This weekend, The Field Museum in Chicago, IL put on special digital screenings of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in their beautiful Ernst & Young 3-D Theater. However, Saturday night's 7:00pm screening was a bit more than just a viewing of the film. George Lucas stopped by to chat with the 102 people who were able to score tickets to a very fancy reception complete with food, drinks and a fantastic goodie bag with girlfriend Mellody Hobson at his side. These very limited tickets were sold for $200.00 each with all proceeds to support the Education Outreach Programs at The Field Museum. Mr. Lucas was happy to sign autographs for fans, pose for photos and answer questions prior to the start of the 7:00pm showing. After the reception, we were ushered up to the theater where he spent a few minutes answering more questions and giving some insight on the current affairs of Lucasfilm Ltd. such as the state of the live action television series or whether or not we'll see another Star Wars film. Here are just a few of the questions with his answers:

Question: Is there ever going to be a seventh movie?
Answer: Uhhhhhh....noooooo. Watch The Clone Wars next year, third seasons' way better than the second season.

Question: How are things going with the live action TV show?
Answer: The live action TV show is kind of on hold because we have scripts, but we don't know how to do 'em. Because, they literally are Star Wars, only we're going to have to try to do them...a tenth the cost. And, it's a huge challenge...lot bigger than what we thought it was gonna be.

Question: Umm, why did Anakin have to turn into Darth Vader?
Answer: When you start to care about yourself...and the things that you own...and the things that you have...and you're greedy and you want more things all the time and you don't wanna give them up cause you're afraid to give them up...you turn to the Darkside. And that's what happened to Anakin.

Photos of the reception:





Photos of the Q&A:



The Ernst & Young 3-D Theater holds 150 people in very comfy chairs. Watching the digital version of The Empire Strikes Back was simply stunning. It made the thirty year old film seem like it was just released. It's hard to believe what today's technology can do!

Photos of the goodie bags which included the hardback book, Cinema By The Bay by Sheerly Avni, one random Hasbro Action Figure, a paperback copy of TESB, a LEGO set & a Williams-Sonoma Star Wars Cookie Cutter set. The Cinema By The Bay book did not come signed, but many asked George to do so as you can see in the photo below.




I couldn't let the night go by without grabbing a quick photo of myself with George and Mellody. Such wonderful people!



The Rebelscum.com forums were heavily represented as well. Here's a group photo of members from the board listed left to right, back to front: Brandon Beekman (DarthBeek), Rich Appenzeller (madchimp), Chris Wyman, Matt Potts (DarthPotts1975) & Courtney Lisiak (Padme319):



Special thanks to Beth Crownover, the Public Programs and Operations Director at The Field Museum, to Mellody Hobson for being so kind, and last but not least, to George Lucas for spending some time with the fans and making this already special event even more special for everyone.