The Bearded Trio

How different would have Star Wars been if they followed through on these early storyboards?  The original story for Star Wars (The Star Wars) has now become a graphic novel and the early ideas of some of the characters are becoming as popular as the ones that ultimately made it to the silver screen.  Check out these intriguing pictures showing some of the original artwork.  Released to promote the upcoming book ‘Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy’ THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST

This is a must watch.  So simple but so funny.  Will make you think "why didn't I thinkg of this?"  Pew!  Pew!  Pew! Star Wars as you've never seen it before: with really terrible sound effects dubbed in. http://hudsonhongo.com THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST

Regarded as the worst game in the history of video games, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial by Atari was so bad and flopped equally as bad that the story goes the distributors rounded up the unsold games (of which there were a few) and buried them in a landfill somewhere in New Mexico. A team recently took up the challenge to dig up these ghastly games for a documentary produced by Microsoft Xbox.  The documentary will show the drastic change in the video game history and it's likely to come out next year. In the mean time the team tasked with digging up the games tweeted the following pictures today boasting their project has been a success.  Some of the games as pictured below are still shrink wrapped.  I'm guessing some of these will eventually find their way to Ebay. Today's dig became a reality thanks to an upcoming documentary, produced by Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios. The documentary, which will focus on the changing landscape of the video game in...

Today The Bearded Trio celebrates it's fifth year on the internet.  I just want to say thank you to all the contributors and especially our visitors and loyal readers over these five years.  The website goes from strength to strength with more and more visitors checking us out. I started the site back in April 2009 as I wanted to celebrate my fandom for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and John Williams.  My aim was to post an article every day and I don't think a day has been missed since.  The website has steadily seen it's visitor count grow month by month and with the joining of a Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and a Pinterest page has seen it grow even more.  Now dipping toes into the podcast avenue thanks to Coffee With Kenobi, the site is going from strength to strength.  With Lisa Dullard, Dan Zehr, Cory Clubb, Rebecca Benjamin, Paul Baghurst, Chris Hewer and Rachel Wainfur all contributing to the content which in turn has seen The Bearded Trio beco...

Here's a bit of a retro treat for a Saturday afternoon... Back in 1983, the legendary ‘ At the Movies’ duo of Siskel & Ebert appeared on ABC’s Nightline with the noble purpose of defending Return of the Jedi from fellow film critic, John Simon.  While the art of being a critic is all about expressing your opinion, Mr. Simon seems to have an unusually strong disdain for the Star Wars Saga as a whole.  For example, he says the three lead actors are “lousy" and the movies are “completely dehumanizing.”   Alrighty, then… It’s interesting to note that, at one point - while bemoaning the use of special effects - he says that the films are something Walt Disney could have done just as well.  Guess we’ll find out on December 18, 2015! Check out the fun in the video below! THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST Contact Lisa at  lisad@coffeewi...

Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal has signed up to score the CBS Steven Spielberg series Extant starring Halle Berry.  Jeff Beal has worked on Netflix exclusive, House of Cards and HBO's Rome. “Part of the reason I’m excited about Extant is that it is ordered straight to series for 13 episodes, as was House of Cards. Having scored several television pilots over the years, I feel the creative energy is more pure and focused for a composer working this way vs. the pilot process which always seem to ultimately get polluted by the ‘sales pitch to a studio’ kind of creative process,” said Beal. Source:   Deadline To give you an idea of Beal's work, here's the music to House of Cards. THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST

University of Southern California announced on Friday (April 25th) that Spielberg will launch an establishment of a centre for advanced genocide research.  The main goal will be for the centre to research conditions that lead to genocides and maybe in the future avoid such tragedies, persecution  and human loss. Jpost.com write: Specifically, the center will focus on three aspects of genocides, said Spielberg, who established the Shoah Foundation 20 years ago, following release of his Oscar-winning movie, “Schindler’s List.” He was joined by USC President C.L. Max Nikias for the press conference on campus. The three announced research areas are resistance to genocide and mass violence; violence, emotion and behavioral change; and digital genocide studies. “The USC Shoah Foundation has made tremendous progress during its first 20 years, but its work is far from finished,” Spielberg said. “The Institute has collected and indexed nearly 52,000 testimonies and established...

