The fan reactions we've been receiving concerning the trailer for The Phantom Menace have been OVERWHEMINGLY POSITIVE! All indications are that Lucasfilm has a serious winner on their hands.

This trailer-related article appears in today's Washington Post.

'Star Wars': The Trailer Previews of This Coming Attraction Are Already Big Box-Office

By Michael Colton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 1998; Page D01

Joel Bergen's parents had the Vietnam War, the Berlin Wall and the civil rights movement; he has the Clone Wars, the Republic of Naboo and the Dark Side of the Force.

Though most of the moviegoing public will have to wait until Friday to view the two-minute trailer for next year's "Star Wars" prequel -- perhaps the most anticipated movie ever -- Bergen, a 17-year-old Arlington high school senior, had to see it before everybody else. "It's a piece of history," he said.

At only 75 screens selected by 20th Century Fox, fans in the United States and Canada gathered yesterday for the first glimpse of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace." Summoned by Web sites like Lucasfilm's Star Wars page and Ain't It Cool News, the audiences consisted of high school students and college professors, self-professed "movie geeks" and slackers ditching work.

At an afternoon screening of "Meet Joe Black" yesterday at the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park, fans -- mostly male -- sat in anticipation, reading comic books and scholarly texts about cinema. But at least a dozen people left before the film started. It wasn't the thought of three hours of Brad Pitt as Death that scared them away: They had come just for the trailer.

"Unbelievable," said a visibly elated Rob McNeese, 24, an Arlington college student. "I consider myself a harsh critic, but after the trailer I was applauding."

"It's going to be incredible," said Jim Herr, 31, after quietly escaping from "Meet Joe Black." Herr, who predicts the film will knock "Titanic" off its No. 1 worldwide box office perch, heard about the advance screening at a funeral. "That's pretty sad."

It is unprecedented for an advance screening of a movie trailer to attract so much curiosity -- it is unprecedented for a movie trailer to have an advance screening, let alone one that's covered by the BBC -- but everything about "Episode I" has been unprecedented. The fourth installment of the venerable "Star Wars" series (but the first chronologically), the film is George Lucas's first directorial effort since the original "Star Wars" in 1977. It is scheduled to open May 21.

Web sites and magazines have been busy for months speculating on every aspect about the production from the plot, casting and title to which fast-food restaurant will provide toys and how much advertising it will get during the Super Bowl (Taco Bell and 12 minutes, according to one site).

Some avid fans -- who have waited since "Return of the Jedi" in 1983 and have bided their time with "Star Wars" books, toys and video games -- have constructed their own scripts, outlines and images for the new film. But all of those were based on leaks and scanty legitimate information; the trailer was their first opportunity to actually see any of "Episode I."

Yesterday afternoon the Internet started buzzing with dissections and analyses. "The Internet is going nuts over this trailer," said Scott Chitwood, 25, a civil engineer in Houston. "Everything we gossiped about -- what Darth Maul looks like, for instance -- is shown." In case you've been living in a cave without a modem: Darth Maul is one of the bad guys.

The fast-paced trailer is slightly more than two minutes long and shows off stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Lloyd, R2D2 and Yoda. It contains the familiar John Williams score, lots of chases and special effects, and a line that undoubtedly sent shivers down many spines in the multiplexes: "Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi." (Jedi knight Kenobi and Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, fight to the death in "Star Wars.")

Lucasfilm announced the screening last week on its Web site (www.starwars.com), and word spread online. "A special treat for the fans that have been checking the Web site regularly," Lucasfilm spokeswoman Jeanne Cole explained. When the trailer goes into wide release Friday, it is expected to give a boost to weekend movie ticket sales.

Since the advance screening was given in only 26 states, the District and Canada, some fans drove to other cities to catch the trailer, and even stayed for multiple screenings. It was shown both before and after Universal's "Meet Joe Black," Disney's "The Waterboy" and 20th Century Fox's "The Siege."

Theaters were chosen for their screen size and digital sound equipment, according to Tom Sherak, chairman of the 20th Century Fox Domestic Film Group. Theater owners had to splice the trailer to both ends of the features. (Trailers used to run after the feature was over, hence the name.)

"The true test of a fan is to stay to the end of the credits to watch the second trailer," said Chitwood, who sat through "The Waterboy," which he had already seen, in Houston yesterday. Chitwood is co-founder of theforce.net, one of the leading fan Web sites. Another site, jedinet.com, posted stills from the trailer taken by a fan who took a camera into the theater.

