A day after Star Wars fans packed into selected digital-sound-equipped theaters in 26 states just to get a look at the trailer to the highly anticipated prequel Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Lucasfilm posted the thing on the official Star Wars Website (www.starwars.com).
The move came Wednesday afternoon as scores of bootleg copies started popping up all over the Internet. No comment from either 20th Century Fox or Lucasfilm whether the posting of the trailer on the official site was a response to all the bootlegs--and what, if anything, they're going to do about the unsanctioned versions. (Fox is notorious for keeping the lid on such info and plugging any leaks.)
For those who still haven't seen the preview, the illicit, shaky camcorder version--complete with audience cheering and crummy sound--might be your best bet. A quick search of Deja News (www.dejanews.com) showed the bootlegged trailer popping up in both the expected (alt.fan.starwars, rec.arts.sf.starwars) and unexpected (alt.drooling.animation, rec.music.tori-amos) places, as well as virtually all Star Wars fan shrines.
If you want the official version, good luck. Not only is the sound quality on the Lucas site lo-fi, traffic Wednesday has rendered it difficult to access. (Of course, you can always wait 'til Friday and see it in a movie theater on a big screen with a digital sound system.)
As the trailer says, the "saga begins Spring 1999." The frenzy has already started.