Lucasfilm gave wired Star Wars fans another bonus when it released the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars movie on the Net, a day before the trailer makes a general premiere in movie theaters.
The trailer is to be distinguished from the "teaser" Lucasfilm released last year. This week's trailer, the last that will appear before the movie's release May 19, reveals more details of the plot and includes most of the major characters.
'Blow away the fans'
"We wanted something that would both blow the fans away and sustain them during the last stretch before the movie opens," said Jim Ward, Lucasfilm's Director of Marketing, in a statement.
The trailer, available on a site co-sponsored by Apple Computer and Lucasfilm, is available through apple.com and starwars.com, in Apple's QuickTime format.
Apple said its engineers worked at Lucasfilm to create a mix of the trailer especially for the Web, with sound engineered to work well online.
Soon after the launch the official site was so jammed with traffic that many other sites posted their own copies of the digital file for quicker downloads.
At the same time, Lucasfilm released the poster design that will begin appearing in theaters Friday.
Merchandising maniacs
This is not the first time Lucasfilm has proffered goodies to its fans to whip up interest. The company practically invented modern merchandising with the action figures and other products surrounding the first Star Wars movie in the late 1970s.
More recently, the Star Wars site began offering a wide range of media and information on the new film, "Episode I: The Phantom Menace," months before the premiere.
Online articles about the Star Wars universe include titles such as "Anatomy of a Dewback" and "The Sound Design of Episode I."
