Trivia for
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Author L. Ron Hubbard is the founder of the controversial Church of Scientology, to which John Travolta and Kelly Preston belong.
  
  
• When the book was first written, John Travolta wanted to make the movie, and star as Johnny Goodboy, the young hero. Of course, he could get no investors to back him. By the time the movie was made, he was too old to play the part of the hero and, instead, opted to play the part of the villain, Terl.
  
  
• The film covers only the first half of the L. Ron Hubbard book.
  
  
• The original plans called for a sequel to be produced, which would be based on second half of the novel by L. Ron Hubbard. These plans were scrapped due to the poor critical and public reaction to this film.
  
  
• John Travolta's contract for this movie had him take a large up-front pay cut from his usual fee, to around $10 million, with incentives that would have paid him about $15 million more when and if the movie met standards at the North American box office. Unfortunately, the film fell short of these standards.
  
  
• In an interview with Movieline magazine, Barry Pepper said that the food provided on the set wasn't great and that John Travolta decided to summon his personal chef to the movie's Canada location to feed the cast and crew.
  
  
• Forest Whitaker expressed his regret for participating in this movie.
  
  
• Tied with Showgirls (1995) as the film with the second-most Golden Raspberry Award wins: seven (including three for John Travolta: Worst Picture, Actor, and Screen Couple with "anyone sharing the screen with him"). While Showgirls (1995) received almost twice as many RAZZIE nominations, Battlefield: Earth "won" in every single category it was nominated for at the 2001 Awards. Only Forest Whitaker escaped without a RAZZIE, due to a double nomination in the Worst Supporting Actor category (which Barry Pepper "won"). I Know Who Killed Me (2007) exceeded their previous record by winning eight RAZZIES in 2008.
  
  
• When this film swept all its nominated categories at the 2001 Razzie Awards, it was referred to throughout the ceremony as "Plan Nine from L. Ron Hubbard" (as in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)).
  
  
• Listed among the Top Ten Best Bad Films ever made in "The Official Razzie Movie Guide", by Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson.
  
  
• The investor, Intertainment, sued producer Franchise Pictures for fraud. Franchise claimed the budget was $75 million instead of the actual budget of $44 million. Franchise Pictures were sentenced to pay Intertainment $121.7 million in damages and went bankrupt. Intertainment only financed the film because it came as a package deal with The Art of War (2000) and The Whole Nine Yards (2000).
  
  

Related Links