[Sf] Story of Shot-by-Shot Fan Remake of LOTR to Become Hollywood Movie

[Ted Friedman]

RUDIN RAIDS "RAIDERS" TRIBUTE TRIO FOR PIC:
VARIETY - THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26TH 2004
 
Scott Rudin has purchased the life rights of the trio of filmmakers who
constructed the ultimate tribute movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The
Adaptation," to develop through his Paramount-based production shingle.
 
In a deal worth mid-six figures, Rudin obtained the rights from Chris
Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb. While adolescents in Mississippi, the
trio launched a shot-by-shot remake of "Raiders" in Zala's backyard while on
summer vacation in 1982 and finished seven years later.
 
Strompolos, who starred as Indiana Jones, came up with idea when he was 10
and told his friend Zala, who was 11, about it as they rode the bus to
school. Zala eventually storyboarded the 649 scenes in the film; Lamb, who
was a fan of horror pics and Rick Baker special effects, shot on a VHS
camcorder.
 
The three -- who would eventually spend somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000
-- combined ingenuity with Mississippi backwoods locales to re-create
signature scenes from the 1981 blockbuster such as the rolling boulder, the
live snakes and the truck sequences. A lack of coin, however, did force them
to improvise, subbing a dog for a monkey, for example. After the film was
completed, it remained largely unknown until it was discovered two years ago
by filmmaker Eli Roth, who submitted it for a showing at the fourth annual
Butt-Numb-a-Thon Festival organized by Harry Knowles in Austin, Texas, in
December 2002. 
 
That led to a letter of endorsement from director Steven Spielberg, the
trio's story being pitched in Hollywood and a "Raiders of the Lost Backyard"
feature in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
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