The Man Who Made the AT-AT Walk Just Closed His Studio
Phil Tippett — the stop-motion legend who brought the AT-AT walkers to life in The Empire Strikes Back and animated the Holochess game aboard the Millennium Falcon — just closed the Berkeley studio that bore his name for 35 years. A three-day liquidation auction wrapped August 30, selling off decades of props and models to the highest bidder.
First Contact: How Disclosure Day Rewrites the Spielberg Alien Legacy
Forty-four years and a day after E.T. opened, Steven Spielberg returns to first contact — this time with whistleblowers, congressional hearings, and the question of what they hid. A retrospective on the practical-effects wonder of Close Encounters and E.T., and what changes when the same director points the camera at suspicion instead of awe.
The New Stargate Won't Look Like the Old One — And That's Exactly the Point
Amazon's Stargate revival just revealed its visual DNA: an Oscar-winning production designer from Christopher Nolan's crew, ILM's best VFX mind, and a veteran franchise writer penning a full episode. Here's what that tells us about the show we're actually getting.