The Bearded Trio

On the opening weekend of The Phantom Menace, Rumours Were Already Happening for Episode II If there's one thing I like doing is reading a magazine from years ago just to see what wild rumours were doing the rounds back then.  Back in '99 the hype was of course for Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.  But in July's edition of SFX the attention was already leaning towards the sequel!   The article on page 13 (shown above) was obviously written on the opening weekend of The Phantom Menace where it states the movie had toppled "The Lost World's" record of most successful opening day in screen history.  "While Steven Spielberg's dinofest took $26.1 million on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 1997, Episode 1 bagged a gross of $28,542,349 in its first 24 hours, a litle short of the $30 million confidently predicted by industry insiders.  One estimate puts its potential worldwide gross at $1.5 Billion." The Lucasfilm President of the time, Gord

Indiana Jones found fortune and glory by searching for long-lost treasures. He also found some love along the way. Alex Arnold is also searching for treasures. Those treasures just happen to be Indiana Jones in nature, a search Alex does for the love of the franchise. Alex, 34, a registered nurse and a resident of Tampa, Florida, is an avid collector of Indiana Jones memorabilia, and is an active member of the Facebook group Indiana Jones and the Collector's Covenant. Like so many of us, he fell in love with the franchise as a youngster, and exhibits that love with an impressive Indy collection he displays in his home. He was generous enough to sit with me for a Q&A with me (Brad) to talk about his collection, what he enjoys most about the franchise, and - of course - what his Holy Grail of collecting would be. Enjoy!  Q: Describe your first experience with the Indiana Jones character and franchise. Did you see the films in the theater? A : My first experience with Indiana Jone

Six-Part Docuseries Debuts Exclusively on Disney+ July 27 Today, Disney+ released the trailer and key art for Lucasfilm and Imagine Documentaries’ “Light & Magic,” an immersive series that chronicles the untold history of world-renowned Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the special visual effects, animation and virtual production division of Lucasfilm. Granted unparalleled access, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan takes viewers on an adventure behind the curtain of Industrial Light & Magic. Learn about the pioneers of modern filmmaking as we go on a journey to bring George Lucas' vision to life. These filmmakers would then go on to inspire the entire industry of visual effects. The series is directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and the executive producers are Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Justin Wilkes, Lawrence Kasdan, Kathleen Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan. All six episodes of “Light & Magic” premiere on July 27, exclusively on Disney+. Twitter: @DisneyP

Now that some time has passed since the finale, I feel like I can place the series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi into its proper context. As I have written in this space many times, I have anticipated this project like no other in recent years. For me, it delivered all I could have hoped for, and then some. It is easily my favorite Star Wars of the Disney era. Part VI of the series aired June 22, and we saw a refreshed and renewed Obi-Wan defeat Darth Vader in an epic lightsaber duel, we see Princess Leia safely returned to Alderaan and Reva, in a roundabout way, renouncing her evil ways in deciding at the last moment to not kill an unconscious Luke Skywalker on a Tatooine hillside. But this series spoke to me in other, much more profound ways than just the usual parts of Star Wars that endlessly fascinate me, like the story, visuals, music and characters. We are all unique individuals from one another, and so we all establish connections to outside material in our own way. Obi-Wan Kenobi

COMIC CON WALES INCOMING! I strongly believe we should all support our local comic-con and this is mine.  COMIC CON WALES.   It's being held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) which is located at the world famous Celtic Manor Resort in Newport.  The event is organised by Monopoly Events and wow have they packed a punched when it comes to the line-up!  If you're a fan of the superb, Cobra-Kai then you are in for a treat as attending Comic Con Wales is no less than five cast members.  Peyton List, Gianni DeCenzo, Martin Kove, Hannah Kepple, and Jesse Kove.  Other franchises are well catered for too including stars from Superman & Lois, The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf, Lucifer and Gotham to name a few.  The event takes place on the 6th and 7th of August and if you see me there make sure to stop and say hi (I'll be wearing a Bearded Trio tee.)   Here's the full press release: Andy Kleek and the Monopoly Events team are proud to bring you Comic Con Wales! ​It give

Following quickly on the heels of Intrada's release of James Horner's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Intrada presents one of the most sought-after soundtrack expansions  – Horner's epic fantasy score to the 1988 film Willow. With the cooperation of Disney and Lucasfilm, Intrada has prepared a 2-CD set featuring a greatly expanded program of Horner's score. Up to that point, it was probably Horner's most complex work. The score features at least five themes, including a noble theme for Willow, a heroic theme filled with adventure and triumph, a beautiful love theme, a simple theme for the baby Elora and a serpentine motif for the evil Queen. It's a score that runs over 100 minutes, making it one of his longest works, featuring some of the longest and most cohesive cues of his career. It's no wonder such a massive, colorful and passionate work has been in demand for so long. While the original album featured a generous 73-minute program, Horner had chose

My grandmother was fond of saying "the older you get, the faster time goes by." To her point, we are already just a few days away from the end of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi , the limited series currently streaming on Disney Plus.  Part V set the stage for the finale, with Obi-Wan, Leia and the small Rebel cell led by Roken (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.) escaping Darth Vader and the Inquisitors. There are a multitude of potential storylines playing out in potentially many different ways in next week's finale. And that's exactly one of the things I am enjoying most about this series. We know what we know - Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Owen and Leia all survive, obviously. But it's the question of "how" that intrigues me. It was the same dynamic as the Prequel Trilogy. We pretty much know the who and the what. It was the how that was endlessly compelling to me. There has been a lot of loud discourse around this series. Which is not a surprise to anyone who has paid atte