We’re just days away from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and for one man in Meath it literally means the world to him. A new RTE radio documentary tells the story of a Star Wars fan in Ireland who has been counting down the days to this release for over a year.
Matthew O’Brien has been hooked on the George Lucas franchise since he was four. He boasts of an enormous collection of memorabilia and can recite each scene verbatim. In fact O’Brien claims that he thinks of the movies as his bible.
This is the movie he’s been waiting for:
No watch the promo for this new documentary and it clearly and emotionally shows how much the release of this movie means to this Meath man:
O’Brien is a mega fan. He first saw the movie at his cousins when he was four years old. He told RTE “It blew my mind. I thought it was real. I thought someone took a camera and went out and filmed space!"
He's watched the original trilogy - Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi - thousands of times. O’Brien, who is an actor by trade, can recite the movies line for line.
At home his girlfriend has allowed him an entire room for his Star Wars' stuff. He has an enormous collection of miniatures, figurines, board games, models, costumes, posters, comic books - and an attic full of boxes of memorabilia, all ordered and labelled. He says that he views the movies as his Bible, his Book of Calm, his place of Zen.
And there's a community of fans who feel the same. From the guys who meet every Friday night in Gamers' World to play elaborate Star Wars board games; to the Emerald Garrison who dress in full, movie-ready costume and 'troop' at charity events; to the seriously talented prop makers and the collectors who queued for hours outside the Disney Store at midnight on Force Friday, waiting for the new movie's merchandise to be revealed.
The movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, parts of which were filmed on Skellig Michel, in County Kerry, and starring Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson, will be released on Dec 17.
You can download / listen to the documentary here.
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