“I hate snakes! I hate ’em!”
And so said Indiana Jones a few times in the 1981 hit Raiders of the Lost Ark. We may hate snakes, but three 11-year-old boys from Mississippi loved Indy and the film so much that after Steven Spielberg’s classic was released 35 years ago, they set out on what would become a 7-year-long labor of love and tribute to their favorite film: A faithful, shot-for-shot adaptation of the action adventure film, which The New York Times calls “a testament to the transporting power of movie love.” They finished every scene . . . except one; the film’s explosive airplane set piece.
Drafthouse Films and MVD Entertainment will release Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on August 16.
More than two decades later, the trio reunited with the original cast members from their childhood in order to complete their masterpiece in what IGN has dubbed “the Boyhood of fan movies.” Featuring interviews with John Rhys Davies, Eli Roth and more, Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made is just that: The story of this long-gestating project’s culmination, chronicling the friends’ dedication to their artistic vision-mixed in with some movie magic-to create a personal, epic love letter to a true modern classic.
Tim Skousen and Jeremy Coon’s critically-acclaimed documentary (Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes with a 93% rating and an Audience Score of 92%) premiered at SXSW in 2015 and enjoyed a healthy festival campaign before its debut in theaters and On Demand. At the same time, film subjects Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala embarked on the multi-city “Follow Your Dreams Tour”, presenting Skousen and Coon’s film alongside their rarely-screened Adaptation, which will continue into September.
Special features include more than four hours on bonus content such as dual audio commentary tracks (with Skousen and Coon as well as Strompolos and Zala); deleted scenes from the documentary; outtakes from Adaptation, Q&A footage from the Adaptation‘s 2003 premiere at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX;, a photo booklet featuring storyboard art from the Adaptation and a free HD digital copy of the film.
Harrison Ford is not included, but we’re not saying anything about snakes . . .