Battle Beyond the Stars

Battle Beyond the Stars
Directed byJimmy T. Murakami
Screenplay byJohn Sayles (after Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni)
Story byJohn Sayles
Anne Dyer
Produced byEd Carlin
Roger Corman
Starring
CinematographyDaniel Lacambre
Edited byAllan Holzman
Robert J. Kizer
Music byJames Horner
Distributed byNew World Pictures (United States)
Orion Pictures (International; through Warner Bros.)
Release date
  • July 25, 1980 (1980-07-25)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million
Box office$11 million or $3.6 million

Battle Beyond the Stars is a 1980 American space opera film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, and starring Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning and Darlanne Fluegel.

Inspired by Battle Beyond the Sun (1962), the Americanized edit (under Corman's lead) of Soviet film Nebo Zovyot (1959), it was intended as a science fiction-themed interpolation of The Magnificent Seven (1960; itself a Western film version of Seven Samurai [1954]) in outer space.

In keeping with Corman's longstanding cultivation of emergent talents, the screenplay was written by John Sayles (then transitioning from an aborted literary career under the producer's aegis), with an early score from James Horner and special effects designed by nascent filmmaker James Cameron. The film was theatrically released by Corman's New World Pictures and was a moderate box office success, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics.