Force Material: A Star Wars Podcast

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.

We're in like Flynn on this week's episode of the Force Material podcast, as we explore how The Adventures of Robin Hood has influenced Star Wars !
With yet another telling of the Robin Hood legend in theatres, we decided to venture into Sherwood Forest to revisit the classic 1938 version, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone!
First up, we talk about all the Star Wars news that's gone down since our last episode, including Mark Hamill's wild Boba Fett theory (01:25), the announcement of the Cassian Andor TV series (04:49), the casting of Pedro Pascal in The Mandalorian (08:39), and the latest Galaxy's Edge developments (10:21)!
Then it's onto our feature presentation (16:35), as George Lucas discusses the influence of Errol Flynn's swashbuckling films on Star Wars (32:51), and we explore the influence of The Adventures of Robin Hood on Ben Burtt (36:41) and the influence of Olivia de Havilland's Maid Marion on Princess Leia (38:07).
We look at the truth behind the Robin Hood legend (45:43), the time Errol Flynn fought Count Dooku (52:16), the immense influence of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold on John Williams (53:43), the link between Errol Flynn and Darth Vader (57:37) and the time Star Wars literally became Robin Hood - in miniature (01:00:12).
Finally, we take a brief look at Disney's live-action Robin Hood movie, directed by a man with a very interesting name (01:03:01), and we ask the question - does the world need yet another Robin Hood movie (01:10:11)?

Our Daley Double wraps up with a fond look back at some of the greatest Star Wars novels ever written, The Han Solo Adventures !

It's been 22 years this month since legendary author Brian Daley passed away. Last week, on the anniversary of his death, we paid tribute to his classic Star Wars audio dramas, and this week, we're remembering his beloved trilogy of Han Solo novels.

When Brian Daley pitched a trilogy of Han Solo and Chewbacca novels to Del Rey Books in the 1970s, he was just casually looking to make some fast cash. How very Han Solo of him.

But once Brian started out on this journey, the galaxy opened up to him. Not allowed to use The Force, Vader, the Empire, TIE fighters, the Rebellion, or any established characters save Han and Chewie, he used his ingenuity instead in a trilogy of books that saw Han and Chewie face gunslingers, slavers, corrupt bureaucrats and murderous droids in a colourful backwater of space.

Join us this week as we explore how these books helped shape Han Solo’s character in the early days of the Expanded Universe, and helped shape the childhoods of many a Star Wars fan.

We also discuss the lost art of the movie novelisation; the single worst line in Raiders of the Lost Ark; the surprising ways in which Woody Allen, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope inspired Han Solo; and loads more!

This week's episode refers frequently to an interview Brian Daley gave Alex Newborn at Star Wars Collector in 1995, which can be read in full here.

Find out why Jon Bon Jovi owes his career to C-3PO in this very festive edition of the Force Material podcast!
Did you know that without Star Wars, there would have been no Slippery When Wet? We’d never have heard of Tommy and Gina’s hardscrabble lives in Livin’ On a Prayer? One of the world’s most legendary recording studios would never have existed? And the musicals Nine and Titanic would never have made it to Broadway?

If you are in desperate need of respite from the raging social media wars being waged over the reception of The Last Jedi, we can offer you an (almost) safe space. Pour yourself an egg nog and join us by the fireside this week on a festive Force Material podcast and we’ll spin you the almost-unbelievable tale of Christmas in the Stars.

It’s the story of two plucky risk-taking record executives, a frustrated Broadway wannabe playwright, a fame-seeking actor confined to an uncomfortable golden suit — and an ambitious young man with a broom in his hand who gazed up at the stars, knowing he was destined for something greater. His name was Jon Bon Jovi. You may have heard of him.

Come with us on a journey back to 1980s Manhattan and discover how a schmaltzy, kitschy Star Wars-themed concept album about C-3PO and R2-D2 running Santa’s workshop got made – just two years after George Lucas swore he’d never attempt to make any connection between his galaxy far, far away and Christmas, EVER again.

For more on Christmas in the Stars, check out CBC Music's oral history of the album and Forbes' interview with Bon Jovi himself.

Author Mike Chen tells us how he got inside the Emperor’s head for his story in the new Star Wars anthology, From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back .

The author of acclaimed science fiction novels Here and Now and Then and A Beginning at the End, as well as the upcoming We Could Be Heroes, Mike is one of 40 scribes featured in From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film, it features stories told from the points of view of 40 different characters, from obscure cult favourites to major players in the saga.

Mike’s story, Disturbance, is told from the point of view of Emperor Palpatine himself. It explains Palpatine’s thought process leading up to his first on-screen appearance, and answers one of the biggest lingering questions in the saga – how did the Emperor find out about Luke Skywalker?

A longtime friend of the show, Mike tells us about writing this iconic Star Wars villain; introducing his daughter to Star Wars; having his prose voiced by Sam Witwer and much more!

From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back is available now wherever you buy books, in print, ebook and audio.

Follow @MikeChenWriter for more of his work.

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.