I remember an old Bloom County cartoon from the mid-eighties where the character Binkley dreams that he's in a Stars Wars movie and then chops off George Lucas' head with a lightsaber saying bluntly "Jedi Knights do not wait 13 years for a sequel."

But for a prequel?

Yeah, I've heard all the hype, negative and positive about Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace but I did buy my tickets for opening night and went to see The Matrix and eXistenZ (an excellent film, by the way) just to get into that Sci-Fi mood which dominated my teen years. The brilliant public relations for this movie, actually quite understated, has made seeing The Phantom Menace a necessity.

What George Lucas could have done: He could have television commercials for The Phantom Menace during every prime time show, and there could be giant billboards in every town and city. We could be hearing about it on the radio and he could have sent the stars, armed with clips, to all the talk shows.

Instead, he created a whisper. Remember a few months ago, when you went to the theater and heard "you might see the 10 minute long Star Wars trailer before your movie?" Of course, musings about upcoming the film were abundant on the web, and there were always Star Wars quizzes to take, and e-mail lists (like the ten sexy lines from each Star Wars movie) but nothing too concrete, nothing too specific.

Somehow, for the past year, I've been reminded of Star Wars, heard it mentioned, and been teased with a few images (the double lightsaber in the preview and the wave of droid soldiers are my favorites). Yesterday I learned there's another character named Darth something and that all the dark Jedi have "Darth" in front of their names.

With the PR for Star Wars, they've managed to bridge a big gap. You can usually either generate an underground cult following for a movie, or appeal to the mass market, but not both. Many times the cult followings (like for The Rocky Horror Picture Show) are totally random, but they usually depend on cool people being "in the know" and uncool people wanting to be cool by liking the latest obscure band, movie, club, etc., emulating the cool people, and creating a rage of consumerism. Thing is, this is usually a slow process and it never makes as much money as a blatant appeal to the public. A band like The John Spencer Blues Explosion makes a living, but they'll never be as rich as the Spice Girls.

The Star Wars PR was a blatant public appeal simply because it's Star Wars and parents who grew up with the toys and movies will want to take their kids. But it also used underground tactics -- rumor (I remember hearing that Kenneth Branagh was going to play Obi Wan but wouldn't do it unless Lucas let him direct), so people talked about it with friends, wondered about it out loud, created that buzz which drives a cult classic. So Lucas gets the best of both worlds.

As for the movie buzz I've heard -- that The Phantom Menace is geared more towards children then adults -- I'm not sure why that's a surprise. The adults who want to see it were children when the first movie came out. The Phantom Menace is even a childish title. But I'm guessing I'll enjoy it anyway. There have been plenty of adult films out there, and I, frankly, could use a little escape.

When Michael Maiello speaks about "adult" films, he is of course not necessarily referring to the Boogie Nights sorts.