Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 18/98) - It seems the Phantom Menace has struck in Yellowknife. Last week, the large promotional display banner for George Lucas' much-hyped Star Wars prequel, Episode 1, the Phantom Menace, was stolen from the lobby of the Capitol Theatre.

"It was right in front of the box office," says Katrina Ravis, manager of the Capitol. "It only takes 30 seconds to rip it off the wall and run out the door with it."

This is a big deal to Ravis who explains that theft of promotional material is frequent at the Capitol.

"We actually have a lot of stuff go missing," she admits. "People even break into poster cases.

As Ravis explains, these materials are very rare and if theatre managers use them properly then patrons simply don't have access to them. Which, in turn, makes them more desirable to collectors.

But this is different than your average run-of-the- mill public relations gig. This is the Lucas Star Wars prequel, touted to be the biggest box office hit of 1999.

What's more, the banner was to be returned to Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood by Jan. 15, to be destroyed. In exchange, the theatre would receive updated materials prior to the release date of the film, May '99.

"The same thing happened last year," explains Ravis. "We lost the Star Wars poster for the re-releases."

But according to Ravis, this banner is more important than last years.

"These are one-of-a- kind things," says the theatre manager. "And fanatics would pay big bucks for them. They are being closely guarded. Technically, if we don't send them back we don't get the other stuff."

Ravis explains that though legitimately the banner is not worth anything, it can be worth a lot of money on the collector's market.

In fact, according to Ravis, one of her employees checked it out on the Internet and that banner could be worth as much as $600.

Ravis, who plans to enlist the help of the Force to find the missing banner, said that she didn't know what to tell Twentieth Century Fox except that she would gladly offer Mr. Lucas a free pass to see his movie in Yellowknife.