Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a report from ShoWest. I said it yesterday on the article about posters that premiered at ShoWest and I'll say it again now... Goddamn I want to go to ShoWest! Vegas, early footage of the coolest flicks... sounds like Eden! Anyway, we got a report in from one of the ShoWest wanderers! Enjoy!

Hey, Harry:

Viva Las Vegas! Today it was the home to the theater owner convention Show West...and to George Lucas, who brought the new Sith trailer AND several minutes of Sith footage. It was all part of the Fox presentation and luncheon and I was lucky enough to score a ticket through a theater manager friend.

Fox showed a bunch of clips from different films, but Star Wars and Lucas were obviously what people were most curious about. He made a great entrance, following 20 Imperial Guards and Darth Vader himself (Vader made a little speech too...kinda cheesy.) George got a standing ovation...as well he should becuase he's made these people truckloads of money over the past 20 something years! The footage was the opening space battle scene with Anakin and ObiWan, lots of ships and explosions. Good scene...really good... but we'll know in May what the film really is.

Fox also showed clips from a Martin Larence comedy called Rebound, I guess it was funny enough if you like him. Also, Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, which looks like a romantic comedy about the Red Sox...who gave the filmmakers a big surprise when they won the World Series, causing emergency rewrites. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie appeared on stage for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which looks slick and stylish...again if you like that kind of thing. Photographers went crazy snapping pictures of them on the stage.

Fantastic Four also got a big push, with new footage and the cast appearing. FINALLY, some major effects to be seen, some new stuff of the 4 showing their powers, especially Mr. Fantastic's super stretchy heroics. Also liked the shot of the truck crashing into The Thing. It was in the old trailer, but looks better here.

With Star Wars opening the show, Fox ended it with Kingdom of Heaven. Ridley Scott came on stage to talk about the movie, saying he always wanted to make a movie about Knights, who he compared to cowboys. He said he was proud of the movie, that it was truly about something important and was relevant to today. Then, he showed about 5 minutes of footage. It looks amazing...visuals were incredible, huge battle scenes . It all looked a lot cooler than anything in Troy or Alexander.

George Lucas, Ridely Scott, the Fan 4. etc. etc.... A great afternoon in Vegas.

Call me Mr. (not Capt.) Pike