Kershner wasn’t even sure he wanted to direct what would become “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.” When Lucas offered him the job over lunch in 1978, Kershner asked, “Of all the younger guys around, all the hot shots, why me?” Lucas’ reply: “Well, because you know everything a Hollywood director is supposed to know, but you’re not Hollywood.”
Take a look at Kershner’s early credits, and they’re pretty Hollywood. He made his feature debut on the Roger Corman-financed crime flick “Stakeout on Dope Street,” then split time between movies and episodic television (on shows like “Ben Casey,” “The Rebel” and “Naked City”). Starting in the mid-1960s, he began working on high-profile projects like “A Fine Madness” (starring Sean Connery) and “The Flim-Flam Man” (featuring George C. Scott).
He made two fascinatingly understated comedy-dramas in the early 1970s with “Loving” and “Up the Sandbox,” but when the latter flopped despite the star power of Barbra Streisand he tried to play it safe with “S*P*Y*S,” a dire, critically panned comedy that attempted to recapture the counterculture magic of “M*A*S*H” with its stars Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland. Kershner then retreated to “The Return of a Man Called Horse,” a ho-hum sequel to Richard Harris’ 1970 Western hit.
Kershner was about to bounce back commercially with the stylish American giallo “The Eyes of Laura Mars,” and it’s intriguing to wonder if, had that film been released before Lucas came calling, he would’ve turned his former student down flat. Given how important he was in giving the series the spiritual depth that sustains it to this day, I’m thrilled he came on board — and so was he! So why didn’t he ever return to the galaxy far, far away?