Infamous 'Star Was Kid' rewarded with 'Episode III' cameo?

Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 1:35 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Unless you've been under a rock -- or, you don't care about Star Wars in the least -- you probably have seen Ghyslain in action.

Ghyslain is better known as the "Star Wars Kid". He's been made famous by the millions of people who've seen his video online. The fifteen-year-old from Quebec used the school's video camera to record himself performing with a long staff as if it were a Jedi's light saber. Spinning the stick and carefully moving about, the boy seemed to be making his own Star Wars audition tape.

In itself, the video of the corpulent and geeky boy is pretty funny. Ghyslain stumbles and nearly falls at one point -- a move that definitely would not be approved by Yoda. Two weeks after a classmate watched the tape and uploaded the video to the Internet, a software developer enhanced the performance by adding the famous visual glow and sizzle sound effects of a light saber. Thus the "Star Wars Kid" was born.

Fast forward a couple of months and a few million downloads, Ghyslain has become a minor celebrity. A group of individuals even started to raise money for the tenth grader. The people at waxy.org collected over $4,000 dollars as a tribute gift for Ghyslain.

Well, it seems the people over at Lucasfilm have become fans of this young boy too.

Cast and crew began filming Episode III in Australia this week. Fans who've subscribed to starwars.com's new "Hyperspace" service have been glued to the site's exclusive new web cam. The camera is focused on different aspects of production and fans are trying to use it to discern details on the movie slated for 2005.

According to premier SW fan site TheForce.Net, the Lucas crew recently displayed their affection for the now-famous Ghyslain. A makeup artist working on Chewbacca's mask briefly displayed a handwritten note to the camera saying, "We love Ghyslain. You rock!! Jedi Kid." A second message briefly thereafter added, "Ghyslain for Episode 3? C'est possible, non?" An obvious tip of the hat to the French-speaking Star Wars Kid.

Could this be a practical joke from a crewmember or a small bit of miscellaneous casting info? Of course, that's only for George to decide at this point. But I'm sure that $4,000 gift would easily pay for a flight to the set in Australia.