To celebrate Empire's 300th issue, 32 of the worlds biggest directors will be contributing to the special edition of the magazine.  Steven Spielberg will be one of those directors who will be opening up some of his Jaws archive.  That alone is worth the money but we will also get rare treats from Francis Ford Coppola and Danny Boyle to name a few. Empire's editor-in-chief, Mark Dinning, said: "We're incredibly proud to bring our readers what we believe is the most extraordinary edition of any movie magazine in history. "Packed full of Hollywood legends and invaluable insights into a director's creative process, the issue has been an absolute pleasure to put together, and further confirms Empire's place at the heart of the global film industry. It is a true collectors' piece and a priceless piece of movie history." Source:   Guardian THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRI...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Steven Spielberg is firmly attached to direct an adaption of Roald Dahl's famous and much loved children's book, The BFG for Dreamworks.  We reported way back in 2011 that Dreamworks had acquired the rights to the book but there was no word if Spielberg was going to be involved.  What we did know at the time was Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall were to produce the movie.  Obviously with Star Wars VII on the agenda and Kennedy involved very much with Lucasfilm this arrangement will change.  Marshall will still produce. Spielberg has also added his name to other projects in the past month, including an adaptation of the David Kertzer novel The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and an untitled Cold War project written by Matt Charman that has Tom Hanks attached.  Robopocalypse is also rumoured to be still on the cards. According to The Hollywood Reporter, what makes this different to the other movies is that Spielberg ...

The EU is not dead.  Lets just get that out of the way.  Today's news from the official Star Wars website tells us that the upcoming movies will not tie in with any Expanded Universe up to now. What this means is the stories will be totally original.  The official site tell us: In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s. ...

Business Insider have published an insightful article on the creation of PG-13 certificate in the US purely to bridge the gap that Spielberg saw while making Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Of all the films in the Indiana Jones series, there's no doubt that 1984's PG-rated "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is the darkest. As producer George Lucas explained to Empire, "Part of it was I was going through a divorce, Steven had just broken up, and we were not in a good mood. It ended up darker than we thought it would be. Once we got out of our bad moods ... we kind of looked at it and went, 'Mmmmm, we certainly took it to the extreme.'" Films like "Temple of Doom," which were too mature for PG audiences but not mature enough for the R rating, would find themselves in limbo. Spielberg found this "netherworld" rating unfair to both filmmakers and audiences. So, according to a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg ...

This is a classic but it is always worth showing again.  Worth "digging up" THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST

Dozens of Chicago citizens and probably all fans of Lucasfilm and Star Wars flocked on the public hearing that took place Wednesday to see a presentation and be "convinced" why the Lucas Cultural Museum of Art should find a permanent home in Chicago. About 50 citizens interested in luring George Lucas' collection of art and movie memorabilia to Chicago were present at the start of a Wednesday night public hearing of a task force trying to find a local site for the museum.  And the Galatic Empire seemed to be otherwise engaged, as no one had arrived in costume by the time the hearing began under the world’s largest Tiffany stained-glass dome in an ornate hall at the Chicago Cultural Center. “It would interesting to have this type of museum because to me it would be hard to find anything to rival it,” said Michael Howe of Chicago, a graphic designer and art school graduate, who was among the first to arrive for the public hearing. Chicago’s “not an entertainment (indu...

In show number 17, Paul Mcdonald joins Cory Clubb and Dan Z to discuss themes in Star Wars and in particular the often overlooked Prequel movies.  They're deeper than you think! Also I bring you another "Espresso Shot With The Bearded Trio" and on this week's news I report on the cancelled Lucasarts Star Wars game, Spielberg and what's next for the director and how free donuts and pizza were given to fans waiting for John Williams' tickets.  I also announce the winner of the Lucasarts book, Rogue Leaders. I also get an extremely nice shout out from the Coffee With Kenobi gang on the show and want to take this opportunity to thank them for such kind words. Here's the show notes along with the link to the show.  This is the podcast you're looking for.  In today’s show we are happy to share a cup of coffee with Paul McDonald.  Paul is the author of The Star Wars Heresies, an amazing book you will not be able to put down.  It covers important...

