Production
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.
At one stage Australian Richard Franklin was announced as director.
At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced by Roger Corman. Much of the budget allegedly went toward paying the salaries of George Peppard and Robert Vaughn, since screenwriter John Sayles was known for low-budget productions and the film was produced in Corman's own studio, his "renowned lumberyard facility" in Venice, California.
Roger Corman hired James Cameron as a model maker in his studio, and after the original art director for the film had been fired, Cameron became responsible for the special effects in Battle Beyond the Stars, or, as Cameron later put it, "production design and art direction." This was Cameron's first "big break" in the entertainment industry, and it helped propel his career. While he initially worked on camera rigging, he soon started working on special effects, and designed spaceship's corridors, for instance, out of spray-painted McDonald's containers. Cameron paid great attention to detail, and hardly slept for weeks while working on the film; however, his hard work paid off, since it opened the door for his later success.
The production sound mixer, also responsible for special effects, such as Robert Vaughn's "laser shot" – based on Clint Eastwood's .44 Magnum from Dirty Harry – was David Yewdall, a regular contract-worker for Corman films. Yewdall later remarked on the "film's frugal sound editorial budget" in his Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, and explained some of the movie's sounds: each of the seven spaceships had its own sound. The Nester ship's sound was made from human voices generated by the community choir from his hometown college in Coalinga, California; Robert Vaughn's ship was based on the recording of a dragster.
Read more about this topic: Battle Beyond The Stars
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