'Fanboys' At Comic-Con: Nerd Film With Cancer-Subplot Intact To Appear At Nerd Film Festival

The much belated farcical comedy, “Fanboys,” which follows a group of die-hard “Star Wars” fans as they trek across the country to George Lucas’ Skywalker ranch intending to steal a copy of the then-unreleased “Phantom Menace” so that their cancer stricken compadre will be able to view it before his death will finally be shown in theaters at this years annual loser mecca, Comic-Con in San Diego. This is a big victory for the Kyle Newman film which has led an increasingly difficult life of numerous delays, personal changes, cuts and typical Weinstein Brothers meddling. Last time we heard new on this thing back in June it was slated for a possible straight to DVD release.

The Weinsteins stepped in as a distributor after the production and began haggling over the release of this thing, which lasted for ages. At first they wanted to kill to cancer sub-plot (which they did), fire Newman (which they did), and campy up the project (debatable that it wasn’t already silly), but a legion of lifeless fans of all things related filed a massive online petition and threatened to boycott the Weinstein film if it was restored to its original cut. Nerds got their way and they’ll all inherit the earth this weekend at the Nerd Prom, however, will the film actually get a theatrical release? And how is it that Kevin Smith doesn’t have much to do with this film outside a cameo?

Note: The Weinstein Co. site now says the film is due in September, but the fact that there’s no concrete date seems odd considering how many times the film has been bounced and considering another film under their aegis, “Zack & Miri Make A Porno” has a firm date and that’s later (October 31; Everything on their 2008 sched has a firm date except “Fanboys”).