Via Starwars.com:

LEARN THE STORY OF LAWRENCE KASDAN’S “BEST UNMADE SCREENPLAY IN HOLLYWOOD.”

The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, is a film that came out in 1992 and is far more important to Star Wars than you would ever guess. Written by Lawrence Kasdan, this was the screenplay that got him the attention of Steven Spielberg and eventually got him his work in the world of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. “But it came out in 1992, and Raiders and Empire came out in the ‘80s,” I can hear you saying, but sometimes filmmaking can be a lot more complicated than that. The Bodyguard tells the story of Frank Farmer, played by Kevin Costner, a former Secret Service agent who is pressed into service to protect an international pop star named Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) who is receiving regular death threats. She’s been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar and they’re certain the plot to murder her will unfold there.

This was a screenplay Lawrence Kasdan actually wrote in the ‘70s. It was in development as a vehicle for Steve McQueen and Diana Ross at Warner Brothers. The development process for it was a nightmare, and it was called repeatedly “the best unmade screenplay in Hollywood.” The film wouldn’t get made for a long time, but it lit a fire under his agent, and he pressed to sell more of his screenplays. His next sale was to Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg’s production company, which became the first film to come out of that studio. That was the open door he needed to land Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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Via Starwars.com:

THE LEGENDARY TOSHIRO MIFUNE STARS IN A FILM THAT WOULD GO ON TO INFLUENCE A CLASSIC EPISODE OF STAR WARS REBELS.

World War II films have been part of the DNA of Star Wars films since the beginning of the franchise. The other half of that DNA are the Samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, more often than not, starring Toshiro Mifune. What happens when you bring those two things together? You get the 1968 film Hell in the Pacific, directed by John Boorman.

Set on an uninhabited island in the middle of the pacific, Toshiro Mifune is a stranded Japanese soldier. Lee Marvin plays an American soldier who finds his way to the same island. Much of the movie is played out in their rivalry, but they realize quickly enough that if either of them are to survive, they’re going to have to work together.

This is a style of film that inspired much in the world of science fiction, from Enemy Mine to episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. It’s no wonder that the most recent iteration of the situation plays out in the episode of Star Wars Rebels called “The Honorable Ones.”

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Via Starwars.com:

The films of Akira Kurosawa were a constant source of inspiration for George Lucas as he worked on the Star Wars films and today we’ll set our sights on the 1957 classic Throne of Blood.

Throne of Blood is Kurosawa’s samurai-era retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth and centers around Toshiro Mifune (originally in the running as Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Washizu, a general who is prophesied to become the lord of Spider’s Web Castle. His wife goads him to make the prophecy become true by killing his lord and assuming his place, but paranoia and evil overtake him and his reign is ended violently.

The main character is introduced in a forest boiling in fog that creates mystical visions, much like the entire surface Dagobah. This is where Washizu is told that he will one day succeed his lord to become ruler himself, by a vengeful spirit that vanishes mysteriously after her message is delivered.

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