The Bearded Trio

Terry Richards Disappointed Over Iconic Raiders Scene It was on this day back in 2014 that it was announced we lost Terry Richards, the brilliant British stunt man whose career spanned Indiana Jones, James Bond, Star Wars and so many classics. Richards had actually passed away on 14th June, aged 81. Richards served in the Welsh Guards before being told by a friend that they needed extras with military training.  He was asked if he could fall from a scaffolding which ultimately led to his long career as a stuntman. Most fans remember him as the Cairo Swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a scene that became iconic completely by accident. Richards had trained hard for a full sword fight, but Harrison Ford was too ill to perform it. As Ford explained: “I was no longer capable of staying out of my trailer for more than it took to expose a role of film, which was 10 minutes, and then I would have to flee back there for sanitary facilities.” Ford admitted Richards was disappointed after ...

Retro Sci-Fi Trivia Time!  ​Take a look at this snippet from Starburst Vol. 1, No. 3 which appropriately features Close Encounters on the cover.  The segment in the news section explains just how much George Lucas and Steven Spielberg loved Chuck Jones’ legendary cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century.  ​According to the article: ​George Lucas loved it so much he opened his initial Hollywood cast and crew screening of Star Wars with it, eventually getting it to play before the main feature in a San Francisco cinema. ​Steven Spielberg gave it a shoutout in Close Encounters, where it plays on the TV in the playroom scene ("H'h'h'happy birthday, you thing from another world, you!"). ​​I love finding little stories like this in old mags. The hype for a movie or the industry back then seemed more exciting and more innocent, but at the same time, more cosy.  But rose tinted glasses and all that as they say - Rob The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, Geo...

A look back at the Welsh filmmaker whose work on Return of the Jedi deserves far more recognition. Every now and then I like to shine a light on the filmmakers who helped shape the movies that meant so much to us growing up. Today I’m revisiting one of them: Richard Marquand, the Welsh director of Return of the Jedi . I’m sharing a video tribute I made to him more than ten years ago. The quality is a little rough because it was created long before modern editing tools were easily available, but the heart behind it is still very much there. Marquand is one of those names that often slips through the cracks when people talk about Star Wars. Ask many fans who directed Jedi and you’ll hear the same line repeated again and again: “George Lucas basically took over.” It’s a comment that has been repeated so often it has become part of the mythology. But if you’ve ever read The Making of Return of the Jedi , you’ll know that Marquand’s involvement was far deeper and far more hands‑on than he’...

Brian Johnson, the Oscar‑winning special effects maestro behind some of the greatest sci‑fi films and TV shows ever made, has sadly passed away. His work helped define the look and feel of modern science fiction. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Alien , from Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 to The Empire Strikes Back , Brian’s craftsmanship shaped entire generations of storytelling. His Oscar for The Empire Strikes Back remains one of the most deserved honours in the history of the Special Achievement category. I was fortunate enough to interview Brian back in 2016 at Showmasters’ Cardiff Film & Comic Con. He was warm, funny, and wonderfully candid, the kind of person who could talk about groundbreaking visual effects with the same ease as sharing a quiet memory from a frozen location shoot. One story that always stayed with me was his time filming The Empire Strikes Back in Norway. While most of us imagine the epic Hoth battle, Brian remembered something far less glamorous: the tiny...

If you love Indiana Jones as much as we do here at The Bearded Trio, this is one to mark on your calendar. Marvel is re‑releasing their entire 1980s run of Indy comics in two gorgeous hardcovers this September and they’ve gone all‑out with the presentation. Leatherette binding, debossed covers, ribbon bookmarks.… these things look like artifacts straight out of Indy’s office. Each volume collects the classic comic adaptations of Raiders , Temple of Doom , and Last Crusade , plus the full Further Adventures series that expanded Indy’s world with brand‑new quests. These stories were created by some absolute giants of the era — Michelinie, Simonson, Byrne, Buscema, Ditko — the list goes on. For anyone who remembers these comics from the 80s, or for fans discovering them for the first time, this is a brilliant way to experience Indy’s adventures beyond the films. Both books land on 30 September , and preorders are open now.

Thank you for creating a galaxy for us to play in — and for changing cinema in ways most people don’t even realise. Lucas didn’t just give us Star Wars. He reshaped the entire filmmaking landscape behind the camera: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) — founded because the effects Lucas needed simply didn’t exist. ILM went on to pioneer motion control photography, digital compositing, CGI characters, and the modern VFX pipeline. Almost every blockbuster today owes something to ILM’s breakthroughs. THX — created to standardise and improve cinema sound. Lucas wanted audiences to hear films the way filmmakers intended, so he built a system that revolutionised audio quality in theatres worldwide. Non‑linear editing — Lucas pushed for digital editing long before it was mainstream. His work with EditDroid paved the way for Avid and the entire digital editing revolution. Digital cinematography — The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were key stepping stones in moving Hollywood from film...