Save Fanboys! (long post)

[RitaKAustinTX]

Holy cow, y'all!

Look what I just got myspace messaged about!

http://www.myspace.com/stopdarthweinstein

Background- As most of you know I loves me some "Fanboys." Really, because it is written by a local fella and true friend to The Austin Browncoats- Ernest Cline (http://www.ernestcline.com). The movie has been pushed back many times and we we're all set to see it this January- until is was pushed back again. I was heartbroken.

It seems like the fans are fighting back! I have no idea who put this campaign together (but I LOVE them), but they are pushing the studio to release the original GOOD version of the film.


from http://beam.to/stopdarthweinstein-

"Would you rather see a movie about friendship and what it means to be a Star Wars fan? Or a movie that ridicules Star Wars fans?

The long-awaited movie Fanboys is about a group of Star Wars fans who travel to Skywalker Ranch to steal an early copy of "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" so their friend can see it before he dies of cancer. This movie was made by Star Wars fans, for Star Wars fans, and it is a tribute to the greatest film franchise in history, and to the millions of people who love it. We fans have been waiting nearly ten years to see this movie!

Last summer, the director, Kyle Newman, screened his rough cut of Fanboys for the fans at the Star Wars Celebrations in both Los Angeles and London. It  received several standing ovations at both screenings. The creators of this website are fans just like you, and were at those screenings. We witnessed the audience reaction ourselves! Everyone in attendance absolutely loved the movie! Fanboys is like Stand By Me for Star Wars fans. It is the ultimate Star Wars fan film!

But now, after delaying the release of the movie for over a year,  the Weinstein Company (the studio distributing it) has decided to take FANBOYS away from the filmmakers and change the entire plot, so that "cancer" is no longer mentioned! In their butchered "no plot" version, the Star Wars fans now decide to break in to Skywalker Ranch for NO REASON AT ALL."



I just think this is so awesome because it's very Independents V. The Alliance. This little nerdy movie got made and now the studio is messing with it to make it more commercial. I'm all for making money, trust me, but it seems like the studio is dissing on the fans instead of celebrating them. No cool.

So I, for one, am totally going to support the SAVE FANBOYS effort and tell everyone I know about it. I hope you will join me.

bwahahahahahahaah!

[RitaKAustinTX]

Also- there is this-

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35673

I love these people!

[haldira]

I can't believe they want to do that!

I'll protest with ya!

[RitaKAustinTX]

Also, check out this month's WIRED magazine.

It's got a great article on Fanboys, Ernie Cline and it has pictures of those manly 501st guys such as our very own Sam The Man They Call Jayne.

and don't forget-
http://www.myspace.com/stopdarthweinstein


SAVE FANBOYS!!!

[sgmorton]

Have you seen the article yet? I can't find a copy here!

[RitaKAustinTX]

My boyfriend (Cher) subscribes so it came to the house. I don't know when it hits newstands though.

sorry!

I haven't read it yet, I just looked at the pictures. 

[haldira]

My boyfriend (Cher)

LOL.

[od0_ital]

"Star Wars" fans wield Force against Weinstein
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080325/film_nm/fanboys_dc

The geeks have been heard.

Faced with a grassroots boycott of its films, bicoastal protests at screenings of its Friday opener "Superhero Movie" and a campaign calling its co-chairman "Darth Weinstein," indie studio Weinstein Co. said Monday that it now plans to release two versions of its "Star Wars"-inspired comedy "Fanboys."

Weinstein said it will release the two versions on DVD, and a studio source later said that is exploring two theatrical versions.

"Fanboys," about four diehard "Star Wars" fans who break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in order to see "The Phantom Menace" on the eve of its release, wrapped production two years ago and has been stuck in limbo as a tug-of-war between Harvey Weinstein and the filmmakers waged over competing versions of the movie.

The latest announcement did nothing to satisfy the filmmakers, who accuse the company of only putting out the announcement in order to sidestep a meltdown at this weekend's box office.

"This is more about avoiding picket lines at 'Superhero' than it was about making a decision about the release of our movie," said Kevin Mann, one of the producers.

Mann -- along with producer Matthew Perniciaro, director Kyle Newman and writer Ernie Cline, who originated the story -- worked on "Fanboys" in 2003 with Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street production company coming on board in 2005. The cast, including then up-and-comers Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen and Dan Fogler, all signed up for a script that one year made the Blacklist, the annual industry ranking of the top scripts in town. Footage began making the rounds at "Star Wars" festivals, while 40 minutes of "Fanboys"' rough cut was screened at Star Wars Celebration and Comic-Con, where it was enthusiastically received by a standing-room-only crowd last year.

The Weinstein Co. picked up the project in late 2005, and following production slated "Fanboys" for release August 17, 2007. That got pushed back to a January 18 release. Then it went off the grid altogether.

Insiders said the root of the problem was Weinstein's issue with the underlying story in "Fanboys." The cross-country adventure is put in motion because one of the characters is facing cancer. Late last year, the company decided it would do reshoots, hiring Judd Apatow's producing partner Shauna Robertson to oversee a $2 million reshoot of four scenes done by director Steve Brill ("Drillbit Taylor"). That, combined with re-editing, created a version that excised the cancer subplot.

"Harvey feels it's hard to market, especially with this cast," an insider said. "He wants to market to a more teen audience. The filmmakers wanted a dramedy along the vein of 'Stand by Me."'

The Weinstein Co. this year began testing both versions. Unprompted by the filmmakers, "Star Wars" fans began uniting to oppose the noncancer version, led by the 501st, a "Star Wars" fan group named after a fictional battalion. The group created the Web site http://committed.to/stopdarthweinstein that provided updates on developments while also lampooning Harvey Weinstein by Photoshopping him in Darth Vader drag.

The test screenings yielded a minuscule win for the noncancer version -- one insider said the difference was only two test points -- but that only emboldened the geeks. And some of the producers remained unmoved.

"The original reason we wanted to get involved with this script was because it was a comedy with heart," Mann said. "In my opinion, when the cancer was taken out, the heart went with it."

The fans' ire was raised even more when they discovered that Brill had joined a chat session under the screen name "GL," which fans interpreted to be George Lucas. The online discussion turned nasty with threats from both sides.

The new announcement still leaves the movie up in the air. It still has no release date, only a promise that both versions will be available on DVD. Late Monday, a Weinstein source said, "We're making a very strong attempt to make both films available theatrically as well."

The 501st was unimpressed with the Weinstein Co.'s move.

"This is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Co. to avert 'Star Wars' fans' impending boycott of all of their films," the group said. "It's not going to work, Darth Weinstein. There was never any doubt that you would release both versions of the movie on DVD, probably months apart, so as to leech as much money from 'Star Wars' fans as possible. Our boycott will continue until the Weinstein Co. announces that they are returning control of 'Fanboys' to the 'Star Wars' fans who made it, releasing the original version in theaters and doing away with their anti-fan version of the film altogether."

The company Monday acknowledged that it had received more than 300,000 e-mails, which factored in its decision.

"While the later version tested very well with audiences, the grassroots support we have received for the first version simply cannot be ignored," a Weinstein spokesman said.

The filmmakers had a more measured response than the fans, hoping to be given a chance to work the film some more.

"If they want to excise the cancer or reshoot again, I'll cooperate," Trigger Street producer Dana Brunetti said. "One tested better than the other, so I see both sides to it.

"We're too close to the movie to be objective, but we know which we consider better," he added with a laugh. "I've always been content with the (original cut of) the movie."

Harvey Weinstein has a history of tangling with filmmakers over their films' edits, earning him the moniker "Harvey Scissorhands" in some circles, but he seems to have met his match with a legion of "Star Wars" fans.

The possibility of a theatrical release was encouraging to both Newman and Brunetti.

"It will be interesting to see what version comes out theatrically, if it does at all," Brunetti said. "We're hoping to meet somewhere in the middle between the two."

They should release the original version to theaters, and then put both on the DVD.

[RitaKAustinTX]

That's AWESOME!

But we still want the original version released in theaters!

keep up the good fight my mighty nerd friends!

[haldira]

That's AWESOME!

But we still want the original version released in theaters!

keep up the good fight my mighty nerd friends!

Do you think that they'll do a dual theatrical release, like they mentioned?

[RitaKAustinTX]

I doubt it.

I think they'll release the crappy version in theaters and then two versions on DVD.

But that is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

[sgmorton]

Well I just spoke to Ernie and he told me that they are considering releasing both versions in the theater. Also the Wired magazine article on  Ernie has hit...
The WIRED article just got posted online:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-04/ff_fanboy

I am in there, the guy in white!!!!!! No really I am 3 left of Ernie with my hand on my belt.

And here are two big articles about the movie's release:
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-04/ff_fanboy_sb
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3icc586a5d1a4f3c60803eb84167aec8071

They are looking at August now as a release date.

[RitaKAustinTX]

You look great, Sam/Jayne!

Very scary!

[TK9612]

I'd much rather see the original version. But I don't forsee us trooping the event.