Here's a great video of talented piano player, Elijah York playing Childhood from Hook.  A John Williams classic.  Not to be missed. This is one of my favorite childrens movie! The score is incredible!! John Williams did a remarkable job composing the score to this movie!! I loved it a lot! Here's me playing the main theme to Hook perfomed by Elijah York! Enjoy! THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+

Kevin Kiner , the composer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars , is being brought back on board for the upcoming animated series, Star Wars Rebels .  The score for the new series might sound a bit familiar to fans because Kiner will be incorporating many of John Williams’ themes into his own compositions, something that wasn’t really done for The Clone Wars .   Kiner says the "project needs to sound like A New Hope and bringing Williams' themes into some of his own compositions has had some pleasant results:   “I never used John’s music before on ‘Clone Wars’ under specific instructions from George [Lucas],” says Kiner, whose participation in the series was announced at “Rebels’” Wondercon panel Saturday in Anaheim. “He wanted ‘Clone Wars’ to break new ground.  In fact we had to beg him a few times to use John’s themes.” Kiner says the "project needs to sound like A New Hope,"  and bringing Williams' themes into some of his own compositions has yiel...

We were treated to a new clip of Star Wars Rebels at Wondercon but the treats didn't stop there.  We also got a load of new concept artwork for the much anticipated show set to grace our screens this August.  Check out some of the artwork below and on the official Star Wars blog . THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+

“Twilight is upon me, and soon, night must fall. That is the way of things. The way of the Force.” – Yoda There is something captivating, almost theatrical, in the cyclical time between day and night. Symbolically, this splashy array of vibrant coloration, displays a state of vulnerability. Showing a significant contrast between light and darkness, between consciousness and unconsciousness; the hour of Twilight ….. The brightest light casts the darkest shadow …. In the vast darkness of night, only hints of loves light flickers.  It’s a continuous flow of hope, a beacon, calling the heart home.  The dark conceals this precious secret, one that defines the most sincere purities a love has ever known; for it is truly a gift.  The dark protects it from the poison that would cast judgment, cruelty, and ultimately, breeding doubt and jealousy.  Like a candles illuminating flame, love can be mesmerizing, leaving one blinded by wondrous beauty.  Or is this a...

As a gamer myself I will never forget the first time I played Halo on the original Xbox.  Everything was perfect.  The graphics, gameplay, sound effects and especially the music.  The iconic theme tume to the game series has found it's place in gaming history and is instantly recognisable to any gamer. Now it seems the composer has been fired from Halo creators, Bungie. BBC Write: The composer of the original Halo soundtracks says he has been fired from his job at the video games' creator. Marty O'Donnell revealed the news in a tweet: "I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014." Bungie has confirmed the move but suggested they remained "friends". Mr O'Donnell had been working on music for the firm's forthcoming title Destiny in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. The news prompted a backlash from visitors to Bungie's site. "Bungie just lost half of its magic,...

Check out this video showing the Lights, Camera, Action ride at Universal Studios, Singapore.  Steven Spielberg is your host. From Wikipedia: From the main queue line, guests are directed to one of 3 smaller lines which lead to 3 separate rows in the pre-show room. Once inside, Steven Spielberg , appearing on a video projection screen, gives a brief introduction to the use of sound stages and special effects in movies. A video montage showcasing special effects from various films is then shown, after which the audience is then briefed by Spielberg about the scene they will see in the main sound stage . After the pre-show, the audience, still keeping to their 3 separate rows, enter the main sound stage, which is modeled after the interior of a  boathouse in New York City . Once the command to roll cameras has been given, the sky (a projection of the NYC skyline outside the boathouse windows) darkens, thunder and lightning fill the room, heavy rain pours through the ...