Star Wars Celebration V is coming to Orlando, Florida!

The epic celebration and convention is scheduled for August 12-15, 2010 at the Orange County Convention Center

Great news for Star Wars fans in Florida as Orlando gets ready to host Star Wars Celebration V, which will give a much boost to the local economy, much like NASCAR racing does in neighboring Daytona Beach during the yearly period known as Race Weeks.

Star Wars Celebration V almost coincides with the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, the second installment of the original trilogy, first released on May 21, 1980. That said, the event is likely to kick off the celebration for this movie’s milestone, which is regarded by many fans and critics as the best movie in the Star Wars trilogy.

Star Wars Celebration V is coming to Orlando, Florida on August 12-15, 2010

The Orange County Convention Center is Orlando’s largest meeting and convention facility, with over 7 million square feet of space. This location is large enough to house the expected crowd of Star Wars fans, which could reach up to 30,000 in attendance. However, with Orlando being a major vacation destination the event could draw more than 40,000 in what is expected to become the largest Star Wars event on planet Earth.

“From a marketing perspective, this is a dream come true for Orlando,” says Andres Goyanes, CMO at Dream Factory Productions and the past president of the American Marketing Association of Central Florida. “You can wish for Disney and Universal studios to build a new theme park all you want, but to get Star Wars CelebrationV is like announcing a whole new trilogy–it will be great for local businesses.”

Star Wars is the third most successful movie franchise in history, following the James Bond 007 and Harry Potter movies. Star Wars impressive marketing pull has brought Lucasfilm more than $4 billion in box office revenues.

The author engages in a friendly lightsaber battle with his cousin at a sci-fi convention (FX Show 2009) in Orlando, Florida.

Fans of Star Wars are known for their antics and unique costumes where they emulate the likes of Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Bounty Hunters and many more denizens from the Star Wars universe. Merchandising and licensing alone have become a major source of revenue for Lucasfilm.

Among the most collected Star Wars merchandise are the ubiquitous action figures, fleets and armies of vehicles, spaceships and play sets, along with lightsaber toys and replicas that are often used to complement fan-made costumes worn at previous Star Wars Celebration events and other conventions.

You can learn more about Star Wars Celebration V by visiting StarWarsCelebration.com or the franchise’s official site at StarWars.com.

Things You Can Find When You’re Not Looking

Sometimes, a quick walk for coffee can turn into an amazing experience. Recently, while taking a walk into Universal Studios with my colleagues from Dream Factory Productions, we came face to face with a unique set of props of an exciting  movie from the 80′s: The Fly.

One of the benefits of being a marketing and creative agency located at Universal Studios production backlot facilities is getting our coffee fix at a Starbucks inside the theme park. There is no better way to brainstorm and let the creative juices flow than to enjoy a coffee among so many attractions and thrill rides.

Andres Goyanes with one of the props used in the 1986 movie, The Fly

Most times we take a direct stroll under the new Rip, Ride, Rockit roller coaster, right past the Twister attraction and straight into the Starbucks next to Disaster (formerly the Earthquake ride). However, on the way back to the office we had to walk through one of the stages used for filming movies, commercials and many TV shows–including TNA Wrestling, which is one of the best-known live productions.

Usually the walk through a stage is not very interesting, since most times the whole place is dusty, dark, chilly (the A/C unit runs very cold inside the stages), and full of wood panels and leftover elements from previous productions. But on this day we saw a pare of capsules near the back of the massive stage, which we clearly recognized as the centerpiece props in the 1986 movie The Fly, with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.

Needless to say, the transformation capsules sit in a dark corner of the massive stage, forgotten and gathering dust until someone finds a new home for it or it simply gets auctioned to the highest-bidding movie buff. While it remains in very decent shape, the prop seems to have withstood the test of time, still in one piece and with most wiring and hoses still attached.

Again, sometimes you find the most wondrous things when you least expect it. Originally released in 1986, The Fly was one of those movies that give you a glimpse into an unlikely scenario where two life forms can blend into a hybrid with dark consequences. That said, I wonder what I would turn into if I get transformed while holding my Starbucks coffee? A coffee bean?

Either way, it was very exciting to see such an iconic prop just sitting there, lonely and inconspicuously, no longer drawing crowds of onlookers seeking the thrill of connecting with a movie prop with actual screen time.

Transformation chambers (capsules) props from the movie "The Fly" on a storage area inside a backlot film stage in Universal Studios Florida.