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    Star Wars cast members want to let a dying fan see The Force Awakens early

    Star Wars cast members want to let a dying fan see The Force Awakens early

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    J.J. Abrams once let a terminally ill fan see Star Trek early

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    Luke Skywalker and Finn the Stormtrooper, aka Mark Hamill and John Boyega, have joined an online campaign to let a terminally ill Star Wars fan see The Force Awakens ahead of its December 18th release. Daniel Fleetwood, 32, was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a rare form of connective tissue cancer, in July and given two months to live.

    Since then, Fleetwood's family and friends have been using the hashtag #ForceforDaniel to convince Disney and Bad Robot, director J.J. Abrams' production company, to allow the lifelong Star Wars fan to see the film before he dies. Hamill and Boyega retweeted the hashtag October 30th. Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca, also retweeted a similar tweet.

    There is precedent for this. In 2013, Abrams let Daniel Craft, the director of the New York Asian Film Festival, see an early cut of Star Trek: Into Darkness nearly five months ahead of its release after Craft was diagnosed with cancer and given weeks to live (Craft died just days later).


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