TV & Film
Journey with us back to 1980, as we revisit one of the most notorious Star Wars rip-offs of them all – Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars! To celebrate the new season of The Clone Wars, we're taking a look back at some of our favourite Star Wars clones – the films that tried their hardest to recreate the magic and replicate the success of Star Wars, even if they didn't always succeed.A blatant attempt by B-movie mastermind Roger Corman to cash in on the success of Star Wars, 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars essentially takes Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai – which had, of course, already been remade for the West in The Magnificent Seven – and sets it in space. This week, we discuss how this relatively obscure 'classic' helped launch some of the biggest names in film, and how the movie holds up today against Baz's starry-eyed childhood memories. Force Material is a podcast exploring the secrets and source material of Star Wars with hosts Rohan Williams and Baz McAlister. Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, PlayerFM and Castro; stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; and support the show by browsing our range of shirts, hoodies, kids apparel, mugs and more at TeePublic.