‘I’m sorry’ says Battlefield Earth’s screenwriter

A few weeks ago, J.D. Shapiro won the Razzie for writing the Worst Film of the Decade.

“No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn’t really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those,” says J.D. Shapiro, the screenwriter of the notoriously bad film, Battlefield Earth. The film is an adaptation of the popular Scientology ideals of L. Ron Hubbard, to which the film starred John Travolta, a known advocate of the religion. In a letter, Shapiro explains why he wrote the screenplay.

“It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker. It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women. Willy convinced me to go check it out. Touring the building, I didn’t find any eligible women at first, but I did meet Karen Hollander, president of the center, who said she was a fan of “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” We ended up talking for over two hours. She told me why Scientology is so great. I told her that, when it comes to organized religion, anything a person does to reward, threaten and try to control people by using an unknown like the afterlife is dangerous.”

All joking aside, he concludes: “My script was very, VERY different than what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn’t have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.”

I remember sitting in the theater opening weekend (no, I’m not a Scientology supporter, I was just curious due to the negative reviews), and during the film I was just dumbfounded. At that time, I had no clue about Hubbard’s book, Scientology, or anything political, I just wanted to see a sci-fi film with aliens. Shapiro’s assessment of the film, makes me what to revisit it on Blu-ray: “Looking back at the movie with fresh eyes, I can’t help but be strangely proud of it. Because out of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest!”

Click here for the full letter (it’s a fun read). What has Shapiro been doing since then? A TV movie called X-Treme Biography: Santa. We wish him luck with his recently announced script for Knights of the Not-So Round Table: The Lost Tapes of 524 AD.

Source: /Film

Jon Peters

I love film. That is all.

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