Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Interesting facts

• Budget: $2M

Battle Beyond the Stars is a 1980 American space opera film directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, produced and distributed by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. It is a science fiction-themed interpretation of The Magnificent Seven in outer space. The film stars Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning, Darlanne Fluegel, Sam Jaffe, Jeff Corey, Morgan Woodward, Earl Boen, and Lynn Carlin.

Production

Battle Beyond the Stars came out of producer Roger Corman's desire to make a space opera-style film in the wake of the massive worldwide success of Star Wars. It was budgeted at an estimated $2,000,000. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced by Corman.

Up-and-coming screenwriter John Sayles had already written the Corman-produced The Lady in Red and Piranha, the latter of which was both a financial and critical success. At one point, Australian director Richard Franklin was attached to direct. However, he was replaced by Jimmy T. Murakami, a veteran animator who had previously been an uncredited co-director on Corman's Humanoids from the Deep.

The film was co-financed by Orion Pictures who distributed the film in Europe. (Corman had a relationship with those executives when they worked at United Artists and had done a similar thing with them on Piranha.)

The planet Akir and its inhabitants, the Akira, a peaceful alien race at the center of the conflict, were named in honor of director Akira Kurosawa, whose film Seven Samurai provided the framework for the plot.

Prior to production, a Hollywood trade paper announced that John Wayne would star in the film, under the direction of Ingmar Bergman. In all likelihood, this was a joke, either by the trade paper or the film's publicist.

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