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C-3Po (Anthony Daniels) will not hesitate to tell you when he's unhappy. From the first time we meet him in the original "Star Wars," through that entire trilogy, his appearances in the prequels and the sequels, and every other place he shows up, he complains. I mean, we love him very much, and being crotchety is kind of his thing, but he really does grumble a lot. Still, the golden droid does have a few pleasures in life. No matter how much he grouses at his little droid buddy R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), it's clear that he loves the walking garbage can. He also loves a really good oil bath. Hey, everyone loves a spa day, right? Especially when you have a bad case of dust contamination.

In "A New Hope," after Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his Uncle Owen (Phil Brown) pick up the two lost droids from a group of Jawas,...

The Australian actor/writer/director on swearing, Star Wars, and working with everyone from his ‘far more interesting’ brother Nash to Bob Dylan

How did you get the job of Uncle Owen [in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones]? Was it solely based on your similar looks to original actor Phil Brown? Also, you must have known you were going to get killed off! TopTramp

George Lucas was shooting in Australia. I have the Australian Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance to thank for saying: “You need to hire some local actors.” I was the right age and had the physical similarity. My brother [Nash Edgerton] left university to become a stunt man – much to my parents’ upset – and started working on the big Hollywood productions that came through Sydney, like The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2. He got the job as Ewan McGregor’s stunt double. Any of the big,...

The acclaimed Australian actor is a stalwart of the Star Wars universe as well as a veteran of a string of chewy independent thrillers – so get your questions over to him now

Like most Australian actors in Hollywood, you can trace Joel Edgerton’s career back to a soap opera. In this case, it’s The Secret Life of Us,, which led to his breakout film role as “Uncle” Owen Lars in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, as well as the 2022 TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi. (It definitely helped that Edgerton has an uncanny resemblance to Phil Brown, who played Luke Skywalker’s step-uncle in the original 1977 Star Wars film.

And, once you’ve done Star Wars, Hollywood beckons. Edgerton appeared with James Gandolfini and Chris Pratt in Zero Dark Thirty, the dramatisation of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden.

At the end of J.J. Abrams' 2015 film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" a young woman named Rey (Daisy Ridley) has spent a portion of the movie attempting to located a long-lost Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has been living in isolation on a hidden planet. The final shot of the film is Rey handing Luke his old lightsaber, hoping that he will emerge from exile in order to join a new war effort that had been started in his absence. At the head of the 2017 sequel, Rian Johnson's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," Luke takes the lightsaber and throws it over his shoulder, annoyed to have been offered. He later points out, essentially, that he has no desire to join in any kind of fight. He has grown nihilistic and bitter. He is now a disappointed idealist whose only recourse is to live humbly in complete isolation. 

On his island,...

Libertine Pictures and Slim Film + Television’s family action-adventure series Mystic has been recommissioned for two more seasons by Cbbc and Tvnz.

The adaption of New Zealand author Stacy Gregg’s Pony Club Secrets book series will have writers Sam Shore (Filthy Rich), Martha Hardy-Ward (Ellen is Leaving), Hamish Bennett (Bellbird), and Briar Grace-Smith (Grace Beside Me) join creators Amy Shindler and Beth Chalmers (Horrible Histories) for its next phase.

British actor Macey Chipping (Vampire Academy) returns in the lead role of Issie Brown and is joined once again by New Zealanders Antonia Robinson, Max Crean, Jacqueline Joe (Top of the Lake), Josh Tan (Mulan) and Harriet Walton.

In the new seasons, Issie and her gang of horse-mad friends will not only have to tackle all the usual trials and tribulations of being a teenager – romance, identity, friendship, and conflict with parents – but will also have to battle against...

Exclusive: Libertine Pictures (Nz) and Slim Film + Television (UK)’s family action adventure series Mystic, has been recommissioned for two more seasons by Cbbc (UK) and Tvnz (Nz).

British actor Macey Chipping (Holby City) returns in the lead role of Issie Brown and is joined once again by New Zealanders Antonia Robinson, Max Crean, Jacqueline Joe (Top of the Lake), Josh Tan (Mulan) and Harriet Walton.

Production on the two new series, each comprising 8 x 30” episodes, is due to commence on May 31 in New Zealand.

In the new seasons, Issie and her gang of horse-mad friends will not only have to tackle all the usual trials and tribulations of being a teenager but will also have to battle against new and unexpected threats to their beloved stables and local environment. In season two, their lives will be thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a charismatic stranger and an...

Ex-Journey singer Steve Perry has filed a lawsuit against his former associate Phil Brown to prevent the release of music they recorded together in 1991. According to legal documents obtained by The Blast, Perry claims that the songs were mere demos they recorded on an 8-track tape recorder in Brown’s garage and were never meant for to be heard by the public.

“He did not perform them as he would if the recordings were intended for public release,” the complaint says. “[Brown is] threatening to release certain old vocal performances of Perry...

