Marquette, Fogler, and Sam Huntington in 'Fanboys'A feud as epic as the Jedi versus the evil Sith is brewing on the internet. This battle has the Empire of The Weinstein Company fighting against a ragtag group of Star Wars freedom fighters. The subject of the war: the treatment of the long-shelved Fanboys movie.
Fanboys, set in 1998, is about a group of Star Wars-loving misfits who embark on an impossible trip to steal a copy of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace so a terminally ill friend can see it before he dies of cancer. Fanboys stars Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury), Kristen Bell (Heroes, Veronica Mars), Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up), and Chris Marquette (The Invisible). The movie wrapped filming in the summer of 2006 and was originally scheduled for release in early 2007.
But then it got delayed. Apparently TWC honcho and Fanboys executive producer Harvey Weinstein ordered re-writes and re-shoots on the Kyle Newman directed and Ernie Cline written film. Weinstein wanted to strike the cancer story from the movie. The move would change the project from a love letter to Star Wars fans to one mocking them, some say.
The fans have assembled under a web site entitled "Stop Darth Weinstein" to stop this mishandling of the movie. They are calling for a boycott of all movies from The Weinstein Company. Not only that, but they are also planning protests outside theaters showing the upcoming TWC release, Superhero Movie -- a Scary Movie-style parody of comic book movies releasing this Friday.
In response, a TWC executive issued a comment to stave off the fan uproar:
"Over the last few weeks we have received a tremendous amount of input from Star War (sic) fans nationwide. While the later version tested very well with audiences, the grassroots support we have received for the first version simply cannot be ignored. We are very excited to launch these two films and look forward to giving the fans the opportunity to see both versions."
Sounds like the equivalent to the Luke Skywalker's victorious destruction of the Death Star, right? Actually, no.
What this is referring to is the eventual DVD release of the movie. Studios employing a standard and unrated dual release has become the norm on DVD. The Star Wars fans are still demanding a theatrical release of the original cut. Here is a quote from the fan site:
This [statement] is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Company to avert Star Wars fans' impending boycott of all of their films. Well, guess what? 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!
The truth is that Fanboys still does not have a theatrical release date planned. This battle may only push Weinstein to nix the theatrical release entirely, driving it straight to DVD.
As you can tell, the war is far from over. Only time will tell what Fanboys' fate will be. If it is announced directly on DVD, we'll have it here. (Regardless, you can sign up to be notified when the movie is announced for DVD release -- whether it be next week or six months from now.)
In a related story, Wired magazine has a very timely and interesting article providing the background to Ernie Cline's Fanboys script. They also offer up their take on this fans versus Weinstein controversy.
