TIMOTHY MORGAN GETS LOST IN TRANSLATION >>>

A long time ago (meh, a few years back), in a place far, far away (Shanghai), a man entered a flea market and purchased a DVD, assuming it was one of the prequels to a certain sci-fi American franchise. It turned out to be an actual work print of the film, complete with running timecode, Chinese dubbing, and English subtitles mistranslated to a hilariously awful degree.

A copy circulated back to America, where it wound up in the hands of Timothy Morgan in Madison, Wisconsin. He knew he had something special here. 2007 marked the start of Morgan's quest to bring this horribly, wonderfully mangled transcription to life - and to the big screen. The Backstroke of the West (a title light years from the film's original English name) makes its first public appearance at the Capitol Theater in Olympia this Saturday, Aug. 6, at 1:30 p.m.

Morgan has spent almost four years on this audio epic. He cast friends and neighbors as the various voices and directed himself in the film's lead role. After recording hours of dialogue, it took him months to painstakingly reassemble the entire script and clean up the original soundtrack. "At first (my friends and I) were just trying to make something stupid, but then my perfectionist streak kind of took over, and I started really wanting to make it good," the 37-year-old Morgan says.

Let the Force guide you to Olympia this weekend to witness one man's madcap ode to a cinematic legend, heard in a new way. Morgan will attend the screening, so get ready to pelt him with nerdy questions. 

[Capitol Theater, The Backstroke of the West, Saturday, Aug. 6,, 1:30 p.m., $5-$10, 206 Fifth Ave., SE, Olympia, 360.754.6670]