The Bearded Trio

Harrison Ford: The Icon and His Appeal by Michael Heather This is the essay that I had resisted to write because it's pretty much my slam-dunk of a topic choice...I can already hear the groans from all of the people that have ever known me. But, I write it because I am not alone...I can already hear the applause from a million geeks like me and they won’t be silenced. Harrison Ford is the Elvis of several geek generations, certainly the ever-ageing ones like me that grew up on the cinema of Lucas and Spielberg. There is a wonderful moment in the film ‘500 Days of Summer’ where Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character Tom, having fallen for the quirky charms of Zooey Deschanels’ title character, does an impromptu street dance in celebration of his new love. All the supporting characters celebrate this new feeling with him and they all join in the parade...and then Tom suddenly catches a reflection in a window. It’s Harrison’s reflection from the medal ceremony in Star Wars, re-purpose

John Williams and Steven Spielberg Discuss Working Together, Jaws, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and More. This is a wonderful clip of Steven Spielberg and John Williams discussing their creation process together and how we end up with an epic John Williams soundtrack accompanying a Steven Spielberg classic movie. There is no date of when this was filmed but as they talk about E.T. The Extra Terrestrial it has to be after 1982. They seem so relaxed in this classic clip and not ashamed to compliment each other's talent.  John Williams tells us: "With Steven's films I find them all rhythmical and in a funny way its easier to score than a lot of other people's films because his films themselves have a singing musical quality." Steven replies "That's because I make my movies with Johnny in mind." Apparently there is a longer version of this interview and in colour.  If anyone has a copy of this, please let me know.  I would love to watch the

From a Tesla Coil, to a uni-cycle, to the trusty Commodore Amiga.  Listen to Star Wars being played in the most unusual of ways. We all love the Star Wars theme and it's accompanying soundtrack.  If like me you've listened to the soundtrack hundreds if not thousands of times you realise how much of a timeless classic the John Williams masterpiece really is.  You can also judge how popular a piece of music is by the amount of times it's been recreated using various musical instruments and other less conventional items.  Here's a selection of some of my favourites. 1 - Star Wars theme played on a Tesla Coil...yes really!  It sounds awesome too.   2 - this talented musician doing an impressive job on the organ complete with Fox fanfare 3 - Lori Graves plays Star Wars on the Lowrey Organ.  Makes you feel you're on the pier again. 4 - Guy playing the Star Wars theme with bagpipe on unicycle.  Got to love the Internet 5 - Throne Room played on a pipe o

Harrison Ford plays Uncharted 3 on PS3 Lets be honest, you can see he hasn't really got a clue what is going on but at least you can see he's enjoying himself. I love the Uncharted games and they do make you feel like Indiana Jones even if it is Nathan Drake. This is a clever bit of marketing to bring the two together. It's hard to think that Uncharted 3 is almost a decade old now, released in 2011.  Even so, it still holds up well and a recent play-through by myself on the PS4 proves that once a good game, always a good game. And, here is the trailer to the game that Harrison Ford is playing, Uncharted 3. It really is a fantastic game!

The Outsider is a mini-series based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King. All ten episodes aired on HBO earlier this year, and now the entire run is coming to Blu-ray/Digital and DVD July 28. This is a spoiler-free review of the series on Blu-ray. What would you do if you were accused of the most horrific crime, the brutal murder of a young boy? All the evidence is stacked against you, including eyewitnesses who place you either with the victim the night of his death, or at the crime scene. You know you’re innocent, and you have an alibi for the time of the crime, with witnesses to back you up. There’s simply no way you could be the perpetrator. It's just not possible to be in two places at the same time. But how do you convince those who doubt your story? That’s the dilemma facing Terry Maitland, educator, little league baseball coach, and pillar of the community. Police detective Ralph Anderson knows Terry. But he’s also a man of the law, and he sees the evide

The Flight Through The Asteroids Featurette From The Empire Strikes Back This vintage featurette for The Empire Strikes Back takes viewers through the film's famed asteroid field sequence, overlayed with the original storyboards. Storyboards are essential to the pre-production of a movie, as they map out how scenes will visually appear. As seen here, interior cockpit shots, TIE fighters colliding with asteroids, and the Millennium Falcon docking inside a larger asteroid all appear as storyboards almost exactly as they would be seen in the final film.

