""Star Wars Phantom Menace"" Stolen

A pristine theatrical print of the new prequel ""Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace,"" valued at $3,500, has been stolen. The occurrence took place over last weekend at the State Theatre in Menomonie, Wisconsin between showings Friday and Saturday. The entire 2 hour plus film, weighing more than 40 pounds, was stolen off the projectorís platter system. Theatre owner Nick LeGros said, ""In the 23 years Iíve been doing this, this is the first time Iíve had a film stolen."" With paranoia centered on the coming age of Digital Cinema due to the potential for hacked encryption codes, the feeling has always been that films in cans or on projectors or platter systems would unlikely be stolen due to the sheer bulk and weight, and the complications caused by having to break-in to a brick-and-mortar theatre. But then, this is not any ordinary film. Given that George Lucas has stated that no home video version would be released until after 2005, someone could make a lot of money, especially off-shore, by converting the movie and digital soundtrack (all three digital sound formats are present on the print) to videocassette, DVD, LaserDisc and especially Video CD, a popular format in China.The FBI has been called in to investigate.