96 Hour Star Wars Fest!?!

Thousands of miles away from the raging Hollywood hype surrounding Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the leafy northern town of Nottingham in good old Blighty has come up with a stonker of a proposition ahead of the July 16 UK release. Sticking it to the barmy Yanks - some of whom are already camped outside cinemas - Nottingham's Showcase Cinema has put forward plans to run the Summer blockbuster for four days non-stop, 24 hours a day, back to back. Awesome. The application will be heard by Nottingham City Council's environment committee on April 27, and is nigh on guaranteed success after its chairman stated: "I personally have no problem with it as long as it is a one-off." Though he cautiously added: "But I haven't consulted other committee members yet and I will want assurances that prices won't be put up." A spokeswoman for the Showcase told local rag The Nottingham Post that the cinema is expecting thousands of Star Wars fans to turn up for the screenings, and as such they are determined to show the film for at least 24 hours. She also stated that ticket prices would not be inflated for the screenings. There is as always however, a grey area. The application to the committee states that the Showcase is to run the 96 hour extravaganza from July 14 - clearly a problem as the official release date for the UK is July 16. It is unclear whether the first two days are to be used for trailer previews - which everyone has seen already anyway - or whether indeed a mistake with the release date has been made. National Amusements, who own the Showcase, were unavailable at their US offices for comment.