# Shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK...made by KIDS! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874 "2003-06-01T02:26:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/1 "2003-06-01T02:26:35Z")
[Linkage](http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15348) from Ain’t It Cool News. > [@](#): > > However, in Mississippi – there was a 10 year old boy, also born in 1971 that saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and he didn’t idly think… I want to be Indiana Jones… He was determined TO BE INDIANA JONES. His name, Chris Strompolis. He had friends and they all began hatching a plot, “We’ll film a shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK!” > We’re talking 10-11-12 year olds. Kids at the age where they can do anything, dream of anything. We all dream a lot at 10-12… hell, on up through college and until we hit the real world. Some never cease dreaming, few ever really do the dream. Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis shot a shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Close to Seven years later… they finished. > They grew up in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. They learned to sew costumes, blow shit up good, take molds of their heads, drag under motorized vehicles, be hurled through windows, set themselves on fire, set their basement on fire, take over a WWII Submarine, improvise brilliantly another animal for the monkey, blow up a truck, get a shitload of snakes, build a giant boulder, the first kiss, get a girl to strip and put on Marion’s dress while they filmed it in the mirror. They dressed their friends up as Nazis, killed a brother over and over again, made over 40 traditional Arabic costumes, swordfight, beat the shit out of each other, build giant Egyptian statues, con someone out of a Rolls Royce, scour Goodwill’s and Salvation Armies for costumes and props. > This was pre-DV so they had to capture things with BETAMAX recorders, VHS Camcorders… They had substandard equipment, but they got their shots. They weren’t trained actors, but they knew RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. So these kids spent seven years doing a painstaking, shot-for-shot duplication of ROTLA just for their own amusement. Several years later, one of these kids’ college roommate made a copy of the film and it started to circulate around campus. More copies were made and became sort of an underground cult thing at NYU. A copy made its way into the hands of director named Eli Roth (who directed _Cabin Fever_. Roth brought it to Harry Knowles and suggested that he play it at his “Butt-numb-a-thon” movie festival, telling him he had never seen anything like it. The film was plugged in at a dead time during the festival to a theater of bored movie geeks: > [@](#): > > Yeah. It gets put in. It’s like 8am, the audience is filled with the biggest geeks in the world and suddenly with exhausted eyes, they’re watching what seems to be teenage children doing a shot for shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. There was no introduction – but really… it needed no introduction. > It stole BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 4. The premieres? Shameres. Eric Zala’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK – began to capture the audience. We kept waiting for them to drop the ball, but they were rising to each and every occasion. After key moments, cheers began rocking the Drafthouse. People started trying to guess how these kids would pull off the next big moment. And they always were doing it bigger than we could imagine. The director, Roth was so impressed that he sent a copy to Steven Spielberg, who was also blown away by it. Knowles showed the film again to sold out crowds, and was able to bring in the three kids, now adults, who had made the film. They received a thunderous standing ovation when it was over. Somehow those kids recreated everything, the snakes, the sliding-under-the-truck scene, they even blew a truck up somehow. There is a short trailer available at the AICN link which shows the boulder scene, and you can get a little taste of what a great job those kids did. Unfortunately, there is currently no venue or plan to make the film available for a wide audience. Knowles is pushing on his site for Spielberg and Lucas to make it an extra on the Raiders DVD. I hope that it becomes available somewhere. I would love to see this film. I think it would be especially fun to see in a theater of appreciative fans, rooting for the kids to pull it off, thinking that they’ve got to mess up this next scene, how can they possibly…and they do. I’d be happy to settle for something on DVD or online, though. This is kind of an amazing story. These kids stuck with this for seven years, and by all accounts turned out a pretty amazing labor of love. I hope I get to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/2 "2003-06-01T02:39:07Z")
The link doesn’t work for me; here’s a link to the trailer. Very impressive I must say! Not just for kids, for any amateur movie. I’d really like to see the entire movie. [http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov](http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/3 "2003-06-01T02:42:10Z")
