Via Starwars.com:

THE BARD TALKED LIKE YODA, BUT DID HE THINK LIKE GEORGE LUCAS?
Inspiration for films and the inspirations that cause a desire to work in film can be a tangled web. These things can be stepping stones to other films as well. It might seem like a long road connecting this film to Star Wars, but for this column, we’ll be talking about the Academy Award winner, Shakespeare in Love. The film itself is about the inspiration of an artist, in this case the world’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes. He’s in the throes of writing a play called Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate’s Daughter, when he meets and falls in love with a woman he cannot be with, Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow). They are separated by class and by her intended marriage to a man she doesn’t love, Lord Wessex (Colin Firth). As the two go about their star-crossed affair, Shakespeare is slowly writing what would eventually become the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet — doomed like the relationship he’s found himself in. But the situation has light at the end of the tunnel, as he’s able to write a fantasy to sooth his wounded heart with Twelfth Night.

This is a film that gets to the heart of inspiration and homage — where ideas come from in the life of a writer. It’s funny, charming, beautiful, and one of the best that’s ever come from cinema, let alone in a year as good as 1998. But what does any of that have to do with Star Wars? On the surface, not much beyond the way in which a writer takes the things around them and fashions it into something bigger and even more inspirational. For us, that’s been at the very heart of these columns, looking at the things that inspired Lucas to create something as wonderful and moving as the Star Wars saga. If you look deeper, though, Shakespeare in Love has more connections to Star Wars than you might guess.

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