 Jonathan amidst his arsenal of Star Wars Props
Jonathan Bowen is a 22-year-old Star Wars fan and writer who first became interested in The Phantom Menace after the Star Wars: Special Edition films hit theaters in 1997. He began collecting every media mention of Episode I, as it was known at the time, and placing the articles in binders with protective sheets for personal archiving. Before long, just a few binders became more than 30 three-inch binders full of more than 1,500 articles from over 100 different sources. The research project, originally started just for fun, soon became an untitled book. After years of research and writing, Anticipation became a full, 80,000+ word manuscript. Although Anticipation originally was to come out before Attack of the Clones, the road to publication took longer than expected and eventually came through iUniverse, Inc.
Bowen is currently living in Portland, Oregon after graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Philosophy from Oregon State University. He runs a film and television review Website, Orbital Reviews, that boasts more than 700 film reviews of movies from the 1890s through present in all genres. Bowen became a professional freelance writer at age 17, when he wrote essays on the film industry for a major entertainment site. He is hoping to attend a graduate school in Los Angeles starting in fall 2006 with the aim of attaining a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production.
In his free time, Bowen enjoys working out, hiking, rock climbing, watching movies, playing Texas Hold 'Em, and watching sports, such as Yankees baseball, San Francisco 49ers football (when they are decent), and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Bowen watched The Phantom Menace in theaters 50 times over the course of its theatrical run from May 1999 to January 2000. Star Wars fans know that repeat viewings are the only way to notice all of the rich details packed into each film. When writing Anticipation, Bowen thought about the importance of having a fan tell the story of the movie, rather than a mildly interested journalist or an author trying to capitalize on the popularity of the saga.
Special thanks to Erik Sogn for the fantastic photography
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