Roger Christian

The director will be forever associated with the disastrous sci-fi yarn Battlefield Earth - largely regarded as one of the worst films of all time.

Starring John Travolta, it was scripted by Church of Scientology leader L Ron Hubbard and its propagandist roots were difficult to ignore.

However, Christian had earlier made a name for himself as an Oscar-winning set decorator on George Lucas' Star Wars.

Christian subsequently worked on Return of the Jedi and was hand-picked by Lucas to direct the second unit on the recent Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

(He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his art direction on Ridley Scott's Alien).

It was through Lucas that Christian got his first opportunity to direct a film, the short feature Black Angel, which accompanied the UK release of The Empire Strikes Back.

He followed this with another short, The Dollar Bottom, which won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Next came the horror-thriller The Sender , the sci-fi yarn Starship and the period biopic Nostrodamus starring Tcheky Karyo.

The thriller The Final Cut centred on a terrorist bomber in Seattle while Underworld starred Denis Leary as a convict back out on the streets.

The Die Hard-style Masterminds was followed by Battlefield Earth with Christian attempting to resurrect his career with the action drama Bandido.

Recent work includes the thriller-romance American Daylight about a billionaire who falls in love with an Indian call centre operator.