Powerhouse Indicator continues its series of exotic attractions from the house of Hammer — productions that found new ways to shock audiences than tradition-breaking gore and violence. Two are war pictures with sharply contrasting themes, and the second pair constitute a popular-cinema referendum on racist colonial attitudes.

Hammer Volume 3 Blood and Terror

Blu-ray

The Camp on Blood Island, Yesterday’s Enemy, The Stranglers of Bombay, The Terror of the Tongs

Powerhouse Indicator

1958-1960 / Color / B&W / 1:85, 2:35 widescreen / / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £44.99

Directed by Val Guest, Terence Fisher, Anthony Bushell

It’s true — unless one is a full-on Hammer true believer that considers The Brigand of Kandahar and Creatures the World Forgot to be timeless classics, delving into the lesser-known Hammer films can be a case of diminishing returns. But when the company got truly creative, either with a radical screenplay or a committed director — Terence Fisher,...

Two-time Oscar-nominated actress Rooney Mara has sold her celeb-pedigreed mid-century residence above L.A.’s Bronson Canyon for almost $3.6 million, a notable bit above its final asking price of $3.45 million. The buyer appears in tax records as a whimsically named trust linked to property previously owned by rock ’n’ roll scion and television personality Kelly Osbourne. Designed by architect Phil Brown and built in 1963 on a not quite one-quarter-acre promontory near the end of a quiet cul-de-sac with panoramic city views through walls of glass, the just over 2,300-square-foot residence has two modest bedrooms plus a den and two bathrooms with scrupulously preserved vintage tile work.

Set to star in Annapurna Pictures’ upcoming abduction drama “A House in the Sky,” Mara purchased the discreetly low-slung architectural gem in early 2015 for $2.9 million from “Pretty Little Lies” star Alexander Skarsgård. She first floated the conscientiously restored and updated residence as an off-market...

Criterion digitally restores this earlier release, a combination offering of Robert Siodmak’s 1946 film noir masterpiece The Killers paired with Don Siegel’s retro 1964 remake. Famed adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, both filmmakers take liberties with the original material to create aggressively different products. Siodmak’s version is not only the German ex-pat’s enduring masterpiece, it’s a definite cornerstone of classic American film noir. Though Siegel’s 60s rehash is considered tacky pastiche of the era, it’s brutal, hard boiled B-grade pulp, notable for its own significant instances.

Siodmak’s version arrived during a golden era of noir, premiering a year after WWII officially ended, with cinematic masculine representation on the eve of an overhaul as method acting would soon reign supreme. Hemingway’s spare story gets a face life from Anthony Veiller (The Stranger; Night of the Iguana), using the murder as a jumping...

Warning: the power of Christ may compel you while watching the new featurette from the Neveldine-directed film The Vatican Tapes. Also showcased in this round-up: "The Battle of Endor" episode of the Real Fake History series and a teaser for Fear the Walking Dead.

The Vatican Tapes: A spiritual showdown between Father Lozano (Michael Peña) and a powerful demon takes center stage in director Mark Neveldine's (Crank, Crank: High Voltage) The Vatican Tapes.

"The Vatican Tapes follows the ultimate battle between good and evil- God versus Satan. Angela Holmes is an ordinary 27-year-old until she begins to have a devastating effect on anyone close, causing serious injury and death. Holmes is examined and possession is suspected, but when the Vatican is called upon to exorcise the demon, the possession proves to be an ancient satanic force more powerful than ever imagined. It’s all up to Father...

The Hidden Room (aka Obsession)

Written by Alec Coppel

Directed by Edward Dmytryk

U.S.A., 1949

On a quiet London night British upper class housewife Storm Riodan (Sally Gray) and secret American ex-pat lover Bill Kronin (Phil Brown) return the former’s lavish flat for a night of passion. Unbeknownst to them Storm’s husband, the brilliant if extremely sensitive Dr. Clive Riodan (Robert Newton) lingers behind the curtains, listening to their every word. He eventually makes his presence known, catching both completely off guard in the process. So intense is the doctor’s jealousy that he threatens to murder dear Bill point blank with a firearm. When Storm retires to her quarters out of embarrassment, the doctor forces Bill to accompany him outside when the film cuts to…a scene few days later as Clive Riodan attends to a patient in his private office. His wife is convinced his...

Actor Phil Brown, best known for playing Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen in Star Wars, has died of pneumonia. He was 89. The Massachusetts-born actor died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California on Thursday, according to his widow Ginny. After starring in movies and TV shows in the 1940s, Brown moved to London in the 1950s after he was wrongly blacklisted during the Communist scares in the United States. Star Wars director George Lucas cast Brown while filming scenes for the 1977 sci-fi epic in London, and his fame playing Uncle Owen in the movie lead to his return to America. Brown is survived by widow Ginny, their son Kevin, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.