Star Wars Episode 3.5: Sans George Lucas!

[Tuckerfan]

It’s a fan film, so it might be good, since Lucas isn’t involved.

For the past year, Crawford has been chasing a dream — he’s shooting his own Star Wars movie, called “Forgotten Realm.” It’s something he’s had in the back of his mind for years, but now, thanks to people he’s met at Fermilab and through his work with Sugar Grove-based public access channel Fox Valley Television, his film will soon become reality.

Crawford’s crew is largely comprised of fellow Fermilab employees. Operator Chris Olsen, for example, works on sets and props, as well as playing the evil Emperor. (He does a pitch-perfect imitation of the voice and looks suitably menacing in full makeup.)

Crawford has similarly drawn nearly a dozen other Fermilab employees to his cause and put them to work acting, making sets, working lights and running cameras.

Crawford’s script, which he finished in 2005, takes place between Episodes III (the most recent film) and IV (the original “Star Wars”). It’s about a rebel agent, played by Crawford’s wife Laura, who crash-lands on a remote planet and discovers a Jedi Knight, stranded there for years. The Empire gets wind of this and sends Darth Vader to intervene.

Fermilab? Shouldn’t these guys be working on something a little more important than this?

BTW, lightsabres and alcohol don’t mix, it seems.

[GuanoLad]

Fanfilms are old news. There have been literally hundreds of Star Wars fanfilms made in the last ten years. I’ve been involved in the making of a few of them myself.

[Cartooniverse]

@Tuckerfan

BTW, lightsabres and alcohol don’t mix, it seems.

I freaking wept at this. VERY hilarious.

I especially like the quick moment of his girlfriend sobbing on the phone towards the end.

Cartooniverse

[Tuckerfan]

@GuanoLad

Fanfilms are old news. There have been literally hundreds of Star Wars fanfilms made in the last ten years. I’ve been involved in the making of a few of them myself.

Yeah, but how many have been shown on cable and were made by a buncha guys with advanced degrees?

[mobo85]

@GuanoLad

There have been literally hundreds of Star Wars fanfilms made in the last ten years.

Surprisingly, rather than forcing legal action on such fanfilms, Lucasfilm actually encourages them, even going so far as to hold an annual awards show giving accolades to the ones considered the best, including a special award for George Lucas’s personal favorite.

[GuanoLad]

He only encourages the parodies, and documentary style ones. He doesn’t like the dramatic ones quite to the same degree, and only unofficially allows them if they don’t make any profit whatsoever.

True, I don’t think any have been shown on TV before (though I could be wrong) but qualifications wise I’m sure there have been a few who have been suitably high up on the scale. Not that that is any indicator of a quality production.