Oh, May 25, 1977. I was gearing up to be born, but for most of you, this is the day that brought us Star Wars -- the film that would create oodles of fans gushing over the likes of Han, Luke, and Leia, and later make them cry with three not-as-good-as-they-maybe-coulda-been prequels. The date is also going to be the focus of a movie that's been brewing for a long while now.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the WMA/Hannaywood Ltd.'s Beverly Bridge Fund is completing the financing for 77 -- an autobiographical indie that focuses on Patrick Read Johnson's time in Hollywood with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. This used to be 5-25-77, which Jessica shared a poster for over a year ago. Now, finally, the film is on its way. BBF is handing over $200,000 in funding and prepping the long-awaited film for a Toronto debut, presumably this year.

John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks) stars as Johnson, a sci-fi-loving teen in Illinois who has his life changed by Star Wars. The film has Austin Pendleton and Colleen Camp as his parents (although Carrie Fisher was offered the role of mom), plus Scrubs janitor Neil Flynn as a Dr. Callahan. Right now, it's being described as "an American Graffiti-style film about the people who made American Graffiti."

Hopefully this will finally get the film out there.

It's been a long time since John Francis Daley made a cult name for himself on Freaks and Geeks. Since then, he's popped up on a bunch of other television shows, from the one-season Kitchen Confidential to the current skeleton-solving Bones, but he's also building a pretty sweet screenwriting gig for himself. Last year, the writer/actor sold a spec called The $40,000 Man for Terry Zwigoff to direct, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's teaming with Jonathan Goldstein (The New Adventures of Old Christine) to rewrite Greg Pace's family comedy, currently titled Fun.

Honestly, it does sound like fun -- sort of Jumanji meets Mad Magazine. Remember all those back-page ads in comics and kids mags that would give you seemingly immense power for only a couple of bucks? Well, Fun focuses on "two childhood friends who ordered a slew of novelty toys (such as X-ray glasses, Sea-Monkeys, and transforming robots) from the back pages of their late-'70s comic books. Thirty years later, the toys begin living up to their wild advertising claims, forcing the pair to save their town from ensuing chaos."

The best family movies usually merge old-school memories for the adults with funky stories for the kids, so this has a lot of potential. I just wonder how the Sea Monkeys fit in. Will they grow bigger so people can actually see them? Or will the little buggers slip into the drinking water while a poor sap tips the glass to take a drink?

My head's buzzing with all the old-school toy possibilities. What novelties would you like to see come to life?