Quick Fire Questions With Ross Williams It's back!  Yes, after a three year break we have brought back our Quick Fire Questions.  What is it you may ask?  Well, if you've watched James Lipton's Inside The Actor's Studio then you will be aware that at the end of the interview the guest will get asked a set of random quick fire questions.  The idea is not to think too much about the question and just have some fun. In the past we've featured guests such as Jimmy Mac of RebelForce Radio , singer Darren Hayes , E.T's Robert MacNaughton  and Nathan Hamill to name a few. To kick start the new round of Quick Fire Questions we have Ross Williams from the extremely popular Jaws website, The Daily Jaws .   Ross created the site back in 2015 and it has become the number one source for all things Jaws.  Recently, they hit the news with their recent #WeMake project where they recreated the whole movie made up entirely of fan recreations.  If you've not seen it

Daniel Dudych asks where have all the physical versions of soundtracks gone?    Being an avid Star Wars collector, I like to collect anything SW-related that suits my fancy, and one of those things is the soundtracks, I have them from all the films, but why have they never released the soundtracks to “Clone Wars”, “Rebels” and “The Mandalorian”? Looking on Amazon, they have the “Rebels” CDs, but they are all imports from the UK. You can get the music from “The Mandalorian” on Amazon Unlimited, but that’s a monthly subscription service, or you can buy MP3’s of Episodes 1,2,3,4,5,6, & 8 for $8.99, and Episode 7 for $7.99 (why is this one less??), that comes out to $70.92 if you want to buy all the music from Season 1. I can still get the soundtrack for the “Clone Wars” movie, but the music Amazon has for the series is again, an import…and look at the price??? Is it personally delivered to your house by Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Hayden Christensen?      Sure, I coul

Back To The Future - 7" Scale Action Figure - Ultimate Doc Brown From NECA NECA really do push the boat out when it comes to their action figures.  This latest figure, Doc Brown from Back to the Future is no exception.  Coming in at 7" and with interchangeable hands and head it really is a thing of beauty!  I particularly like the head of shock which is either from the scene where the clockwork car catches fire or I suspect because there is a wrench included with the figure, it's where the electric mains cable detaches just before the lightning strike.  But wait!  He's wearing goggles so it has to be with the clockwork car right?  I guess that's why there are two heads.  Wish there was a little model car too. The figure is out in November and here is the product page on NECA's website.   Here's their small press release about the figure: Great Scott! Doctor Emmett Brown, the genius behind the first time machine and one of the greatest movie cha

DISNEY DELAYS NEXT SLATE OF STAR WARS FILMS BY ONE YEAR Well this sucks, if not unexpected. According to Variety , Disney has announced the next three scheduled Star Wars films have all been pushed back by one year. The new release dates are as follows: Untitled Film 1: December 22, 2023 Untitled Film 2: December 19, 2025 Untitled Film 3: December 17, 2027 The delays are obviously due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has paralyzed so much of the world's society over the past four months. Previously, Disney announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films would bow starting in 2022. Literally all that is known about these films at this point is their release dates. Directors, actors, general storylines are still under lock and key. I always felt like a 2022 release date seemed rather optimistic, even before COVID-19 hit. As of February 2020, nothing was known about a film that was to be released in 32 months. Given that timeline, production would have likely had to start wi

