`Star Wars' fanatics line up at wrong theater for May debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ ``Star Wars'' fans will have to find the right theater before they can leave for the dark side. <br/><br/>Seven weeks before its release, ``Star Wars'' fanatics started

Wednesday, April 6th 2005, 2:55 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ ``Star Wars'' fans will have to find the right theater before they can leave for the dark side.

Seven weeks before its release, ``Star Wars'' fanatics started lining up outside Grauman's Chinese Theater for the sixth installment of the popular George Lucas movie series. The vigil began Saturday.

But there's a problem: ``Star Wars: Episode III _ Revenge of the Sith'' won't be showing at the Hollywood landmark when the movie is released May 19. The studio, 20th Century Fox, opted instead to open the film a mile away at the ArcLight theater.

Still, the resolute ``Star Wars'' die-hards aren't moving on. Beneath a makeshift awning, 11 people refused to relinquish their spots in line.

``We've heard all this before,'' fan Sarah Sprague said, noting there were plenty of rumors in 1999 and 2002 that previous ``Star Wars'' movies weren't opening at the Chinese Theater. The rumors were false and the films were shown there.

Fox and the ArcLight haven't completed their ``Star Wars'' deal, but executives on both sides told Daily Variety ``Revenge of the Sith'' will play at the ArcLight, not the Chinese.

Yet Sprague was adamant the line wouldn't be moving to the ArcLight.

``This is still the epicenter for `Star Wars' fans. For the big iconic pictures of the 1970s, people lining up were here. They weren't at the Cinerama Dome (at the ArcLight),'' Sprague said.

Lucas' final ``Star Wars'' chapter spells out the last dark steps the once goodhearted young Anakin Skywalker takes to become the villain Darth Vader.