on a journey to create a shot-by-shot remake ofRaiders of the Lost Ark on a shoestring budget with a cast of friends and non-actors. With Strompolos portraying Indiana Jones and Zala serving as director and the villain Rene Belloq, it took the two teenagersseven years to complete their adaptation of Raiders; theviewer watches them age from 12 to 19 as the film moves toward its Ark of the Covenant-opening end. However, the remake was missing one crucial scene that was impossible for the teens to recreate: Indiana Jones fight atop a circling airplane.
Decades after Strompolos and Zalas film was finished and forgotten, dubbed VHS copies eventually landed in the hands of filmmaker Eli Roth and ultimately Spielberg, who praised the now-adults work. Inspired by the recognition, the duo launched a Kickstarter in 2014 to finally film the nixed airplane scene. Having easily surpassed their fundraising goal, their attempt to finish Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation was in turn documented by Viceas part of their American Obsession series.
Raiders is perfect, Zala explains aboutwhy they opted to take onthe daunting task of remaking the first Indiana Jones film. In Vices 10-minute making-of film, Strompolos and Zala discussthe genesis of the project, how often they saw the film the year it was released and the painstaking detail the pair put into storyboarding the entire film. The end product isnt perfect, but its still better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.