Raiders!: The Story Of The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made is finally released from the Well Of Souls
So it has come to this: A fan documentary about a fan film based on a big-budget tribute to Republic serials. Pop-culture Möbius strip and festival hit Raiders!: The Story Of The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made is finally making its way to theaters and VOD. The documentary, about three 11-year old boys attempting to make a shot-for-shot remake of Steven Spielberg’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark, follows the youngsters all the way to the present day, when the nowogrown men shoot the film’s final sequence: The Flying Wing set piece.
The original fan film, dubbed Raiders Of The Lost Ark: The Adaptation (the real “movie with the kids in it,” sorry Hawk Jones) became a favorite amongst film geeks when director Eli Roth got it into the hands of Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News. The legend grew after Knowles programmed it as part of his Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival, and Lee Sandlin of the Chicago Reader praised The Adaptation’s “authenticity” and suggested tracking a copy down instead of wasting money going to see Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.
Raiders!: The Story Of The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made will be hitting select theaters and home video on June 17, just in time for the 35th anniversary of Spielberg’s action-adventure classic. Two of the original filmmakers—Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala—will also be hitting the road to promote the doc on the Raiders: Follow Your Dreams Tour. The guys will be doing Q&As in several cities, leading up to ad just after the film’s wide release. A full list of tour dates is below.
Raiders: Follow Your Dreams Tour
June 2—Northwest Film Forum—Seattle, WA
June 3—Hollywood Theatre—Portland, OR
June 9—Alamo Drafthouse Mission—San Francisco, CA
June 10—Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar—Austin, TX
June 11—Alamo Drafthouse Vintage Park—Houston, TX
June 12—Cinefamily—Los Angeles, CA
June 14—Alamo Drafthouse Downton Dallas—Dallas, TX
June 17—IFC Film Center—New York, NY
June 18 or 19—Music Box Theatre—Chicago, IL
June 20—The Brattle Theatre—Boston, MA
June 30—Alamo Drafthouse Main Street—Kansas City, MO
July 1—Alamo Drafthouse Littleton—Denver, CO
July 2—SIE Film Center—Denver, CO