'Star Wars' Still A Force 30 Years Later

[Rasputin]

Los Angeles -- "Star Wars," George Lucas' film that presented endearing characters memorable lines and great special effects, celebrates its 30th anniversary in Los Angeles.

To recognize the May 25, 1977, opening of the seminal movie, "Star Wars Celebration IV" will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center Friday through Monday. The event includes live entertainment, appearances by cast members, film and video presentations and an exhibit, Hollywood Reporter reported Friday.

"Star Wars" inspired many current visual special effects practitioners. The visual effects supervisors from the 1977's franchise starter through 2005's concluding "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" are to speak during the convention.

Richard Edlund, Oscar-winner for his work on all three films in the first trilogy, said, "'Star Wars' woke up a sleeping giant. ... Since 'Star Wars,' its audience salivates for new effects movies."

"Suddenly, there were new exciting things happening in the (visual special effect) field," John Knoll, supervisor of the more recent trilogy who was in high school when "Star Wars" first opened, told the Hollywood Reporter. "It was a life-changing experience. It helped me to decide that I wanted to do this for a living."

Star Wars is an epic science fantasy saga and fictional universe created by writer/producer/director George Lucas during the late 1970s. Over the next thirty years, Lucas and other writers developed the Star Wars saga with additional films, books, and other works.

The first film was Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), which was released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox. This film became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning five more feature films developed by George Lucas and an Expanded Universe of his films, which includes three spin-off films, five television series and an extensive collection of licensed books, comics, video games, action figures, trading cards, and other merchandise, all set within the Star Wars fictional "galaxy far, far away.

" In 2005, Forbes Magazine estimated the overall revenue generated by the entire Star Wars franchise (over the course of its history) at nearly US $20 billion, making it one of the most successful franchises of all time.

When Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a system of lasers and missiles meant to intercept incoming ICBMs, the plan was quickly labled "Star Wars"--implying that it was science fiction and linking it to Ronald Reagan's acting career. According to Frances Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan was annoyed by this. But Assistent Secretary of Defense Richard Perle "told colleagues that he thought the name was not so bad. 'Why not?' he said. 'It's a good movie. Besides, the good guys won.'"

This gained further resonance when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire.

John McCain originally likened himself to Luke Skywalker during the 2000 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, repeatedly hefting lightsabers and calling Jerry Falwell an "evil influence" on the GOP. His embrace of the right leading up to the 2008 election prompted journalists to liken him to "a fallen jedi knight."

The Star Wars saga has inspired many fans to create their own stories set in the Star Wars galaxy. In recent years, this has ranged from writing fan-fiction to creating fan films.

In 2002, Lucasfilm sponsored the first annual Official Star Wars Fan Films Awards, officially recognizing filmmakers and the genre. Because of concerns over potential copyright and trademark issues, however, the contest remains open only to parodies, mockumentaries, and documentaries. Fan-fiction films set in the Star Wars universe were originally ineligible, but in 2007 Lucasfilm changed the submission standards to allow in-universe fiction entries.

While many of the serious fan films have used elements from the licensed Expanded Universe to tell their story, they are obviously not considered an official part of the Star Wars canon. Lucasfilm, for the most part, has allowed but not endorsed the creation of these derivative fan-fiction works, so long as no such work attempts to make a profit from or tarnish the Star Wars franchise in any way.

Lucasfilm's open support and sanction of fan creations is a marked contrast to the attitudes of many other copyright holders. Some owners, such as Paramount Pictures with the Star Trek properties, have been known to actively discourage the creation of such works by fans.

At a ShoWest convention in 2005, George Lucas demonstrated new technology and stated that he planned to release all six films in a new 3-D film format, beginning with A New Hope in 2007.However, by January 2007, Lucasfilm stated on StarWars.com that there are no definitive plans or dates for releasing the Star Wars saga in 3-D.

Lucas has hinted in the past that he will release his definitive (often called "archival") editions of all six of his Star Wars films on a next-generation home-video format. It has been speculated that he will take this opportunity to make any final adjustments, changes, additions, and/or subtractions to his films for this final release.

An altered clip from The Phantom Menace included in a featurette on the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith (in which a computer generated Yoda replaces the original puppet) appears to be a sign that the "archival" editions are indeed in the works. Lucasfilm Vice President of Marketing Jim Ward confirmed that Lucasfilm is likely to do even more work on the films (possibly digital contemporization of the original trilogy), stating "As the technology evolves and we get into a high-definition platform that is easily consumable by our customers, the situation is much better, but there will always be work to be done."

Producer Rick McCallum has also explained that Lucasfilm has been holding back a large amount of bonus material for this release, including deleted scenes, as well as numerous previous Star Wars "making-ofs," spin-offs, television specials, documentaries, and other special material.