A New Indie Movie About A Fans' Experience When 'Star Wars' Released In 1977 Coming This Fall
American filmmaker Patrick Read Johnson, who directed classics such as Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and Dragonheart (1996), is finally seeing his dream of making an autobiographical movie about his love of Star Wars come to life.
Johnson is known as one of the first people outside of Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ studio that has its own docuseries releasing soon, to see Star Wars (the title A New Hope wasn’t given to the movie until four years later). He viewed an unfinished cut of the movie in 1977 when he was 15 years old. Like so many others, Johnson was inspired by the movie to pursue a career in filmmaking. He first raised funds for his movie, called 5-25-77, the movie is named after the date Star Wars was originally released, back in 2001 to chronicle his years as a teenager living in Wadsworth, Illinois.
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MVD announced that 5-27-77 will release in the fall of 2022. The release window seems ripe for Star Wars content, as books during the High Republic era and late-season episodes of Andor and Season 2 of The Bad Batch all are releasing through the fall, as well.
The movie’s production had some challenges and delays along the way, but he finally got the opportunity to screen the movie for the first time at the Genesee Theatre in Wadsworth in 2017. The movie didn’t get a physical release, however, until MVD made that dream come true. Johnson spoke to Deadline to give thanks to those who helped make his movie a reality.
"On behalf of all of the dedicated, passionate, (and possibly crazy) people who've stayed the course with me,” Johnson said, “all this time, to bring 5-25-77 to the screen, I'd like to thank MVD, and the particular individuals in this amazing company, who found something special in our film, that compelled them to go above and beyond, in order to make sure audiences everywhere might get the chance to find something special in it, too!”
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