If one obsessed soul wanted to catch the trailer, say, six times, did he have to sit through nine hours of "Joe Black"? "Well, nobody's going to tie you to that chair," said Lucasfilm's Cole. "You could go out and have a three-hour dinner and come back."

On such a day of elation for him and his kind, Chitwood struck a more somber note by reaching out to the less fortunate. "I feel sorry for the people in Europe and Australia that have to wait to see the trailer," he said. "I really feel bad."

Adding insult to injury, the film will not be released worldwide until sometime after its May premiere. But, Chitwood notes, many Europeans have already bought their plane tickets to fly here and see "Episode I."

This trailer-related article appears in today's New York Post.

THE NEW STAR WARS: A FIRST LOOK

By Su Avasthi

Some employers and schools felt a great disturbance in the work force yester day as diehard Star Wars fans called in sick and played hooky to catch a sneak peek at the trailer for the massively anticipated prequel.

Yes, the trailer. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace will not be released until May 21, 1999.

So great is their devotion to the epic sci-fi series that John Sauer and Frank Pensiero, both 30, begged off work and made a 90-minute trek from Fairfield County, Conn., to Manhattan to be among the first to see the early footage from Phantom Menace."

Thanks to frenzied cyberspace buzz, zealous fans learned that the trailer would be on view at Sony Lincoln Square - one of three theaters in Manhattan and 75 theaters nationwide playing the trailer - and joined fellow ardent admirers in an auditorium showing Meet Joe Black."

'This better be good," 24-year-old Rich Rosado, who took a personal day from work, whispered to his buddies. 'I just put down $9 for 30 seconds [actually two minutes] of entertainment - and after so many years of hype!"

A reverent hush fell over the crowd as the lights dimmed and was promptly broken by excited cheers and applause when the logo for LucasFilm flashed on screen.

Then - more than 20 years since America was first introduced to the denizens of a galaxy far, far away - came the first glimpse of what audiences will see when the movie opens May 21.

The trailer begins with a misty image of warriors coming toward the camera through fog, then quickly cuts to the words: 'Every generation has a legend . . . "

Next is a Sahara-like landscape called Tatooine, known to fans as Luke Skywalker's home planet. The only sign of life is a silver spacecraft, followed by the words: 'Every journey has a first step . . . "

Cut to an aerial view of a Persian-like megalopolis named Coruscant, along with dramatic interior shots of an austere marble palace. 'Every saga has a beginning . . . " flashes on screen, accompanied by the familiar exalted anthem of Star Wars composer John Williams.

Then, at warp speed, comes the rush of images fans have been so eagerly anticipating: freakish aliens, double-edged light-sabers, light-speed battles through arid canyons and in distant galaxies, and armies of sleek, vicious-looking droids.

But the trailer clearly emphasizes that plot will not take a backseat to the arresting array of special effects.

For those uninitiated in Star Wars lore, director and creator George Lucas has conceived the new trilogy as a prequel to the durable epic. The new film is Episode I in the epic's chronology (the original Star Wars is Episode IV) and will trace how arch-villain Darth Vader is seduced from the forces of good into the Dark Side.

Younger versions of several familiar characters are featured. Luke Skywalker's father appears on screen as 8-year-old Anakin (Jake Lloyd), a gifted kid tutored in the ways of The Force by a brash, roguish warrior - the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor.

Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson also flash briefly on screen, as do favorite otherworldly denizens such as Yoda, R2-D2 and C-3P0.

"It's going to be excellent!" gushed Jim Dellafiore, 29, who has seen the original picture "innumerable" times. Like the other fans at the Lincoln Square - and, judging from e-mail reports, at theaters across the country - he left the theater as soon as the trailer ended.

"It looks like it's really going to explore the mythic qualities and the origins of the stories," Dellafiore said. 'And the computer graphics look phenomenal!"

Agreed Pensiero: "We were afraid it wouldn't live up to our expectations, but it was awesome. It really whets your appetite for the rest."

Those who missed the trailer's sneak preview needn't despair: It will begin playing Friday at theaters around the country.

"The whole idea was to do something special for the loyal fans," said Jeanne Cole, a spokeswoman from Lucasfilm. "On Friday it will start running 'wide,' and anyone who is going to the movies during the holidays will probably see it."

The $115-million film will open on 3,000 screens next spring, and film analysts are already betting that its box office will top that of Titanic Last year, the three re-released Star Wars films earned a combined $250 million domestically and pushed the films' cumulative gross above the billion-dollar mark.