Fans films expand Star Wars universe

Fan films are great, especially when it gives a unique take on a fictional universe that inspired so many, namely the Star Wars trilogy. Lucas may not have impressed many fans with his recent works in the Star Wars canon, but tons of fans are still inspired by the memories of Luke shooting down the Death Star or Han Solo's flirtation with Princess Leia. And to put their love for the Star Wars universe into action, many have created fan films based on that same universe in a galaxy far, far away. Some of these films are funny spoofs. Others are serious fictional pieces with storylines that runs parallel to the original. Whatever it is, they're prove that love for Star Wars, and the community of fans who love it, is alive and well.

The fan film genre took off in 1977 with Hardware Wars, a spoof featuring evil waffle irons, the destruction of the peaceful planet Basketball and a dyed Cookie Monster.

In the past five years, the genre has flourished thanks to some high-profile films like Troops and George Lucas in Love, and the availability of consumer filmmaking tools.
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Scott Roesch, a vice president of marketing at AtomFilms, said he was shocked at the response to the first Star Wars Fan Film Awards in 2002, when nearly 40 percent of the site's traffic was generated by the contest. One film, Star Wars Gangsta Rap, has received more than 5 million hits since being posted that year.

Roesch said there have already been more than 1 million pageviews for the 2004 contest, a measure of the depth of passion of hard-core Star Wars fans. And the growing number of entries -- the 20 finalists were chosen from nearly 100 submissions -- shows that the fan-film fad is going strong.