A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy or Back Home Again in Indiana

By Howard M. Shum

Photographs by Howard M. Shum and Dave Davis

Star Wars Celebration III took over the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis April 21-24, 2005. It was an official Lucasfilm show. Lucasfilm invited artists who have at some point produced art for them to attend the Art Show at the event and the opportunity to create and sell a 250 copy limited edition print.

I decided to go, having attended Celebration II and having a good time, plus it was an opportunity to go back to my hometown from my current dwelling of Los Angeles. Over 30,000 fans also attended. The first day was a nice sunny spring day. There is a saying in Indiana, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.” Day by day it incrementally got worse. The temperature dropped each day. We got a thunderstorm, followed by hail, and then snow. The only thing missing was a tornado. But I was inside most of the time so the weather didn’t really matter much to me, unlike many fans who had to stand out in it.

Long lines was the big thing at the show. The big item to get was an exclusive Darth Vader action figure with a talking sound chip. Only 50,000 were made and there was an allotment set aside to be sold for each day of the show. Some fans said they waited as long as eight hours in line only to be told the allotment had sold out for the day. There was a special line for VIPs, volunteers, and associates that I got into to get the toy (some of my buddies wanted it -- okay and I wanted one too) and even that took me a couple of hours to get. The action figure retailed for $15.00 and some exhibitors were offering $30.00 on the exhibit floor to buy the toy from fans who purchased them from the Celebration store. Fans still seemed to be in good cheer despite the waiting and lines.

There were around twenty-five artists in the Art Show room. We were pretty busy throughout the show. George Lucas made an appearance at C3. He came in on a Saturday for three 30 minutes Q&A sessions with fans. Fellow artists Russell Walks, Jeff Chandler, and I took a chance to see if we could get in on one of the sessions. When Russ saw the huge line he wussed out and turned back. Jeff and I were able to acquire the needed colored wrist band to enter one of the session without resorting to any Jedi mind tricks and the wait was surprisingly not long (less than 20 minutes). Most of what Lucas talked about has been mentioned elsewhere. The highlights were that he plans on doing an hour long Star Wars television show that takes place between Episodes 3 and 4. It will not star any of the major characters. The Clone Wars cartoon will expand into a half an hour and will be in 3-D. He said before he walked out onto the stage, he spoke to Warwick Davis backstage of the possibility of doing a Willow TV show. He also got a new draft of the next Indiana Jones screenplay that he has yet to read. Back at the art show, I spoke to fans who also mentioned their relative ease at getting into the Lucas talk. Russ was even able to get in a later session. This must not have pleased hundreds of fans who waited in line the previous night starting at 1:00 am.

There was a showing of 20 minutes of footage from The Revenge of the Sith. If you are lucky enough to live in a city with a theater that has a digital projector, by all means see Episode 3 at that theater. A digital projector makes a huge difference. The image is so much crisper and sharp. The movie itself is visually stunning. I don’t know how well the story is going to be, but I can tell you what you’re going to see on the screen is beautiful and amazing. You can’t say that for most films.

In all, Celebration III was another fun show. It was nice seeing Indianapolis again. I had a good time and sold a bunch of art and copies of Gun Fu. What more could I ask for (except Lucas asking me to

write and direct some of the new TV shows or Indiana Jones)?

Check out GUN FU co-creator Howard Shum’s Web site!