Richard Dreyfuss has a special place in the early cinema of Spielberg/Lucas. He first came to attention in Lucas’ ‘American Graffiti’ (1973) as teenager Curt spending the film chasing after the elusive girl who has caught his attention early on in the film. He then famously turned down Spielberg's offer of the Matt Hooper role in Jaws claiming it was ‘a film I would rather see than make’ before his about turn after witnessing his performance in ‘The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz’(1974) which he thought would end his career. Dreyfuss’ position in Spielberg's early career is an interesting ‘what if..’ scenario in the sense that he completely went off the rails in a melt down of drink and drugs which he only recovered from after a car crash and a career rejuvenation in 1986 after his role in the hit comedy ‘Down and Out in Beverly Hills’. The ‘what if…?’ part of that equation is where he would have stood in Spielberg's oeuvre had he not got into the self destructive pa

Transformers / Back to the Future Comic Book Crossover Debuts from IDW Publishing Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took Marty McFly, Doc Brown and the DeLorean from Back to the Future and plopped them in the Transformers universe?  Nope! I haven't either but now that we've mentioned it, are you not just a little bit curious?  What if the flying time machine attracted the attention of the Decepticons and it's up to Marty and co to foil a plot that takes place in the past, present and the future?  This sounds heavy right?  Well IDW Publishing and writer, Cavan Scott bring you this new cross-over that will see all this taking place and a new converted time machine Autobot no less called Gigawatt!  I kid you not.  I will take a pint of whatever they are drinking please.  Here's the full press release: Two of the greatest science fiction franchises of the 1980s will collide this fall in an all-new comic book crossover event, Transformers / Back to the

Hasbro have revealed a new line of Star Wars products that are inspired by Disney’s Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and are available for pre-order exclusively at Target . These exciting new products include a Hyperdrive BB Unit,  two Galaxy’s Edge-inspired Star Wars: The Black Series 6-inch figures and  a Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Galaxy’s Edge Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run Vehicle.   We thought it would be the latter that you would like to see all the promo photos for so we've included them below along with the short press release.  It's retailing for a penny less than $400.  I remember when the Falcon was £29.99 in Woolworths, circa 1980 and my parents said that was too expensive (I sill had it for Christmas though.)  What do you think?  Is $399 too much or appropriately priced?  Let us know in the comments below. STAR WARS: THE VINTAGE COLLECTION GALAXY’S EDGE MILLENNIUM FALCON SMUGGLER’S RUN Vehicle (HASBRO/Ages 4 years & up/Approx. Retail Price: $39

BACK TO THE FUTURE U.S. Release Date: July 3, 1985 Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson Music by: Alan Silvestri Directed by: Robert Zemeckis Oscar Win: Best Sound Effects “NEXT SATURDAY NIGHT, WE’RE SENDING YOU BACK TO THE FUTURE!” - Dr. Emmett Brown Earlier this month saw the 35th anniversary of the release of one of pop culture’s most beloved and enduring films. So much so that five years ago fans all over the world celebrated Back to the Future Day on October 21, 2015, the day Doc Brown and Marty McFly arrived in the future, albeit a somewhat different looking future. We did get some things right, but I’m still waiting for flying cars. Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis’s tale of a teenager who inadvertently travels back in time 30 years and meets his parents has been lauded as one of the most perfectly written scripts in cinema history, and it’s even used as an example in film schools today. Steven Spielberg liked the story so much that he brought t

The Orca III Is Being Made Our good friends over at The Daily Jaws announced on Thursday that they were teaming up with Making the Monster and members of the original Jaws crew to bring us a full size replica of the iconic boat from Jaws.  Yes, The Orca will exist once again thanks to these dedicated fans of Jaws and because of them it will eventually give fans a chance to "drink to yer leg" onboard  a full-size Orca.  The new boat will look and feel like the original as much as is possible. What a fantastic project and we will keep you updated on the progress of the Orca III.  You can read the full press release below: The Orca, Quint’s legendary boat from the film Jaws, is being recreated by the original people involved in the blockbuster who designed and built her for the film released in 1975. Rather than hunting the great white shark, as in the film, part of the Orca’s new mission will be researching marine life and helping people better understand the va

The footage below is a complete 30 minute, fully restored Return of the Jedi raw footage scene from the EditDroid Laserdisc including all off-camera audio with multiple angles of Scene 50 between Luke and Yoda on Dagobah.