|
The film was released in the US seven months ago |
1977: Star Wars fever invades Britain |
England have
Thousands of people are flocking to cinemas in the UK to watch the long-awaited blockbuster, Star Wars - a movie which is already setting US box offices alight.
Bracing the cold weather, young and old queued from 0700 GMT in London at the Dominion, and Leicester Square cinemas, to snatch up non-reserved tickets which are otherwise booked until March.
Star Wars, which was first released in America seven months ago, has taken audiences by storm andoutstrippedlast year's blockbuster Jaws to gross $156m at the box office.
Carrie Fisher, Sir Alec Guiness and little known Harrison Ford star in this fairytale set in space.
Produced by Gary Kurtz, written and directed by George Lucas who directed American Graffitti, the U-classified sci-fi film is a classic epic of good versus evil.
It hasenthralledaudiences under a dazzle of special effects with wizards, heroes, monsters in "a galaxy far, far away".
The 900 people involved in the film included giants, dwarfs, artists and the man who built machines for James Bond.
All the special effects, costing $4m (?.14m), have been put together in Britain and filming took the cast to Tunisia, Death Valley California, Guatemala and the EMI soundstage at Elstree.
The build-up and hype has led to store wars over Star Wars with products including T-shirts, sweets, jig-saw puzzle, watches and food to name but a few.
Mr Lucas has published a paperback version and Marvel comics have produced a special edition to meet the thirst for Star Wars' merchandise.
|