Genre: Drama
Premise: Based on a true story, in the summer of 1982, three kids innocently attempt to recreate Raiders of the Lost Ark, a task that ultimately ends up taking them seven years.
About: Today’s script is based on one of the most heartwarming filmmaking stories of all time. Maybe the biggest fan-film ever made, these kids were able to adapt a 20 million dollar movie for 5000 dollars. A fun factoid. There was no way to get the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie on any medium at the time. This meant the kids had no way to know exactly what happened in the film. Luckily, the film was re-issued in their small town for a few weeks, allowing the kids to audio-record the entire movie, and hence construct a working screenplay. The choice of adapter here is unorthodox. Daniel Clowes is mainly known for films like Ghost World and Wilson. I suppose they thought he’d bring a quirky sensibility to the kids. But, traditionally, he hadn’t written anything like The Raiders Project before.
Writer: Daniel Clowes
Details: 115 pages
I watched two things this weekend. The rest of Cobra Kai, which was awesome. And the This Is America video from Childish Gambino that everyone’s talking about. I don’t care what the storytelling medium is. If something’s good, I’m interested in it. And I’m even more interested in figuring out why it works.
This is America works, in part, because it tackles hot button issues – race and guns. In a way, it’s sort of cheating when you use these. They’re always going to get a reaction, regardless of the level of skill behind the artist. Hot button topics, by definition, get you hot!
But the reason this one stands out is that it’s not on the nose. It’s not sending a clear message. There’s tons of mystery behind the choices made in the video. And trying to put those puzzle pieces together isn’t only fun, but it gets you asking other people what they think, which grows the conversation.
Getting back to today’s script, I’m still searching for the actual movie these kids made. It sounds like a blast. So if anyone knows where I can find it, holla at ya boy.
It’s 1982. 12 year old Chris has just moved to a small town in Mississippi with his newly single TV anchor mother. The only thing making this bearable is Indiana. Oh, I’m not talking about the state. I’m talking about Indiana Jones, the greatest movie character of all time. Chris is kinda obsessed with him. He even owns a replica of Indy’s famous hat, which he wears everywhere.
Chris’s immediate goal at his new school is to be popular. And he’s a charming chap, so he succeeds. However, he can’t help but be drawn to a little nerdy kid named Eric, the only other kid in school who understands how important Raiders of the Lost Ark is.
Chris sacrifices popularity to team up with Eric, who he immediately pitches an idea to: Let’s remake Raiders of the Lost Ark. Eric points out that they have no way to make a film. I mean, how do you create a giant boulder? Or, if you really want to talk impossible, how are they going to get a girl to be in their nerdy movie??
But Chris’s enthusiasm is contagious, and soon, they’re recruiting a third member to the production team, Jayson, a lover of obscure cinema (he’s more THX-1138 than Star Wars). The group starts shooting their film, recreating scene after scene, and before they know it, the local news does a story on them, turning them into mini-celebrities.
The problem is, each of these scenes takes tons of time to set up. Weeks, if not months. A couple of years go by and they’re not even halfway done. Then Chris goes off to boarding school, limiting the time they have to shoot Raiders to the summers. Finally, they finish the film (except for one scene that was infamously too expensive) and have a big premiere at the local Coca Cola plant, making all those seemingly endless hours worth it.
The funny thing about screenwriting is that every screenplay you write is the first time you’re learning to write that story. So you won’t know the unique challenges of that story until you’re knee-deep in it.
The challenge with this screenplay was the seven summers (ooh, that’s a good title). I’m not sure Clowes has ever written a movie that needed to be spread out like this. And we feel it. The more the script has to jump forward in time, the more uncomfortable the writing gets.
Remember that whenever you jump forward, you pop the balloon, which forces you to start blowing up another balloon. And it’s hard to get readers to stick around for new balloons. Yet that’s what kept happening here. The kids would shoot a scene, they’d go their separate ways, they’d come back again next summer, meet again, plan another scene, shoot it, go their separate ways, etc., etc.
It was so boring.
The bigger problem with this screenplay, though, is the motivation. We’re never clear on why they’re making this movie. And since “making the movie” is the point, it’s frustrating that we’re never clear on why they’re doing it.
It’s okay in real life if there isn’t a reason. But movies need a point. The characters need motivation, even if it’s something they’re not aware of. It’s up to the writer to find that.
A good example of this is the upcoming movie, “Tag.” Personally, I don’t think the true story of a group of friends who have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years is a good idea for a film.
But to the writer’s credit, he did with that story what Clowes couldn’t do here. He realized that the reason these friends were still playing this stupid game of tag as adults was because it was a way for them to stay in each other’s lives as they grew older. That’s the theme. And having that theme adds purpose to the game.
In The Raiders Project, even the characters are unsure of why they’re doing this. They keep asking each other, “Why are we doing this??” And nobody has an answer!
The answer probably should’ve been, “You can do anything you want to if you try.” It’s cheesy but it’s a powerful theme. Everyone here is telling them they’re idiots for trying this. Why not have it be about proving them wrong? The power of perseverance? It seems obvious in retrospect.
I think I know how to solve the seven-year structural challenge as well. In real life, the kids famously couldn’t shoot one scene – the one where the Nazi plane blows up. Years later, after completing the film, they finally raised enough money to shoot that scene.
The script should’ve been built around that scene, using it as an anchor to keep coming back to. You build up the GSU of the scene (They only have this location for one day. The plane isn’t working. The explosives haven’t arrived). And as we get closer to shooting the scene, we jump back to each individual time period of them making this movie.
That way you don’t have this weird time-jumping problem of trying to cover seven summers in the final sixty pages.
If there’s one positive I’ll take away from this script, it’s that we’re way more capable of achieving things than we think we are. These kids did something that everyone thought was impossible. And sometimes things are impossible. But it you don’t at least try, how will you know?
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: I think one of the reasons this didn’t get made was because it’s one of the most difficult casting situations I’ve ever read. How do you cast actors to play 12-20? This is puberty, the time in life where people physically change the most. You can’t cast different actors to play the same part. It would be too distracting. And I don’t know a 20 year old who can also play 12. It’s a casting nightmare! So don’t create any casting nightmares in your own scripts, folks.
