Did Be Kind Rewind give you the itch to recreate your favourite movie scenes as Jack Black and Mos Def spun their own homemade interpretations on the likes of Ghostbusters and Rush Hour 2? If so, then the new You Make The Movies website might give you the incentive to do it – there’s a trip to Universal Studios up for grabs for the best homemade video clip spoofing your favourite movie scene or line.
The fan film movement is booming right now, with budding filmmakers choosing their favourite cinematic universe to borrow as they hone their talents. Indeed, fan films set in the world of Star Wars are something of a cottage industry on their own, not to mention all those amateur filmmakers setting foot in Middle Earth and Discworld.
To celebrate the You Make The Movies competition, RT takes a look at some of the most ambitious and original fan film projects.
Saturday Morning Watchmen
This reimagines Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen as a 1970s Saturday Morning cartoon in the style of the Super-Friends show, with funny little digs at Scooby-Doo and Josie and the Pussycats. The grim, gritty and adult world of the superhero saga seeps almost subliminally into the grinning, inane, good clean fun business, and unlike Zack Snyder British animator/musician Harry Partridge realises that a certain major character should look like a straight-arrow hero rather than a weaselly bad guy in order not to spoil the ending. Some Watchmen fanboys might also rate this higher than Snyder’s version because it features the giant squid ending. Click here to watch.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation
Hailed as the greatest fan film ever made, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation is a 100-minute recreation of the classic action-adventure of the same name. Principal photography began in 1982 when director/stars Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala were in their early teens, and it took all their pocket money, unwavering dedication, astonishing ingenuity, plus a basement fire and the loss of a pair of eyebrows before the film was finally ‘in the can’ seven years later. The results amazed the film community, and impressed director Steven Spielberg so much that he sent the boys a letter of congratulations. Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation is screening at the Vue West End, Leicester Square, on April 28. Click here for more details.
Batman: Dead End
There’s no denying the effectiveness of this well-funded (a reported $30,000) 2003 short in which Batman tackles the Joker in a dark alley, only to find himself caught in a snarl-off between an Alien and some Predators (or, scarcely less terrifying, lawyers from Fox and Warners). Director Sandy Collora obviously intended the piece — which drew praise from fanpros like Kevin Smith and Frank Miller — as a calling card, and has recently completed an original sci-fi feature called Hunter Prey. The only cavil is that, once upon a time, film-crazy kids wanted to grow up to be Howard Hawks, Stanley Kubrick or Jean-Luc Godard, but Collora represents a generation whose ambition is to be Paul W.S. Anderson. Click here to watch.
The Hunt for Gollum
Made in widescreen, running 45 minutes, and due to premiere at an actual film festival (as well as online at Dailymotion), this mini-epic from writer/director Chris Bouchard is an unusually serious, non-parodic, non-mash-up fan film, adapted from ‘the appendices of Lord of the Rings‘. The Heir of Isildur, the ‘greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth’, sets out to find Gollum — which involves moodily striding through picturesque stretches of North Wales. The copyright disclaimer is probably longer than the script, and the trailers suggest it’ll be better than Eragon (there aren’t any Eragon fan films, oddly) or Krull. Click here for more info.
Troops
If you add up all the fan-produced Star Wars films, you get a running time longer than the entire Lucasfilm’s canon (including cartoons). Made in 1997 by Kevin Rubio — who recently crossed over to legitimacy scripting an episode of The Clone Wars — this ingenious double pastiche follows a cadre of imperial stormtroopers on patrol in the Tatooine desert in the style of the pioneering reality show Cops. Called to a domestic dispute at the Lars ranch, the troops are involved in the deaths of Luke’s adoptive parents, but not in the way Star Wars suggested. The viewpoint is skewed in a funny, even provocative way. It also features Tom Servo, the robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000, stolen by Jawas. Click here to watch.