Try the link again. I think AICN went down for a second. The link works now (for me, at least). ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/4 "2003-06-01T10:21:51Z")
God! At the start of the trailer, when he turns around, I couldn’t believe it _wasn’t_ Harrison Ford! That’s cool, I want it on DVD too 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/5 "2003-06-01T13:20:46Z")
Wow! That rocks! How much demand would there have to be before there _was_ a DVD? BTW is anyone surprised some killjoy involved in the original didn’t try and sue them? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/6 "2003-06-01T13:35:26Z")
Freakin’ amazing! _Someone_ needs to put that out on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/7 "2003-06-01T15:03:13Z")
Is this what gave ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/8 "2003-06-01T15:04:24Z")
[Gus Van Sant](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0155975) his idea? (I hit submit a bit early) ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/9 "2003-06-01T15:59:47Z")
That is single handedly the greatest review of a film I have ever read. I was nearly crying at the end of just the review baby! I can only imagine how good the film is… Now, how to get to Austin before 4pm. ---
**Author:** ![lilbtagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@lilbtagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilbtagna)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/10 "2003-06-01T16:24:07Z")
Amazing. I was shocked too in that trailer that it _wasn’t_ Harrison Ford at first. Those kids (well, kids back then) did an amazing job. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/11 "2003-06-01T19:15:11Z")
Holy crap that’s cool. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/12 "2003-06-01T20:17:35Z")
What a cool thing for them to have followed through and finished. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/13 "2003-06-02T02:58:27Z")
My boyfriend called me on Saturday practically giddy about this. He lives in Austin and actually managed to get a ticket and see it. Haven’t had a chance to ask him how it was, though… ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/14 "2003-06-02T03:11:58Z")
Do the kids age six years over the course of the movie? Also, is this legal? Have Lucas or Spielberg (or Ford) said anything about this? ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/15 "2003-06-02T03:29:58Z")
I just heard about this today too (thanks, Fark!). The preview looks awesome. I can’t wait until this thing makes its way onto the internet. Or maybe a theatre here in Toronto will show it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/16 "2003-06-02T03:46:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*Do the kids age six years over the course of the movie? > > Also, is this legal? Have Lucas or Spielberg (or Ford) said anything about this? \*\* Spielberg has seen it and doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. They may not be in violation of any copyright violations if they weren’t trying to make any money off of it, but IANAL. I hpe Lucas and Spieberg don’t try to stop the film from being shown anywhere, they’ll just look like jerks if they do. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/17 "2003-06-02T06:47:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > **They may not be in violation of any copyright violations if they weren’t trying to make any money off of it, but IANAL.** They are, in fact, in violation of copyright. Or rather, they might not be now, but not making money off it has no bearing. The fact that Spielberg and Lucas doesn’t have a problem with it would, though. ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/18 "2003-06-02T09:39:21Z")
Went to see it this afternoon, it really is quite amazing. Especially some of the action sequences. Lots of fun to watch, too… the crowd _was_ going nuts. And the makers were there to take questions after the screening. There’s no reason to make a fuss about copyright yet… Spielberg has seen it and likes it, and the guys who made it aren’t out to make any money off it. They seemed pretty surprised at the reaction, to be honest. I mean, they got a standing ovation at the end. They couldn’t answer questions about a DVD release because before this weekend I get the impression they hadn’t really thought about it at all. I hope it gets to tour around a little so more people can watch though. Has to be on a big screen in a crowded theater though. -fh ---
**Author:** ![WavyRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea666f/32.png) [@WavyRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WavyRabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/19 "2003-06-02T13:31:13Z")
For some reason I can’t see the trailer! It’s just a blank page with a little square in the corner. Am I missing something? This sounds really cool. I would love to be able to see the whole thing sometime! ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874/20 "2003-06-02T13:38:38Z")
Oh. Oh oh oh. That is so cool. How long will it be at the drafthouse? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-for-shot-remake-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-made-by-kids/178874.md?page=2)