‘Star Wars’ fete in L.A.

Lucasfilm Ltd. has chosen Los Angeles for the 30th anniversary celebration of the release of “Star Wars.” The company will take over the L.A. Convention Center May 23 through 28 for a wide range of events, including back-to-back screenings of all six of the space adventures.

The event is dubbed “Celebration IV,” because officially sanctioned “Star Wars” conventions have been held in Denver (1999) and Indianapolis (2002 and 2005).

The 17-hour movie marathon begins at 9 a.m. May 23 and will mark the first time in the United States that all six of the films have been shown in sequence, Lucasfilm said.

May 24 is reserved for official “Star Wars” Fan Club members. Then the convention has its official opening May 25, the anniversary date of the first film’s release.

Among the events planned during the convention are appearances by Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), a presentation of Charles Ross’ “One-Man Star Wars” stage show, “Star Wars” laser tag, “Stormtroopers Olympics” and “XXtreme Droid Challenge.”

Tickets to the movie marathon are free to people who pre-register to attend “Celebration IV” at registration.gencon.com/celebration. For more information, go to www.starwars.com/celebration.

Also getting in on the anniversary celebration is the Postal Service, which announced Thursday that it will be wrapping about 400 mail collection boxes in 200 cities with a special covering to look like R2-D2 as promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28.