Roger Christian

Biography

Roger Christian is an English film director, screenwriter, art director, and set decorator born on February 25, 1944. He won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration for his work on the original Star Wars (1977), with a second Oscar nomination for his work on Alien (1979). Christian made his feature debut with the science-fiction horror film The Sender (1982) and directed the period biopic Nostradamus (1994). He also directed the L. Ron Hubbard adaptation Battlefield Earth (2000), and was a second unit director on the Star Wars films Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Phantom Menace (1999). Christian began his career as an assistant art director on several UK productions, including the British horror film And Soon the Darkness (1970), and created iconic props for Star Wars, including the lightsaber prop. He is a Buddhist and an admirer of filmmakers Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino.