Fanboys

Fanboys is a film directed by Kyle Newman and starring Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Bell.

Plot

A group of friends, anxious for the premiere of Star Wars: Phantom Menace, decide to break into Lucas Ranch and steal an early print of the film. The reason: One of them is suffering from cancer and wishes to see the film before his death. A road trip begins as the friends encounter William Shatner, obsessed Trekkies, and bikers who make them strip for water.

As explained below execs want the cancer plot to be removed and make the film more of a parody of Star Wars.

Development

After George Lucas was given an advanced screening of the rough cut of the film, he enjoyed it and gave it his “stamp of approval” and even offered for original Star Wars sounds to be used in the movie. He then contacted the filmmakers with his authorization to use Star Wars sound effects. Filmmaker and Star Wars fan Kevin Smith also viewed an early version of the film and asked for and was allowed a cameo in the film.

The movie was pushed back once more to January 2008 because director Kyle Newman was given more funding to shoot additional scenes that the original budget did not include. Getting the cast back together would only be possible in September 2007, thus the movie’s release date had to be moved to 2008.

The movie was again pushed back because the reshoots could not take place before November/December 2007. These reshoots were directed by Steven Brill and not by Kyle Newman. On January 14th, web blogger The CineManiac broke the story that the movie was being re-edited to remove the cancer plot from the movie and replace much of it with raunchy, vulgar humor. Ain’t It Cool News picked up the story and confirmed that the two different versions of the movie (with and without the cancer plot) were screened to different test audiences in Burbank, CA, in January 2008 to see which one would rate higher. As for a new release date, Director Kyle Newman stated in a Movie Geeks United! interview that the movie will hopefully come out in April 2008.  Upon hearing about the changes being made to the movie, dedicated Star Wars fans united and started an internet campaign where fans rebel against the plot changes and demand that the original version that includes the cancer storyline be released in theaters.

A rough cut of the full film (that included the cancer storyline) was shown in public for the first time at Star Wars Celebration Europe on July 14th, 2007. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with director Kyle Newman and received standing ovations.