The Star Wars Holiday Special Documentary to Premiere at SXSW

A documentary diving into how the infamous The Star Wars Holiday Special came to life has been in the works for years, with the first details of this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival selections confirming that A Disturbance in the Force is set to make its world premiere at the event. At this rate, it’s currently unknown if the documentary will make its premiere at SXSW and then be made available widely or if it will play the festival circuit in the coming months, though with announcements about the project dating back years, knowing that the film is getting any public release is exciting news for Star Wars fans. The South by Southwest Film Festival will kick off on March 10th.

The film is described, “In 1977, Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized a stagnant film industry, and forever changed how films were sold, made, and marketed. Movies would never be the same again. A year later, neither would television. In 1978, CBS aired the two-hour Star Wars Holiday Special during the week of Thanksgiving and was watched by 13 million people. It never re-aired. While some fans of the franchise are aware of this dark secret, this bizarre two hours of television still remains relatively unknown among the general public. Simply put, we will answer how and why did the Holiday Special get made.”

Talent featured in the documentary includes Seth Green, Weird Al Yankovic, Taran Killam, Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Paul Scheer, Bruce Vilanch, Lenny Ripps, Donny Osmond, and Miki Herman. A Disturbance in the Force was directed by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak, who also serve as producers, as do Adam F. Goldberg and Kyle Newman.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the most infamous relics from the galaxy far, far away, largely due to how obscure the project was for years, as it was only available through bootleg VHS tapes. Thanks to the Internet, the Special has been discovered by countless fans, with official Star Wars creatives even incorporating elements from the Special into official Star Wars canon. Still, Lucasfilm has been quite adamant that it will never release the Special in any official capacity on any platform.

Stay tuned for details on A Disturbance in the Force.

Are you looking forward to checking out the documentary? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!