Jeremy Coon is a film producer whose greatest claim to fame
is Napoleon
Dynamite. Two years after that
hit he acted as the producer for The Sasquatch Gang and Tim Skousen
made his feature film debut as a director.
Lightning did not strike twice.
Now skip ahead nearly a decade and the two have re-teamed
for a documentary that may not be a big hit theatrically either, but it is one
fascinating look at what film fans can do when they fall in love with a movie.
Drafthouse Films, with sales and distribution support
provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that the
documentary team of Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen’s Raiders!: The Story of the
Greatest Fan Film Ever Made will be available on Aug. 16 as a
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.
Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb saw Raiders
of the Lost Ark during the summer of 1981, and, being somewhat nerdish,
decided to recreate the film on video shot-for-shot. They spent the next seven years shooting the
film and got it all down with the exception of the exotic fighter plane
sequence featuring Indiana Jones with the burly Nazi mechanic (who gets a
propeller shave).
The fan film that they created, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The
Adaptation, was finished in 1989 … and then, they went their separate
ways. The film eventually surfaced on
video and both its origins and the subsequent underground screenings is the
subject of Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.
Do Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb put their
differences aside and complete their fan film?
Circle Aug. 16 on your viewing calendar, pick up a copy of this
Drafthouse Films release and find out.
It is currently playing in selected theatres, but those
venues might be difficult to find … the ARR, for the record, is 60 days.
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