How a 'Raiders' Adaptation Gave Filmmakers a Well-Earned Boost
by Eric Kohn
When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last week, the fanfare fit Hillary Clinton's infamous mockery of Barack Obama: "The skies will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing." Except, in this case, the majestic Palais des Festivals doors opened, the lights of flash photography came up, and a thousand voices called out to catch the attention of Indy pioneers Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford. You couldn't ask for a better homecoming (even the mob outside the press conference huddled close to television screens), and the frothy reception extended through the following weekend, when the first Indiana Jones film in 18 long years scored a whopping $151 million opening-weekend gross. The world of America's cherished pop hero is not a cheap one.
Except, that is, for Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb, the three Mississippi-born filmmakers living in it since their teenage years. When the trio set out to make Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation in 1981, they were all around the age of twelve, and couldn't have imagined the long gestation period that would culminate in international notice for their project. Made for no money on clunky camcorders, Raiders: The Adaptation does a surprisingly spot-on job of recreating the original film shot-for-shot (the kids even set their basement on fire to replicate certain explosive sequences), and the adolescent actors, offering their best impressions of Ford, Karen Black and the rest of the cast, add an additional context that turns the whole thing into an accidental coming-of-age story.
As the years went by, the team went into various different lines of work. Then, in 2003, horror director Eli Roth found out about the project and managed to pass it along to Steven Spielberg. A lengthy feature in Vanity Fair followed, and Raiders: The Adaptation became a cult phenomenon, screening all over the world. Zala left his job at Electronic Arts, joining Strompolos in founding a new production company. While Raiders: The Adaptation continues to have a life of its own, Zala and Strompolos have managed to leverage its success into a launching pad for their filmmaking careers. In essence, an innocuous fanboy tribute became a notably unique DIY strategy. A week after Raiders: The Adaptation had its Los Angeles premiere, Zala spoke to Stream about their newfound exposure, with an eye toward the future.
You seem to be leading a pretty good life as an independent filmmaker, and your Raiders adaptation proved that it's possible to imitate studio films without millions of dollars and still create something watchable. Would you ever make a studio film?
ERIC ZALA Yes. Chris Strompolos, who produced and starred as Indy in Raiders Adaptation, and I have formed an independent film company called Rolling Boulder Films. We've spent the last three years honing an original script we've co-written, a southern gothic action-adventure called What the River Takes. It's our new passion project, and in fact we'll be taking it around initially to the studios for financing. If that doesn't work out, we'll be going the independent route.
What kicked off the renewed interest in your Raiders project?
E A copy that I had given to an old college roommate, was passed to a friend of Eli Roth? who gave a copy to another friend? and so on, until a copy fell into his hands. He had just directed the horror movie Cabin Fever. Eli passed it on to Steven Spielberg, who saw it, apparently loved it, and asked Eli to track us down, to write us a letter of thanks. So Eli tracked us down, through the Internet, got our addresses, and a week later, we each received a signed letter of thanks from Mr. Spielberg. That?s what started our film suddenly getting such attention in the Internet and press.
Aesthetically, your movie resembles the sort of user-generated content popping up on the web these days. How do you think the advent of YouTube and online video in general has impacted the film community?
E As video camcorders put the tools in the hands of the layman to create, YouTube et al have now certainly closed the distribution gap. It's
very cool that casual or serious filmmakers can get immediate, widespread feedback on their work, and for free besides. Of course, some is worth
watching and some, less so. But an old axiom ? that if a million monkeys were to pound away at typewriters for years, sooner or later one of them
would produce a work of Shakespeare ? would seem to apply in that the odds are in our favor that some work of cinematic artistry will emerge from this new outlet for expression.
You've been lucky in that Paramount doesn't seem to mind Raiders of the Lost Arks: The Adaptation screening in so many places. Can you explain how that came to be?
E We haven't received specific legal counsel from Paramount. We are very selective about where we screen, and do so only when all proceeds go toward a charity or non-profit. For example, when screening in San Francisco, we managed to raise over $8,000 for Doctors Without Borders. We been offered money for copies, but we are stringent about refusing that. In fact, [we refuse] all requests for copies, in any form. We don't even send screeners in advance of screening at a given venue, and our hosts are always seeing the film for the first time when it screens before the audience. In general, we strive to be very respectful, and non-exploitive. No revenue goes into our pockets. For example, Chris is in Vancouver right now doing a screening, and the benefiting charity is the Canadian Cancer Society, specifically Camp Goodtimes, which is a summer camp for kids with various forms of cancer.
The first ten minutes of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation'
How's the adaptation of your experience making an adaptation coming along? That would be the movie about the shooting of Raiders: The Adaptation.
E The wheels of Hollywood turn slow, but it's looking good: Daniel Clowes, the brilliant screenwriter of Ghost World, has written the script, which producer Scott Rudin loves and Paramount loves. Right now, things are in a holding pattern until the big summer tentpole Indy IV clears the planks. After that, things may get interesting.
In other words, your careers will take off?
E In a sense, the movie has already had an effect on our careers. In the wake of its inception, each of us shifted our lives to pursue what is really important to us: Jayson is pursuing his media art in Northern California. Chris and I have formed an independent film production company based in Mississippi. All this attention is really quite unexpected. It?s thrilling, and fun. It can be stressful at times? suddenly a lot of people want a piece of you, and what you?ve created, or feel entitled to stake a claim. And it?s very much a business, so one has to be careful. But we?ve resolved that as long as we be careful to make good decisions, and stick together as friends, we can weather any storm.