This time around, things were going to be different behind the scenes of Star Wars. Having learned from the first film, Lucas decided to take a more hands-on role in his special effects company Industrial Light & Magic, while also wrangling the finances.

The fall-out from that was that he wouldn’t have the time or energy to direct Empire as well. "It was just too hard to set up a company, get the money, get the film made and also be down there on the set every day trying to direct it," Lucas says. "So I decided I'd hire a director."

Lucas turned to renowned director Irvin Kershner, who had taught Lucas at the USC School Of Cinema-Television.

“I had a phone call from [producer] Gary Kurtz, who asked me if I would be interested and I said I would think about it,” Kershner remembered in an interview in 1990. “I talked about it with my agent and I said, ‘Oh, what a hard act to follow! Star Wars! I don't know.’”

Put off by the enormity of the responsibility, Kershner initially turned the offer down. “I never believe in topping, I believe in just making something which stands on its own terms,” he reasoned.

A meeting with Lucas himself soon allayed his fears. “I thought about it and said, ‘Well, why do you want me? Of all the younger guys around, all the hot-shots, why me?’” the director says.

“And I remember he said to me, ‘Well, because you know everything a Hollywood director is supposed to know but you're not Hollywood.’ I liked that.” Empire had a director. Time to assemble some stars…