George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Nominated for four Academy Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.
Terre Haute is a city in, and the county seat of, Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles (8 km) east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and its metropolitan area had a population of 168,716.
Lawrence Edward Kasdan is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). He also wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and The Bodyguard (1992), and is the writer-director of Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Silverado (1985), The Accidental Tourist (1988), and Dreamcatcher (2003).
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards was an annual contest put forth by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms to showcase and acknowledge the growing genre of fan films made by, for, and about fans of the Star Wars saga. The inaugural contest in 2002 was the first time Lucasfilm had officially sanctioned the genre. In 2007, the contest was renamed the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. In 2012, Lucasfilm announced that the contest was being discontinued, and that the company was looking for "new ways for fans to share their creativity".
The Indiana State Fair is an annual state fair that spans 18 days in July and August in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. The Indiana State Fair debuted in 1852 at Military Park in Indianapolis and is the sixth oldest state fair in the U.S. It is the largest event in the state, drawing between 730,000 and 980,000 visitors annually since 2010. In 2015, readers of USA Today ranked the Indiana State Fair among the ten best state fairs in the country.
Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr. was an American businessman from Terre Haute, Indiana, who bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1945 and brought racing back to the famous race course after a four-year hiatus following World War II.
The original Star Wars trilogy, formerly marketed as the Star Wars Trilogy, is the first set of three films produced in the Star Wars franchise, an American space opera created by George Lucas. It was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox, and consists of Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Beginning in medias res, the original trilogy serves as the second act of the nine-episode Skywalker Saga. It was followed by a prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, and a sequel trilogy between 2015 and 2019. Collectively, they are referred to as the "Skywalker Saga" to distinguish them from spin-off films set within the same universe.
Saving Star Wars is a 2004 independent film by Woodworks Films that was written and produced by Gary Wood. The title is a play on the titles of the World War II movie Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars. The first preview of the film was at a film festival called Reel Competition, where it was rated highly by the film-goers. It features David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy.
William Maxwell Wood was an officer and surgeon in the United States Navy in the middle 19th century. He became the First Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy in 1871, with the equivalent rank of commodore. He rose to president of the examining board in 1868 and chief of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in 1870 following his service in the American Civil War as Fleet Surgeon of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron aboard the USS Minnesota and Medical Officer of the James River Flotilla, participating in several famous Naval battles, and establishing temporary hospitals as needed during the Civil War.
Charles Butler McVay III was an American naval officer and the commanding officer of the cruiser USS Indianapolis which was lost in action in 1945, resulting in a significant loss of life. Of all captains in the history of the United States Navy, he is the only one subjected to court-martial for losing a ship sunk by an act of war, despite the fact that he was on a top secret mission maintaining radio silence.
Mary Antonia "Mari" Hulman George was the daughter of Anton "Tony" Hulman and Mary Fendrich Hulman, prominent Indiana philanthropists and business owners. She was the chairperson of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1988 to 2016, and also of Hulman & Company.
Robert Ben Garant, credited earlier in his career as Ben Garant, is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer and director. He has a long professional relationship with Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver from their time on the sketch-comedy show The State, the cop show spoof Reno 911!, and numerous screenwriting collaborations.
Jose Pablo Cantillo is an American actor. He is best known for playing Ricky Verona in Crank, Miguel in Cleaner (2007), Pepe in Streets of Blood (2011), Detective Martinez in El Chicano (2018), Hector Salazar in FX's Sons of Anarchy, Caesar Martinez in AMC's The Walking Dead, Duff in Standoff, and Dave in Taken (2017).
John Lee Hancock Jr. is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films The Rookie (2002), The Alamo (2004), The Blind Side (2009), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Founder (2016), The Highwaymen (2019), The Little Things (2021), and Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022). He also wrote the screenplay for the film A Perfect World (1993).
John Rogers Cox was an American painter from Terre Haute, Indiana. His style and subject matter align him with the Regionalist and Magic Realist landscape tradition.
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is a 2016 American war disaster film directed by Mario Van Peebles and written by Cam Cannon and Richard Rionda Del Castro, based largely on the true story of the loss of the ship of the same name in the closing stages of the Second World War. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Tom Sizemore, Thomas Jane, Matt Lanter, Brian Presley, and Cody Walker. Principal photography began on June 19, 2015 in Mobile, Alabama.
William Joseph "Bill" Toti is an American author, photographer, military technology corporate executive, and former naval officer. Toti was the final captain of the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Indianapolis (SSN-697) and also served as commodore of Submarine Squadron 3 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He is known for his role in the exoneration of Captain Charles B. McVay III of the World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), as well as for his actions during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. He authored the 2022 book, From CO to CEO: A Practical Guide for Transitioning from Military to Industry Leadership.
William Beatty Pickett is an American historian and professor emeritus at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is known as an authority on President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Indiana Senator Homer E. Capehart, and is the author of several well-regarded books on U.S. history including Dwight David Eisenhower and American Power and Eisenhower Decides To Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy.
