George Lucas Helped Complete This Star Wars Parody (2024)

The Big Picture

Fanboys was inspired by screenwriter Ernest Cline's personal experience with loss, shaping a heartfelt tale of friendship and fandom.
Despite behind-the-scenes struggles, Fanboys earned George Lucas' approval and incorporated official Star Wars sounds and effects.
The film highlights the enduring passion of its cast and crew, with hopes for a sequel still remaining.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is a film that has gone through a unique journey in pop culture history. First, it was a highly anticipated event that marked the return of Star Wars to the big screen. Then, poor reception turned it and its follow-ups, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, into the butt of many a joke. But with time — and a stellar animated companion in Star Wars: The Clone Wars — The Phantom Menace is remembered much more fondly. But what many Star Wars fans don't know is that The Phantom Menace inspired a spoof titled Fanboys. They might also be shocked to learn that creator George Lucas is a large part of the reason the film got made, as he helped supply sound and visual effects for the final cut. Fanboys' road to the silver screen was fraught with roadblocks that would test a Jedi Knight's resolve, to the point where it's a miracle that it even got made.

George Lucas Helped Complete This Star Wars Parody (1)

Fanboys

PG-13

Adventure

Comedy

'Fanboys' Is Actually Based On Its Screenwriter's Real Life Experiences

The seeds for Fanboys were planted when screenwriter Ernest Cline, who later went on to pen Ready Player One, was struggling to deal with his mother passing away from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the late '90s. When he first heard about The Phantom Menace, Cline was struck with an idea. "What if I was in my mom's position and I knew I was dying and wasn't going to live to see this movie?" From there, he wrote the Fanboys screenplay, which focused on childhood friends Eric (Sam Huntington), Linus (Chris Marquette), Windows (Jay Baruchel) and Hutch (Dan Fogler).

When Eric learns that Linus has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, he gathers his friends together and decidesto raid Skywalker Ranch so that they can watch the rough cut of The Phantom Menace. Soon, the four friends — who are later joined by their friend and co-worker Zoe (Kristen Bell) — enter into all manner of escapades, including a fight with Star Trek fans. Cline originally intended to film Fanboys himself, but eventually wound up sending the screenplay to Harry Knowles, former head of Ain't It Cool News. Knowles posted a glowing review of the script, which led Kyle Newman, himself a longtime Star Wars fan, to eventually board Fanboys as a director.

'Fanboys' Underwent Multiple Behind-the-Scenes Problems

The cast and crew of Fanboys reunited for an oral history of the film in 2018, where they recounted the issues they ran into while filming. Most of the issues came from clashes between Newman and Harvey Weinstein, who produced the film; despite Fanboys receiving a glowing reception after screening at Star Wars Celebration and San Diego Comic-Con, Weinstein was determined to rework the film to be more in line with raunchy comedies including The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Zack and Miri Make a p*rno. The final straw came when Weinstein wanted to remove the subplot about Linus' cancer, despite it being the emotional lynchpin of the film. He even hired Steven Brill (Mr. Deeds, Little Nicky) to helm reshoots while Newman was on his honeymoon, though this backfired when Brill started fighting with fans online. "The ultimate F-you. Celebrating your new marriage and losing your film in the same week is a tremendous emotional roller coaster," Newman said during the oral history.

The tide turned due to an online movement, where fans threatened to boycott Weinstein-produced movies if the original cut of Fanboys wasn't restored. Though social media had yet to take off, the power of the internet was still palpable enough for Weinstein to give in. But even then, there were caveats. Newman only had 48 hours to re-cut the final version of the film, which meant that elements from the Weinstein/Brill reshoots are still present in the final product. To make matters worse, the behind-the-scenes drama meant that Fanboys missed its intended release date, which would have landed on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. It would eventually debut in 2009, a full decade after The Phantom Menace landed in theaters.

George Lucas Used His Influence To Help Kurosawa Make This Epic Samurai Movie

How did George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola help Akira Kurosawa get back on his feet?

George Lucas Enjoyed ‘Fanboys’ and Helped Supply It With Sound & Visual Effects

Despite all the behind-the-scenes turmoil, Fanboys' cast and crew were vindicated when Lucas gave his seal of approval to the project. He also opened the vast library of official Star Wars sounds and visual effects to the filmmakers, who sprinkled them liberally throughout Fanboys' runtime. The standard opening crawl appears not once, but twice. During a chase scene, Hutch hits the gas and the famous hyperspeed lines appear! "It's like everybody that's seen it that's sort of loved it has attached themselves in a way to make the movie better," Marquette told SciFi Wire when the news first broke.

15 years after its debut, Fanboys remains a mixed bag. Some of the humor hasn't aged well, not to mention the fact that Weinstein, Knowles, and producer Kevin Spacey have been exposed for participating in horrific cycles of abuse. The passion of the cast and crew still shines through, especially in the emotional ending where they finally get to Skywalker Ranch. Fanboys even scored some A-list cameos, including William Shatner and the late Carrie Fisher. In a 2021 reunion, Marquette, Baruchel, Fogler, Huntington, Newman and Adam F. Goldberg (who polished Cline's original script) expressed their desire to make a potential Fanboys sequel. Thanks to Lucas' help, they have a solid foundation upon which to build that sequel if the opportunity arises.

Fanboys is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.

Watch on Tubi