As I’m sure everyone has heard, Foodles is potentially the codename of the production company working on Star Wars: Episode VII.
Now, Big Shiny Robot! learned exclusively that shooting isn’t going to begin this month, but the Foodles information was not addressed by Lucasfilm. Why in the world would they comment about their top secret codename if it was true, and why would they bother if it was something a fan made up?
And, in the long run, it really doesn’t matter to me what the production is called as long as it’s working hard to give me the best Star Wars movie possible.
But my curiosity was piqued when I received this link in an email. You can click it, but this is basically where you’re taken:
That’s a google map that takes you to 3118 Kerner Ave. in San Rafael, California. And yes, that appears to be a restaurant of some sort named Foodles.
That’s not that big of a coincidence, right? I’m sure there are a thousand things called Foodles.
But… wait a second now… Look at the street address on the Google Street View. 3118… that sounds an awful lot like 1138. But that could just be a coincidence, right?
Well, then I started to think about everything else going on in that picture. Kerner… Kerner…
And then I remember that Kerner Optical used to be the front company for Industrial Light and Magic. Their old front door is hanging up at ILM’s Presidio facility. So I looked up Kerner Optical on Wikipedia and found that their address was at 3160 Kerner Ave… And that is only two clicks further down the street on the Google Map. George Lucas once told the New York Times the name Kerner was a “deception designed to keep kids from rummaging through garbage bins.”
And here we have evidence of another front? The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Foodles has been traced back directly to LFL by Jedi News. Could this be one more piece of the puzzle? Is this some sort of massive coincidence? Or did the ILM guys have a hand in choosing the name Foodles?
I have no idea.
But what I do know is that this is damn fascinating, and an amazing coincidence if that’s all it is.
(Image sources: The Trooper came from the 501st Facebook page. The other photos are from Google Street View.)