Hey folks, Harry here… My first two days of SXSW have been a lot of fun, but very low on the film watching side. However, I figure I’ll catch you up with what I’ve been up to.
Day 1 got started with me having a panel regarding AINT IT COOL WITH HARRY KNOWLES, where we simply discussed the uphill battle to get this season finished to the quality we were aiming for. Most of the questions that came were about working with KLRU and PBS DIGITAL and where we plan to go from here. Happily, things are looking good for a second Televised Season of the Show. It’s still to early to announce anything, but we’re getting close! And if it won’t end up with us running any future public funding.
When I left the room with the panel, I met a gentleman, who has been working with WETA on something, possibly extraordinary. They’ve created a version of cinema, that can capture a performance in such a manner that can be used for HOLOGRAPHIC IMMERSIVE CINEMA. He thought he had the equipment with him to show it to me in an immersive manner, but I’m going to hook back up with this guy sometime between now and Tuesday, once I’ve demo’d it, I’ll report back.
After that, I had to watch the Q&A discussion with Guillermo Del Toro and Ryan Gosling. Now, at least as far as anyone knows, the two of them are not cooking up anything together, but after watching them talk, I’d bet money we’ll see these two work on something soon. No, instead – most of the conversation was about Ryan Gosling’s debut as a director, LOST RIVER, a fantasy thriller written and directed by Ryan… who did seek out Guillermo’s advice before he even began filming it. The film stars Eva Mendes, Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Matt Smith and BARBARA STEELE!!! That last name means, Ryan is cool. I’m sorry, sometimes it is as simple as casting Barbara Steele in your film. Bam! Instant coolness! I think my favorite part of the Q&A is that Ryan found this old abandon theater in DETROIT that he wanted to capture on film before it is torn down, because it is the theater where the 3 STOOGES first performed, prior to working on film! AND again, that gave him killer geek cred in my mind.
After that, I went home. The idea was to check out Jonathan Demme’s MADE IN TEXAS at the Marchesa, but the traffic was so atrocious, there was no possibility to make it, so we decided to head home, then go this party we were invited to, but I began getting stabbing pains in my tummy, I assume it was from the fillet of Salmon I ate at the 4 SEASONS for lunch with Guillermo, but whatever it was… It killed me.
I still felt bad early Saturday morning, so I decided to just rest up and come hell or high water, I would be at ALAMO SOUTH for the RAIDERS! Documentary screening. Just no way I wouldn’t be there.
Upon arriving at the ALAMO at South Lamar tonight, I got to see Moriarty briefly in line, then we shared a row at the screening. Also ran into Chris Strompolos aka INDIANA JONES from the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION. Then, I got to meet Alan Stenum who played SALLAH in it! Turns out he lived two blooks from Eric Zala (the director & Belloq) and got roped into it like every other smart kid in town! Then I met Chris’ Mom – the guy that built the Flying Wing for the new shoot they did… and which centers the entire RAIDERS! Doc.
I’ve been a part of this story ever since Eli Roth handed me the infamous tape he got from Frank Reynolds, outside the original Alamo Drafthouse location, and I even remember having to ever so slightly twist Tim’s arm to play it during BREAKFAST at BNAT5, but that’s because Tim had done something in that spot, but he decided to give it a try for Eli’s sake.
For me… The RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION – I see it as something more than a bunch of kids making their favorite movie. Every visual artifact of stress lines from the video tape that they made it on… it’s beautiful. Simply perfect. I’m 43 years old. I’m the same age as the Raiders kids, I’ve now known Chris, Eric and Jayson Lamb for 12 years. I’ve had very extended conversations about the making of the film, and the tales they told me captured my imagination. Hearing about the how they did the fire in the basement is one thing… seeing the BTS footage of the making of this film… that’s GEEK GOLD!
That’s why, RAIDERS!: THE STORY OF THE GREATEST FAN FILM EVER MADE is such gold.
The film interviews all the folks that made the original, the interview folks like Ernest Cline, Eli Roth, John Rhys-Davies, Tim League, Annie & Jeremy Bulloch, Alan Cerny, Chris Gore… and Sallah himself, John Rhys-Davies!
Structurally, the film uses the struggle to get this final scene shot as the spokes that keeps the Doc moving. In-between those spokes they air the story of the making of the original, peppered with extended footage of the kids trying so hard to make the impossible happen… to remake Raiders and make it watchable. That… is not easy. My favorite line from the doc, comes from Eric Zala’s son, who says something along the lines of, “I’m amazed it took $20 Million Dollars for Steven Spielberg to make RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but my Dad did it only on his allowance!” BIG CHEER in the audience.
The doc gets into how almost every kid it seems in the production had their parents split up during the production. And it’s almost as though that is what kept this going. Like, the moms decided, I can at least give them this.
