Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta and Forest Whitaker has been labeled as one of the worst movies of all time. The movie, based on a book from L. Ron Hubbard, has even gone on to become a cult classic for its bizarre camera angles and logical inconsistencies in the plot.
However, the release of Cats and its massive critical and commercial failure has reportedly pushed Battlefield Earth out of its position of dubious value.
Battlefield Earth, the New York Post reported, made just $29,3 million at the box office against a $73 million budget, and until recent years, held the most amount of Razzie Awards for any film ever. Twenty years later, however, and the film’s screenwriter claims there is a new top contender for the worst movie of all time.
During a conversation with The Post, J.D. Shapiro stated that he dedicated 15 minutes of his time to the film, Cats, and to him, it might be the new worst movie of all time. According to Shapiro, the film must’ve seemed “disturbing” to regular people.
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Back in 2010, the screenwriter for the film wrote a column for the New York Post in which he apologized for playing a role in Battlefield Earth. Reportedly, MGM and other outside forces negatively impacted his vision of the film.
Moreover, Shapiro said that almost nothing that he contributed to the screenplay remained in the final cut. Since then, Shapiro has been writing under a new pseudonym, Sir Nick Knack. According to Shapiro, the column that he wrote was hailed by people in the filmmaking business.
He claims he was honestly surprised by the positive reception to it. In his former op-ed, Shapiro claims the Church of Scientology got involved with the writing of the screenplay, and when he told them their changes would destroy the film, he was dropped from the project the following day.
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Additionally, and perhaps humorously, Shapiro said his resume on Battlefield Earth led to many funny confrontations at industry events, including one where someone told him he couldn’t be that bad of a writer because he didn’t write Battlefield Earth. The situation obviously became awkward from there.
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