Kasdan is known for updating old Hollywood genres—film noir, science fiction, westerns—in a classical dramatic style with quick-witted dialogue, but dealing with contemporary social themes.

To earn money for college, he worked various jobs at a glass factory and the night shift at a supermarket in Wheeling, scraping meat from butcher machines.

The rest of the plot was hashed out in a brainstorm session with Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan: We had a tape recorder going, and George essentially guided the story process and the three of us pitched the entire movie in about five days.

[5] For the character of Indiana Jones, Kasdan said he wanted to capture the essence of old Hollywood stars like Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster, and Clark Gable.

"[5] He was later asked to write Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but declined because he didn't want to associate with the film; he perceived it as "horrible, mean and unpleasant" due to it being developed during a chaotic period in Spielberg's and Lucas's lives.

[19] Kasdan semi-returned to the franchise in 2007 when he assisted David Koepp in writing some romantic dialogue for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

[27] In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy wrote: "One notably feels the hand of Lawrence Kasdan, who ... co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and, perhaps more significantly, authored Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film this new one most resembles in terms of its incident and exuberance.

Despite not working in the following sequels, Kasdan later talked with Abrams, Lucas, and Rian Johnson about the story for the saga's last episode, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Solo: A Star Wars Story details the character's backstory: how he got his name, how he met Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian, and the beginnings of his internal battle between self-interested scoundrel and hero.

[5] The producers wanted Kasdan to cast a star, but he insisted on William Hurt, a stage actor who had just made his film debut in Altered States (1980).

Working in the imposing shadow of the late James M. Cain, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan makes an impressively confident directorial debut with a vehicle which could clinch star status for William Hurt.

While editing Body Heat Kasdan had the idea for a large ensemble film, partly in reaction to the "claustrophobic" experience of working with just two actors in intimate settings.

[5] His lawyer's wife, Barbara Benedek, had begun writing screenplays (and was a story editor on two comedy TV series for ABC), and Kasdan proposed co-writing with her.

[5] The ensemble cast included Hurt and Kevin Kline, both of whom became regulars in Kasdan's directing career, as well as Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place, Tom Berenger, and JoBeth Williams.

[5] The film was so popular at its test screening in Seattle that Columbia rushed its release by several months, without arranging the usual marketing and merchandising efforts in time.

[5] Then he was offered The Accidental Tourist, a novel by Anne Tyler, and despite its surface similarities to Man Trouble—both stories are odd-couple romances with a character who trains dogs—he "fell in love with it".

"[5] It was the first film he directed from another writer's script, and starred Kline as pizzeria owner and serial cheater Joey, and Tracey Ullman as his wife, Rosalie.

[40]The screenplay, which he wrote with his wife, swelled into a larger canvas that dealt with race relations in Los Angeles and the existential crises of the era.

)[40] The film follows separate but intersecting stories of multiple characters across Los Angeles's social and racial divides, and deals with themes of fate, death, relationships, the ethics of violence in filmmaking, and more.

Mike Gray, a bizarro mirror image of Earp, managed to get Tombstone, the richest town west of the Mississippi, deeded to his private company.

[5]Surrounding Costner as Earp were Joanna Going, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, Mark Harmon, and Gene Hackman.

Dennis Quaid lost 43 pounds on a supervised diet to play Doc Holliday, a performance that Kasdan called "the most satisfying part of the movie.

Tombstone's writer and original director, Kevin Jarre (who was eventually fired from the project), had actually planned to make an Earp story with Costner, but the two had different ideas about its tone and direction, and each went his own way.

Written by Adam Brooks, it was about a woman who overcomes her fear of flying and goes to Paris to confront her cheating fiancé, and in the process falls for a French thief.

Mumford (1999) After French Kiss, Kasdan wrote a spec script for Disney called Sojourner—a large-scale fantasy film set in the 1930s about a father and son.

Kasdan cast Loren Dean in the title role, alongside Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Martin Short, and Ted Danson.

Written during King's recovery from being hit by a van in 1999, the story is about four friends and a boy with special powers, involving aliens, telepathy, and extreme body horror.

[47] He eventually decided to make an independent film, based on an incident from his and Meg's own life, when their dog got lost in the mountains of Colorado.

Since it was made on a modest $5 million budget, the ensemble cast—which included Kline, Diane Keaton, Richard Jenkins, Dianne Wiest, and Mark Duplass—worked for scale.

He has made several cameo appearances in his own films: as River Phoenix's lawyer in I Love You to Death, a director in Grand Canyon, a gambler in Wyatt Earp, and a man walking a dog in Darling Companion.