Bob Anderson, the man who played Darth Vader in his lightsaber duels in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, passed away yesterday. Though voiced by James Earl Jones and played by David Prowse for most of the original trilogy, Bob Anderson is the man in the suit whenever Darth Vader was engaged in those iconic lightsaber battles.

Beyond Star Wars, Bob Anderson worked on many films doing either stunts or working as a fencing coach. His credits include Highlander, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro, The Lord of the Rings films and The Pirates of the Caribbean. He has also represented Great Britain in fencing at the Olympic Games.

Source: Entertainment Weekly.

Here’s Bane, played by Tom Hardy, from the Dark Knight Rises, eating a cherry pie!

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Bane’s mask bears a striking resemblance to the fingers of Kirk Johnson. The name may not be one you’ve heard, but chances are you’ve seen a photo of him. Do you think this is a deliberate reference or is that too much of a stretch?

Michael Giacchino, the composer of the music for John Carter, recently appeared on “Movies on the Radio” and shared some music from the film. You can listen to the full interview below or keep reading for links to three full tracks.

Michael Giacchino has provided the music for many great TV shows and movies such as Lost, Fringe, Star Trek, Super 8, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and many Pixar films like The Incredibles, Up and Ratatouille.

John Carter is set for a March 9th release date. For more about Michael Giacchino check out his official web site.

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Here’s a trailer for Ridley Scott’s upcoming movie “Prometheus”. This movie was at one time meant to be a prequel to Alien, but has since been retooled. There are no Space Jockeys here, but the Aliens do have quite a resemblance to the face huggers we know and love.

Wherever it does or doesn’t fit into the established Alien cannon, this movie looks promising. Look for it to hit theatres this summer. If you were wondering why the way those letters appeared looked so familiar, keep reading for a trailer from a certain 1979 movie that uses the same effect…

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Here’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, by David Kaye using the voice of Beast Wars Megatron.

Update: Keep reading to see a fan made animation of Megatron that goes along with these words.

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The Wrap reports that the Avengers is now slated to be released in 3D. The movie was previously planned for a 2D release, and was filmed with 2D cameras, meaning once again we will be treated to another sub par post production 3D movie, where all 3D is fabricated as special effects, rather than by actually using a special 3D camera to shoot the film as was done with Tron Legacy, Avatar or Jackass 3D.

Fans of the Avengers are not strangers to Fake 3D. The two latest feature length commercials for the Avengers, Captain America and Thor, were both released in Fake 3D which was done entirely in post production. If you have the choice, use your dollar to choose to watch a Fake 3D movie in 2D whenever possible. If you have no choice, you can always fabricate a device that will simulate the 2D effect. To find out which movies are “real” or “fake” 3D check out realorfake3d.com.

Keep reading to learn how to make your own 3D to 2D conversion device…
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In the end sequence to Saints Row The Third, the boss utters some lines which may sound familiar to some gamers. In fact most of this is word for word from the end sequence of Red Faction Guerrilla. How is it that such utterly different games can share a similar end game speech? Watch the clip to find out, but be warned, it contains spoilers for the end of both games.

This and other similarities exist because both games were developed by Volition.

Many have debated the origin of the term “Cool Story Bro”. While specific usage of those words seems to be restricted to the past 5 or so years, the first usage of the quote is often attributed to the 2001 movie Zoolander, as a character says “Cool story, Hansel”. Here we have Bill Murray’s character Frank Cross saying “Beautiful story. Tell Reader’s Digest, will ya?” to a man who’s objecting to the idea of stapling antlers to a mouse, played by Ralph Gervais.

Download an mp3 of Bill Murray saying “Beautiful story. Tell Reader’s Digest, will ya?” in Scrooged.

One might be tempted to attribute the quote to the film’s writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue, but a quick look over the script indicates that it may have been an ad lib, as the original quote is just “Go tell Reader’s Digest!”. An earlier version of the script doesn’t have that part of the exchange at all (see page 43). Of course we can’t discount the possibility of further script rewrites or improper transcription for the online copy.

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