Neil Young’s newest film/music project, Greendale, looks interesting. I’m not sure which is most intriguing: the music, the story, or the biodiesel tour buses…

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation

Jim Windolf tells the charming story of the quest of three kids from Mississippi to create a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1982, the VCR-less preadolescent cinephiles began compiling a list of 649 shots from the movie using an illicitly recorded audio tape, a novelization, and a comic book. There were boulder problems from the beginning: a bamboo-and-cardboard model wouldn’t fit out a door, a weather balloon sagged, and a chicken-wire rendition blew away in a hurricane. But after seven years, an on-set love affair, and a location shoot on a submarine, the 100-minute Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation finally wrapped. Now 14 years later, it’s a hit at festivals and on the Internet, and the guys have talked with producers about turning the “making of” story into a movie.

See the trailer.

Actually, it’s a good feeling. Looks like the original Star Wars trilogy will be out on DVD in September. Of course, by original they mean the films as re-released in the late 1990s, not to mention any retouching and remixing that The Flanneled One has decided to add to this Very Special Edition. Still, I’ll be happy to see it, and we’re almost assured of picking up a copy.

I’m feeling cranky. So here’s Betty Bowers’ review of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Ha.