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Bruce Logan, the special effects pioneer and cinematographer whose credits include Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and blowing up the Death Star in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, has died. He was 78.

Logan died on April 10 in Los Angeles after a short illness, his wife, Mariana Campos-Logan, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

In an Instagram post, Logan’s daughter, Mary Grace Logan, paid tribute to her late father: “Before CGI ruled the screen, there were visionaries who lit the future by hand. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Tron, my dad didn’t just work on movies—he made magic. A rebel with a camera, a pioneer with a story, and my personal hero.”

During a five decade career, starting in Britain and then in Hollywood, Logan worked with directors like Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Robert Wise, John Frankenheimer, William Friedkin, George Lucas, Jonathan Demme,...

Tom Selleck struggled in films post-Magnum P.I. with poor box office results and critical failures. Her Alibi is considered his worst starring film due to the casting mismatch and flawed premise. Selleck's film career downfall led to his return to successful television roles, eventually overshadowing his film career.

After Tom Selleck was famously denied the chance to play the role of Indiana Jones in the blockbuster 1981 action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Selleck made his feature starring debut with a Raiders of the Lost Ark imitator, the 1983 adventure film High Road to China, also known as Raiders of the End of the World, which nonetheless performed respectably at the box office and showed that he possessed a genuine screen presence.

Sellecks dexterity and effortless charm were effectively showcased in his next feature starring vehicle, the 1984 spy thriller Lassiter, in which the actor exudes the kind of suaveness and...

The Story: It is the future (like say – 1989). Robots are now commonplace, being used for everything from manual labor to childcare. But, robots go bad and when they do, the LAPD calls in Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay (Tom Selleck), an expert in so-called “Runaways”. When a madman (Gene Simmons) invents a microchip that turns all robots into runaways, Ramsay, and his new partner (Cynthia Rhodes) must put a stop to his evil plan – the fate of the world just may depend on it! Oh, and also Ramsay is afraid of heights. Trust me, that’s important.

The Players: Starring: Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Kirstie Alley, G. W. Bailey and Gene Simmons. Written and directed by Michael Crichton.

The History: While most famous for his novels, Michael Crichton actually had a decent Hollywood career as a director, having a couple of solid hits under his belt by the time 1984 rolled around.

One of the most legendary pieces of an iconic role almost going to a different actor is when Tom Selleck was initially offered the lead as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He famously nailed his audition (which you can watch here) and was offered the part. However, he had just shot the pilot for Magnum P.I. and when that show was picked up, his opportunity to play the whip-wielding archeologist slipped through his fingers. He eventually got to star in his own period adventure movie in 1983, High Road to China, which is a bit of an unseen gem.

Selleck, who’s never had particularly sour grapes over the casting, writes about his shot at playing Indy in detail in his new memoir, “You Never Know:, lavishing praise on Spielberg, Lucas, Ford, and overall proving to be a good sport about the whole affair. Yet, one thing...

In 1984, Tom Selleck was riding high off of the success of Magnum P.I. on tv, but here's the thing - he wanted to be a movie star. He'd nailed the audition for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but lost out at the eleventh hour when Magnum P.I. went to series. In 1983/84, he had a slew of movies come out, including two Indiana Jones-styled adventure movies, the underrated High Road to China and the dull Lassiter. Runaway would be different, in that it was a futuristic…...

Wilford Brimley, best known for his roles in “The Natural,” the 1982 remake of “The Thing,” “The Firm” and “Cocoon,” died on Saturday. He was 85.

His agent, Lynda Bensky, told The New York Times that he had been sick with a kidney problem for two months.

Brimley was also famous for the series of commercials for Quaker Oats in which he appeared.

Pauline Kael ably summed up his appeal in a few words. Reviewing “Cocoon” for the New Yorker in 1985, she said, “Wilford Brimley, with his walrus mustache and friendly belly, brings an ornery impudence to his role.”

Brimley, who seemed to enter old age several decades ago, appeared perfectly at home in the Ron Howard-directed movie about senior citizens unintentionally rejuvenated by an alien life force in the pool where they do water aerobics even though he was only 51 at the time. Brimley’s Ben Luckett doing cannonballs in...

Wilford Brimley, the beloved character actor who starred in such film as “Cocoon” and “The Natural,” died Saturday at age 85.

He had been sick for two months with a kidney ailment, his agent told the New York Times.

The Utah native found his breakthrough role as a recurring character in the 1970s period drama “The Waltons.” Soon, he played a range of often crotchety characters on the big screen, including a nuclear power plant engineer in 1979’s “The China Syndrome,” a tenacious district attorney in 1981’s “Absence of Malice,” a country music manager in 1983’s “Tender Mercies” and the manager of a perpetually losing baseball team in 1984’s “The Natural.”

His biggest role may have come in Ron Howard’s 1985 hit “Cocoon” as the leader of a group of outcast senior citizens who discover a swimming pool that magically restores their youth — a character that was significantly older than his...

The impossible has happened; the dreaded day we all knew would come is here. Tom Selleck is 70. Not that he looks or acts it, as long as they still make moustaches in this country. While we can’t turn back the clock but we can take a look back in time at the stunning career of America’s last great Pi heartthrob and honor him on his special night. Raise a glass to the man himself and enjoy these four Tom Selleck classics, available on your finer streaming services. “Magnum P.I.” (Netflix, Amazon) The series that started it all for Mr. Selleck still holds up as one of the iconic television detective show. For many it comprises the middle section of a Holy Trinity of late 70’s - early 80’s series running from “Rockford Files” to “Magnum” to “Miami Vice.” Magnum also stands out as the first series to...

Mediumrare Entertainment continue their trend of releasing some of the weirdest cult films and TV shows with four films that are making their UK DVD debuts – and two are also getting the Blu-ray treatment too! Check out all the details below. I know I’ll be snapping these up, will you?

Operation Condor: Armour Of God II (1991)

Global adventurer Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) comes to Europe in search of the ‘Armour of God’, a magical relic from the Crusades. He hopes he can use it to bargain for the freedom of his girlfriend from a deadly cult. With his trusty companion (Andy Tam) by his side, his quest takes him from one perilous adventure to another. Directed by Jackie Chain himself, who performed all his own stunts, it was regarded as one of the most expensive films at the time. The third instalment of the Armour of God adventures,...

The holiday hit "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" finally arrives on DVD and Blu-ray this week, and we've got an exclusive look at the making of Tom Cruise's jaw-dropping stunt on top of the world's tallest building. If you're more into cute animals than espionage and explosions, then you'll be interested in a special look at Warner Bros.' crowd-pleasing nature doc "Born to Be Wild." Whether you're DVD or Blu-ray, streaming or rental, Moviefone has the full breakdown on all the home entertainment releases this week. Moviefone's Pick Of The Week "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" What's It About? Ethan Hunt and his Imf team are framed for a crime they didn't commit, plotted by a Russian madman with nuclear capabilities. But really, it's just a set-up to some exhilarating, inventive action sequences -- including that heart-stopper on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. See It Because: At this point in the series,...

This week: Tom Cruise is back as Imf agent Ethan Hunt for the fourth and most high-stakes assignment yet in "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," which takes the intense action from Moscow to Dubai.

Also out on DVD this week are Michael Fassbender and his penis in "Shame," the harrowing post-apocalyptic character study "The Divide" starring Michael Biehn and Milo Ventimiglia, and the haunted house horror film "7 Below" with Val Kilmer and Ving Rhames.

'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol'

Box Office: $209 million

Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Fresh

Storyline: Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton) go underground after the Kremlin is bombed and the Imf is thought to harbor international terrorists. While trying to clear the agency's name, the rogue group discovers a plot to start a nuclear war and must use all the high-tech gadgets at their disposal to avert global catastrophe.

In 1962 the producers of a spy movie needed help. The man who they had hired to write the score for their movie was struggling in finding the music for it. Reaching out for assistance, they were turned to a career musician who was employed conducting the orchestras for the background music heard on singers under the Emi recording label. That man was John Barry, and the movie that went on to score became the first James Bond movie, Dr. No. And so began the history of one of modern day cinema's greatest composers of film scores.

Barry went on to record the next 11 Bond movies, ending his relationship with the secret agent on the first Timothy Dalton picture, The Living Daylights. Although Barry was never credited on-screen for the James Bond Theme (Monty Norman is given that distinction), there has always been a question of doubt about how much both...

I almost did it. I almost got out of a bookstore Without buying something. You see, as my family and friends know, I love going to bookstores—so much the better if they also, as the Borders and Barnes & Noble chains do, stock DVDs and CDs and feature coffee shops. Why, that means they have Everything I might need to survive the day (except for Dr. Pepper, pepperoni pizza and action figures). Any bookstore that might add those items to its merchandise mix would have my eternal gratitude. Shrimp cocktails would be nice, too. And BBQ potato chips.

Anyhow, the thing is once I enter a bookstore, I find myself compelled, psychologically speaking, to buy something to exit. Now, this isn’t really a problem in some ways—there are Always the latest volumes of the mystery series I follow to acquire, new history books, graphic novels, magazines, DVDs, movie soundtracks; in short,...

Holy cow, tomorrow is Halloween! Time to dress up as something you aren’t now but maybe could be, to go out into the night in search of free candy or party fun, to get scared by movie monsters and whatever lurks there in the darkness. Good times.

Halloween has become America’s fastest growing holiday (Christmas better watch its back, as Jack Skellington knows), thanks to ever-increasing candy, costume and paraphernalia revenues. Halloween means discount sales for horror books and DVDs, local haunted houses and hayrides, special radio (“Monster Mash”) and TV programming (The Simpsons’ Treehouse Of Horror). It’s your complete genre holiday.

Now, twice this week, I’ve addressed the all-dressed-up aspect of All Hallow’s Eve—from my past as a kid trick or treating while disguised as Count Dracula and the Jolly Green Giant and from the present as a consumer touring the seasonal Halloween...

Just because we Wanted something on the cover doesn’t mean it got there. For many reasons over the years, certain movies Didn’T get a Starlog cover—even though we sure hoped to give them one. Let’s start with three 20th Century Fox movies.

The first of these Fox films that got away is Cocoon in 1985, a contender for issue #98’s cover. Although released in June, Ron Howard’s Cocoon looked good for that August on-sale issue If we could find something special in the way of art (i.e. photos). At the time, we Were willing to use a movie on the cover two or so months after its premiere; this rule later changed. We still had Cocoon articles to run—like Kim Howard Johnson’s Steve Guttenberg chat and Ian Spelling’s first-ever-interview for Starlog (with Tahnee Welch). The problem? Fox couldn’t provide new Cocoon pix that worked for us.

Established 1974! Our news column is larger-than-life!

Anna Paquin is back, serving up more sexy Southern fried vampire fun in the second season of True Blood, debuting June 14.

Sci-fi TV

This weekend’s TV viewing includes Three significant new shows, all on Saturday night. (Everything else is a rerun!) BBC America airs the fourth third season episode (previously unseen in the U.S.A.) of Primeval in which the team takes on a G. rex, a rampaging Giganotosaurus (9 p.m.). In the very same time slot, CBS offers another first-run episode of its cancelled Harper’S Island. And at 10 p.m., ABC premieres the second of three unaired Pushing Daisies segments, “Water & Power.” Don’t worry about missing it, though! Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season will be out on DVD July 21.

Due to faltering ratings for its new animated sitcom The Goode Family, ABC has bounced it out of Wednesday evenings,...