Spoofer gets his revenge on ‘Star Wars’

In a time not that long ago, in a galaxy sort of far away (the sleepy town of McComb, Miss.), Todd Bullock wasn’t the most successful stormtrooper around. He dropped out of the University of Southern Mississippi. He was the lead singer of a local rock band named Mad as Helen. He lived at home with his parents and freelanced as a computer repairman.

Yet like Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher before him, Bullock has been drawn into the “Star Wars” vortex.

With “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” set to open May 19, “Star Wars” tributes, gossip and merchandise have begun to flood the Internet. Few, however, have received the attention of Bullock’s 6-minute, 36-second “Star Wars” trailer spoof, titled “Episode III: A Lost Hope” and playing on his website, www.sequentialpictures.com.

The mockingly humorous segment, which stars 27-year-old Bullock as Anakin and features a cast that includes his brother and girlfriend, has received nearly 500,000 first-time hits since late January. It has been swiped repeatedly and carried across cyberspace on a wave of teen instant-message buzz.

“You couldn’t do this if the most recent ‘Star Wars’ movies were even remotely good,” says Bullock, an aspiring filmmaker. “But a lot of the hard-core fans feel a ton of animosity about the recent work. So we took that animosity and ran with it.”