No free public viewings of SW?

[Rebo's_Guitarist]

So, up here in Duluth we have a park down by Lake Superior where a local radio station puts on a great event every Friday night during the summer. Its called Movies in the Park and they show a predetermined movie on a 20'x40' inflatable screen. More can be seen here:

http://www.957thebridge.com/shared/WN/ViewContent.asp?id=3986

Its a really fun thing, last week I saw Indy and the Last Crusade. There is a pretty good turnout an d this time around they had open voting polls online. Imagine my surprise when I saw ANH on the list. Needless to say I voted quite a few times, and SW ended up on the final play list. It was supposed to show tonight, but last night they announced that there were certain "restictions by the producers" and that they were unable to show it.

My question is, did someone, somehow, associated with LFL see advertisement for this somewhere and said no way are you showing this to 250+ people without some $$$? That sounds pretty far fetched to me but I cant figure out why they cant show it. I thought maybe the rating, but come on, they are showing Jaws in a few weeks......

Im really bummed, they hyped it up a bunch by showing trailers from '77. At least I got to see that little bit...:(

[bigbarada]

You know that Lucas is all about money.:greedy:

[Kidhuman]

That sucks. What you should do is call the radio station and invite the people to your house and show it on your TV, but only after they buy pizzas from your store

[Rebo's_Guitarist]

No doubt huh? Im pretty bummed, I should just have free pizza too.

Thanks George, ya big jerk.:hurt:

[figrin bran]

What are they going to show instead?

[CaptainSolo1138]

What are they going to show instead?Didn't you read the link? They're showing "To Be Announced", a coming-of-age teen comedy set in Wisconsin starring Jason Biggs, Joshua Jackson, that guy who played Booger and Brain from "Inspector Gadget".

[Ji'dai]

I'm surprised they do this at all, especially in the current anti-piracy climate. Public performance (http://www.movlic.com/library/copyright/copyright.html) or exhibition of nearly all TV and film properties is verboten under federal copyright law.

[Rebo's_Guitarist]

What are they going to show instead?

....*sigh*.......Harry Potter........

I have always wondered if they had to / did get consent to play these. Leave it to LFL....

[JediTricks]

I suspect it's either 1 of 2 things:
A) Lucasfilm had issues with the quality of the projection, they have quality standards requirements I hear;
-or-
B) Lucasfilm gave the OK but since Fox owns ANH, they rescinded for some undisclosed reason.

[Rebo's_Guitarist]

Fox owns ANH? Never knew that. Just ANH or others as well?

[decadentdave]

Every spring and fall, the Continental theater here in Denver shows Flashback Theater with a weekly lineup of retro classics. They ALWAYS show Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen because it has the highest turnout and last season showed Last Crusade and Temple of Doom. Star Wars has ALWAYS been requested and the theater manager announced that it has been UNAVAILABLE for circulation from the distributor. The fact that they are able to get the Indiana Jones Trilogy (because it is Paramount) says that it has more to do with a studio distributor issue (FOX) than it has to do with LFL.

[2-1B]

Fox owns ANH? Never knew that. Just ANH or others as well?

Just ANH. :)

[JediTricks]

Fox owns ANH? Never knew that. Just ANH or others as well?
It's because they financed it, it was their money which paid for it. But Lucas ensured sequels and merchandising rights remained with him, so he gets the lions' share of profits from it.

This is also why you'll see ANH on TV occasionally, like on TBS or local WB affiliates, Fox sold the syndicated TV airing license to them. But since Fox doesn't own those rights for the others, you never see Eps 5, 6 or the prequels on those channels, only on Fox itself.