Fanboys is a film directed by Kyle Newman and starring Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Bell. It will be released on February 6, 2009

Fanboys movie poster

Set in 1998, the story tells of a group of friends who, eager for the premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace – and because one of them is suffering from cancer and wishes to see the film before his death – decide to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal an early print of the film. A road trip begins as the friends encounter William Shatner, obsessed Trekkies, and bikers who make them undress for water.

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 the original Star Wars sound effects for use in the movie. Filmmaker and Star Wars fan Kevin Smith also viewed an early version of the film and asked for (and was given) a cameo in the film.

The film was originally to be released on August 17, 2007. 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 14, 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 would 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.

Steven Brill retaliated in a derogatory manner, calling fans “loosers” in online correspondence which ended up in the public domain. In one exchange, Brill called a fan “dumb” and threatened to “hunt him down” in a profanity-laden emailed response to a letter of complaint. In a recent interviewNewman chastised Brill’s behavior saying:
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 14, 2007. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with director Kyle Newman and received standing ovations.

On July 9, 2008, director Kyle Newman confirmed in a TheForce.net interview that the cancer plot will be included in the final cut of the movie.

“The motivation was stripped [out] of the movie so it was more like, ‘Hey, we’re drunk. You wanna go break into Skywalker ranch?’” said Newman of the adulterated version. “It ultimately didn’t work and that’s why it, I think, came back to us, the original team to at least restore it as much as we could in the time given.” Newman was given just 36 hour to reassemble his film, and edit back in the key motivational cancer plot line.

The final cut of the film was screened on July 24, 2008, in San Diego at Comic-Con. It was announced there that Fanboys would be released to theaters on September 19, 2008.^[18] On Sep 4, 2008 a new release date was announced: November 26, 2008. This was published on the official Weinstein Company website.The final release date is pushing back to February 6, 2009.

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