The Bearded Trio

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Oscar-winning Star Wars visual-effects designer Grant McCune, who created scenes with models and miniature films for more than three decades, has died of pancreatic cancer, his production company said on Wednesday. He was 67. McCune, who died Monday at his home in Hidden Hills, 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, won his Oscar for 1977's Star Wars, the original installment in George Lucas' six-film sci-fi franchise. He shared the honor with John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund and Robert Blalack. McCune also was nominated for an Oscar in 1980 for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Armed with a bachelor's degree in biology, McCune got his start on Jaws, when he and Bill Shourt were hired to make a giant white shark model; neither was credited on the film. He later became a partner at Apogee Prods, where he worked on three dozen films, including Die Hard, Never Say Never Again, Big, Space Balls and Caddyshack. Striking out on his own, McCune such films...

 Sources close to the production of Super 8 are claiming that it is in fact viral marketing to promote the upcoming J.J. Abrams film. There’s also video online of a young girl, who was an extra on the film, describing the scene she shot where she was attacked by the creature.

Free Star Wars movie reel. The ad also includes a mention and image of the then upcoming issue of Star Wars Weekly .

Remember Black Milk's series of geeky swimwear, including the R2-D2 suit? Well they're back with a $85 C-3PO model to complement the trashcan one From http://www.geekologie.com/2010/12/definitely_the_droid_you_were.php

Chewbacca Riding a Giant Squirrel Chasing Down Nazis Tyler Edlin was commissioned to create the wonderfully bizarre painting “Chewie Riding a Giant Cute Squirrel Chasing Down Nazis”. I asked my friend Gary what he would like a for a wedding present. At first he said Chewbacca riding a giant squirrel into battle against an unseen force living in the shadows. He added, “give him long flowing fur and his mount should look adorable. He should be riding to expected death on a last charge.”

As fans of Harry Potter get ready for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, news has surfaced that indicates director Steven Spielberg wanted to make Harry Potter an animated franchise. According to The L.A. Times, Alan Horn, President of Warners Bros., revealed that Steven Spielberg wanted to turn Harry Potter into an animated franchise. Horn stated that Warner Bros. wanted Spielberg to be involved in Potter, but weren’t interested in an animated series of films. "I did think it would be worthwhile for Steven Spielberg to direct," Horn said. "We offered it to him. But one of the notions of DreamWorks’ and Steven’s was, ‘Let’s combine a couple of the books, let’s make it animated,’ and that was because of the [visual effects and] Pixar had demonstrated that animated movies could be extremely successful." Horn went on to reveal that he understood the Harry Potter vision of Spielberg but wanted a different direction for the franchise. "Bec...

A few days ago we reported that the story going around that Indiana Jones is to be converted to 3D are false.  We just thought we would post it again because it seems the big news companies are now reporting out of date information.  A sudio source told movieline “This is completely false. Right now, we are totally focused on bringing Star Wars to 3-D, and we have no plans to do an Indiana Jones conversion.” To be honest I hope we get proved wrong and Indy comes back to the big screen.  I'll be there.  Watching Raiders on the big screen again would be an amazing opportunity.

IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games, has announced that Tim Schafer will be bestowed with the organization's first ever Honorary Trailblazer award.  Tim Schafer is the founder of independent studio Double Fine Productions, but is best known for work as a designer on classic LucasArts adventure titles such as Monkey Island , Full Throttle , Grim Fandango , and Day of the Tentacle .