here
are two messages John Travolta makes sure to drive home when talking up
his longtime pet project, the epic sci-fi film, Battlefield Earth.
Long before turning to the metaphysical, Hubbard was a prolific and popular science fiction writer in the '30s and '40s. And Battlefield Earth, a tale of the last remaining humans struggling against slavery from the stars 800 years hence, was his biggest commercial effort with more than five million copies sold.
Which is not to deny that there isn't some quid pro quo to Travolta's work as
producer and star of the $120 million Battlefield Earth (shot in Montreal, it's the most expensive film ever shot in Canada). "Hubbard changed the way I viewed my life completely, and all for the good," Travolta told the New York Daily News. "I know Scientology helped me keep my head and stay out of trouble. Hubbard had been writing sci-fi, fantasy and pulp since 1937, and it's high time it (the movie) was done."
He calls Battlefield Earth "the pinnacle of using my power for something. I can get things done that a studio might not normally do. I told my manager, 'If we can't do the things now that we want to do, what good is the power? Let's test it and try to get the things done.' "
Calling his own shots, Travolta gave himself the unlikely role of the villain, a giraffe-sized alien "Psychlo" named Terl, chief security officer of the enslaved Earth. "He's nine feet tall," Travolta told a Montreal press conference, "he's got talons for hands, long hair and an extended head."
"But," he added with a laugh, "you'll still recognize me." An important factor for Travolta-the-producer, seeing as he's got Travolta-the-actor - one of the world's best-paid leading men - as his star, and you wouldn't want to lose him under a ton of latex.
Canadian actor Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) is along as the hero of the piece, Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, the leader of the human resistance. Forest Whitaker and Travolta's wife Kelly Preston (who plays another alien) round out the cast. Travolta's homage to his mentor is intended to go on. Not for those with short attention spans, Battlefield Earth was over 1,000 pages. Travolta used only the first 500 pages of the book for the film, "plus a couple of tidbits from the second part. Theoretically, we can get it completed in two films."
That he's planning sequels shows a bullishness that many in Hollywood once lacked toward the project. Some felt it smacked of proselytizing. Others questioned the commercial potential of a film that covers up the most bankable star in Hollywood in gizmos, masks and rubber.
Such concerns are for the short sighted, says Travolta. "Battlefield Earth is one of the biggest-selling science fiction novels of all time. We could be next summer's Star Wars."
- Jim Slotek