Back in the Geeks of Doom Summer ‘07 Movie Mayhem post, I wrote the following about my anticipation for the Star Wars-themed film Fanboys, “The only thing that could possibly suck about this movie is the fact that I’m not in it.”

Well, looks like there actually might be more that could suck about this film — WAY MORE. Like the fact that it started out as an homage to Star Wars fandom, but the word out now — first reported by TheCineManiac, then confirmed by Cinematical — is that’s the movie has been completely changed.

The original description of Fanboys was that it was comedy about a group of friends (played by Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, and Chris Marquette) who take their friend who’s dying of cancer on a cross-country trip to sneak into Skywalker Ranch in hopes of fullfilling the friend’s dying wish to see an advanced screening of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Now, the film has been re-cut to ditch the “dying of cancer” storyline completely, which means that the group of friends are now breaking into Skywalker Ranch simply because they’re fans and want to see The Phantom Menace ahead of time. THAT SUCKS!

A group of Star Wars fans who donated their time and props to Fanboys has started a rebellion against the Weinstein Company called Stop The Darth Weinstein, and have opened up sites dedicated to the fight at MySpace, Beam.to, and Seeya.at (Read the letter from the Stop Darth Weinstein Squadron over at AICN).

And I totally understand why. Cinematical’s source says that the film’s new story is “disjointed, nonsensical and lacking any heart.”

How unfortunate. When Fanboys was first announced, everything about this it seemed amazing. It was one of my most anticipated films, because I felt that finally someone was going to get the fanboy (and fangirl) life right. I mean, c’mon, just look at that movie poster (see here at top right) and then there were the pics of Kristen Bell in a Slave Leia outfit. That’s so cool! Plus, all the test screenings come in positive and the director — Kyle Newman — seemed like the ultimate fanboy and was so enthusiastic about the project. And while I was sad when the film’s release date was moved to August 17, 2007, at least there was a great reason — to incorporate sound and special effects from the Star Wars films! SW creator George Lucas gave his approval after viewing an early cut of the film (see George Lucas Gives ‘Fanboys’ Thumbs Up).

Did you get that? George Lucas gave his approval! I guess that was too good to be true, because before you know it, the release date was again changed, this time to the graveyard of release dates — mid January (aside from Cloverfield, January is reserved for the “no-confidence, tax-off” anticipated bombs). Eventually, the Weinstein Company spent $2 million on re-shoots with a different director — Steve Brill (Without a Paddle) and did a re-cut of the film.

There’s still no official release date for the film and at this point, I hope the Rebellion wins out and The Weinstein Company releases the original version.