A group of Star Trek fans planning on screening a thirteen-hour marathon of the six-film epic found their plans in tatters after being issue with a cease and desist letter from George Lucas.

Two hundred fans had planned to watch the saga from start to finish in a bar in Brooklyn, New York, last Sunday (July 3), but those plans were scuppered by a letter from Lucas' lawyers.

Organiser Mike DeVito told the New York Post: "I've seen the Star Wars movies about 150 times but never in one long run together, and I thought it would be great to put something like this together for like-minded people... What bothers me most is that they waited until the last minute to notify us, so we couldn't get a chance to try working something out... It wasn't as if we were making money off it."

The letter, received just two days before the event, to be held at The Wicked Monk in Bay Ridge, alleged that the public screening would breach the movie's copyright, regardless of any money passing hands.

A special blu-ray release of the entire Star Wars catalogue is released on September 12.

Legendary sci-fi films...