Star Wars Tidbits

peterjm sent us a link to a CNN article about the prequel trailer threatening networks as people keep emailing that 25 meg file around. I'm also hearing rumors that Menace tickets will be sold a week early, and not held off until the last minute as originally planned. Can anyone confirm this? This might help matters for those of us planning on being out of town that week.

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Lucas Scrambles To Make Last Minute Movie Changes

[cje]

LUCAS SCRAMBLES TO MAKE LAST MINUTE MOVIE CHANGES

MARIN COUNTY, CA (AP) - George Lucas and his entire "Phantom Menace" production crew are working around the clock, making last minute changes to the film after an unnamed poster on a widely-read Web site suggested that some of the movie's existing material might be undesirable.

"The decision to include the Fuzzy Zeewoks was controversial from the start," explained an exhausted Lucas on his way from the cutting room to a sound stage. "In the end, we decided to keep them in, and thought we had done the right thing. However, as this particular post has shown, we were wrong. As a result, we are writing the Zeewoks out of the script, and replacing them with the Exploding Toxic Womprats, which are less cute."

The post that started this entire debacle was written by Anonymous Coward, a prolific contributor on the Internet's popular Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) web site. Coward, who can type at upwards of 1200 words per minute (estimated), is responsible for nearly one-third of the material posted there. In his Star Wars-related post, Coward claimed that he would "start shooting people in the theater" if he saw any "cuteness" such as the Fuzzy Zeewoks. This pushed Lucas over the edge, and prompted the cutting of the entire Fuzzy Zeewok subplot.

"What a blow!" said Lucas ruefully. "When you get advice from a person with the influence and social standing that Anonymous Coward has, you had better follow it." And following it he is! The long days of reworking the film has been an unprecedented, grueling trial for Lucas' production crew. However, he hastens to add: "We'll be ready by the original release date."

Although Lucas refuses to elaborate on the details of the subplot involving the Fuzzy Zeewoks, sources close to the film tell the Associated Press that it had something to do with six feet of rubber tubing, a quart of 10W-30 motor oil, and a yak.

Jesse Berst contributed to this story.