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starwars/chatter #1729, from tcoxb, 2598 chars, Nov 1 20:35 97
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'Star Wars' Artifacts at Mythic Museum Show
3:02pmáá31.Oct.97.PST -- WASHINGTON - Twenty years ago, in multiplexes
not too far away, Star Wars made a name and a fortune for George Lucas.
Today, artifacts from the films are in a national museum, where
organizers bracing for a blockbuster.
"Star Wars: The Magic of Myth," a 5,000-square-foot exhibit featuring
costumes, characters, models and artwork from the film trilogy, opened
today at the National Air and Space Museum for a one-year run.
The crush is expected to be ferocious for the run of the show, and
museum officials stressed that tickets are required, even though
admission is free. The draw is so powerful that more than 300 volunteers
already have signed up for crowd control at the hangar-sized museum on
Washington's Mall.
A similar exhibit, "The Art of Star Wars," was held two-and-a-half years
ago at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Lucas, who envisioned the trilogy and plans six more films as part of
the saga, said he hopes the exhibit will "inspire young people who are
interested in art, science, and computer technology to use their skills
and imagination to create new worlds and pursue their dreams."
The more fanciful characters from the first movie - the giant, hairy
Chewbacca, the rolling computer R2-D2, the effete chrome-bodied droid
C-3PO, the loathsome Jabba the Hutt, and the heavy-breathing Darth Vadar
- are part of the new exhibit, as are some of the vehicles and models,
which are set near a display of real space technology from the US-Soviet
space race.
Lucas is comfortable with this juxtaposition. "A lot of the great
scientists and adventurers and pioneers were inspired by works of
fiction," he said at a breakfast with reporters this week. "The line
between make-believe space fantasy and real space fantasy is very
thin.... This [actual space exploration] is the more exciting side ...
even though kids don't realize it."
Lucas said he has finished shooting the first of three films that are
set 20 years prior to the first three movies. This film will be released
in 1999 after 18 months of post-production work and animation. He also
plans a final trio of movies, set long after the first Star Wars films.
Lucas avidly follows space exploration efforts, and believes that
extraterrestrial life will be found in this galaxy, probably on another
planet's moon.
"Obviously, it's going to be a microbe but it's a significant step," he
said. "I don't think our aloneness is as significant as people once
thought."
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--*--<Tony>--*--
http://www.agora.demon.co.uk
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