For me, I just loved finally seeing these moments on screen. Watching them trying to extinguish a flaming Eric Zala… the original BOULDER scene… The kids getting aggravated and foul mouthed… it just completed the picture. Fleshed it all out in my mind. I’ve read the book they came out with, but this doc is particularly powerful.
The audience was highly enthusiastic throughout. I often caught Drew McWeeny guffawing at a particular moment of outrageous child endangerment… and it did my heart good. He was in the room when this thing got loose upon the world. In fact, I’m giddy to read his take on the screening tonight!
For the vast majority of the FLYING WING SHOOT side of the doc, it feels futile. Constantly having money problems and budget problems, because… well, everyone is a grown up now, money talks… But more than that even, there was the pressure of time and volatile weather that made things incredibly stressful, but… they did it. They shot it in 12 days instead of 9 and on a fraction of the cost that Spielberg needed and… IT LOOKS SPECTACULAR!
After the RAIDERS! Doc wrapped up, I got asked to do the Q&A for the midnight showing of the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION SPECIAL EDITION – at least that’s what I’m calling it, cuz while they pretty much assembled the entire kid cast as adults to reprise their roles, it’s in glorious widescreen and BEAUTIFUL.
I’m glad I got roped into doing the Q&A, because I was going to see another midnight selection that I hadn’t seen, but… I had also never seen this film with the FLYING WING scene inserted.
It works perfectly. And now. Now there’s something cosmic about the film. Something so incredible.
You know, Richard Linklater made BOYHOOD last year and world lost its mind. In tandem with this Doc they shot, THE ADAPTATION has become something truly unbelievable.
These friends set out to do something when they were children, they got real close to completing the dream, with the one unscratchable itch… “We never shot the plane scene.”
In 1988 at the premiere of their VHS epic, that was it. Other than the notion to get a tape to Spielberg, they were done. They fought, got pissy with one another – and then Eli and Tim and I make them face their childhood – and they begin a new chapter in their lives. At the time, I told them to cherish this friendship above all else. That all of this happened to them, it isn’t to be wasted. This is the world telling you, that together… miracles happen.
Eric hadn’t directed anything since like 1993. Chris had a whole lot of difficulty in life, but this video tape. This childhood spent chasing the impossible carrot… nobody else did this.
There’s no other childhood that I’ve seen captured in a single film, that I wish to fucking Christ that CHILDHOOD me could’ve played SALLAH. I mean, Linklater’s film is a beautiful work of constructed art, but the life he shows is a fairly ordinary BOYHOOD. This is an extraordinary childhood – a childhood that we all would’ve been so fucking pumped to have been a part of.
Watching it now, having known these guys for 12 years, they’ve kind of made me a part of their family and that’s amazing. I’ve seen this now about 13 times, but tonight, when Indy and Marion escape the WELL OF THE SOULS, they’re ADULTS, and that it is the same folks, it’s… perfect. The man they have playing the large NAZI – incredible. They’re FLYING WING looks better than Spielberg’s. The explosion feels more violent because well… THEY’RE INSANE!
When the film ended and the audience applauded and I went up to handle the Q&A, I called down Eric and Chris – and they were not there. So I answered the questions as best I could, but I ran into them out in the lobby – and just seeing them. There’s just so much love for these guys. That Eli & Tim & I brought these guys back together. That Eric has a BNAT 5 poster framed at his house… this stuff, it’s why the 3 boys are on my FRIDGE.
They lived the childhood we all wish we could’ve had. I wish my best friends and I had made a feature film together. I wish we had outtakes of all the foolish shit we tried to do. Those memories are alive and vivid in my mind, but I can’t output them to share with folks in any manner in which people would believe, like watching Chris go underneath a moving truck that has no engine, no brakes and is being pulled by another vehicle… and he could totally die. BUT there it is.
I hope the RAIDERS! Doc gets picked up for distribution, it certainly deserves to – and frankly, I wish that DISNEY and LUCASFILM would pick it up and distribute it and allow a great BLU release that has the Adaptation where everyone could see it.
We’ve had a few great INDIANA JONESes. Harrison Ford is king. There’s River Phoenix’s Boy Scout Indy! There’s the Young Indiana Jones where we had Sean Patrick Flanery, George Hall and lil Corey Carrier. But for my money, the best Indiana Jones other than Harrison Ford is Chris Stompolos. Personally, I’d pay to see further INDIANA JONES adventures staring Chris and directed by Eric – and I wish that could somehow happen, because there’s something about Chris’ face. How many hours has he spent in the mirror practicing to be Indiana Jones? We’ll never know, but I do know – this latest footage, he’s dead fucking perfect. The way he squints, the way his mouth drools blood, the stutter step back fall on the ass after the big Nazi punch… all of it… it’s just perfect. He has channeled the soul of Indiana Jones better than any of those other actors and it’s because from the second RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK came out, he’s been Indiana Jones in his mind, but unlike the rest of us… he’s proven it! His wife is a lucky woman!
Tomorrow, I hope to have a full day of film. Dying to see DEATHGASM at midnight!
