Posted on 03/29/2010 8:56:35 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
‘Battlefield Earth’ Screenwriter Is Sorry About That
By Marc Schneider
J.D. Shapiro wrote one of the most derided films of all time. Now, he's saying sorry. In early March, 2000's 'Battlefield Earth' was "awarded" worst movie of the decade by the Razzies. Few are protesting it and even more, like the folks behind 'Freddy Got Fingered,' must have let out a sigh of relief at the news. But Shapiro knows what he did was awful. Truly awful, and in an open letter published by the NY Post, he hilariously tries to explain himself.
"It wasn't as I intended -- promise. 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."
Shapiro runs down the whole experience, starting with a tour of a Scientology center and being approached to write a film, to having dinner with the film's future star John Travolta, to even taking some classes to bone up on the L. Ron Hubbard-created religion.
"I took a few courses, including the Purification Rundown, or Purif. You go to CC every day, take vitamins and go in and out of a sauna so toxins are released from your body. You're supposed to reach an 'End Point.' I never did, but I was bored so I told them I had a vision of L. Ron. They said, 'What did he say?' 'Pull my finger,' was my response. They said I was done."
He even got to take a ride on the super-exclusive cruise ship, the Freewind, where he stuck out by walking around in a robe, smoking and drinking scotch. Scientologists are not allowed to drink while taking classes.
(Excerpt) Read more at popeater.com ...
Full apology at:
“I penned the suckiest movie ever - sorry!”
I honestly thought freddy got fingered was worse — a girl I was thinking of dating showed me that pic once — after that I stayed far away from her...
ping
Freddy Got Fingered is one of the movies I have turned off/stopped watching because it was so bad. I liked Tom Green at the time, too. Battlefield Earth is pretty bad, though.
“A few days after I finished the script, a very excited Travolta called, told me he “loved it,” and wanted to have dinner. At dinner, John said again how much he loved the script and called it “The ‘Schindler’s List’ of sci-fi.”
There is no way that book could have been made into a movie, period. No way.
I actually liked Battlefield Earth. I didn’t realize it had anything to do with Scientology except for the star.
I think Scientology and Mormonism should merge.
We could have one huge cult that way.
I’d have to come up with new jokes though.
The Providence Journal review is my favorite:
“Battlefield Earth’s primary colors are blue and gray, adding to the misery. Whenever we glimpse sunlight, the screen goes all stale yellow, as though someone had urinated on the print. This, by the way, is not such a bad idea.”
Wasn’t Battlefield Earth one of L. Ron Hubbard’s novels?
Yes, and the novel is actually great. He wrote it intending it to be a movie. Not the movie that was made, however.
[I honestly thought freddy got fingered was worse]
I don’t know, Ishtar really stunk up the place
I might as well apologize, because I thought Battlefield Earth was a decent movie. It was entertaining and different and it held my attention. I have seen tons of movies that I thought were worse. I recently viewed “The Fourth Kind” and I quit in the middle of it.
When people like you make comments like this, I never seem to read what exact church you belong to. Let me guess, "a Christian one"?
There may be no unforgivable sins, but he came close.
It’s about time that bastard apologized. What a piece a sh*t that movie was. Did he grovel ... ?
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