Irvin Kershner
1923 - 2010Had the internet existed in the late 1970s, the hiring of Irvin Kershner as the director of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK would've at the very least occasioned a good deal of confusion. At most, it would've inspired a talkback riot. Kershner was in his mid-fifties at the time, and had generally made a name for himself as a proficient director of standard Hollywood entertainments - some of which weren't half-bad. He was solid. But he had never dabbled in the science-fiction or fantasy genres before, and seemed to represent the kind of old-school filmmaking that guys like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were driving out of style.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/47600
