L. Ron Hubbard was a sleazy burnout who jumped from one scheme to another, exaggerating his credentials and achievements. He happened upon the pulp science fiction industry, which was in constant need of material. He proved adept at imagining strange worlds that appealed to book buyers. Due to the large number of books constantly being churned out, there wasn't much money in writing the books, but it gave Mr. Hubbard a decent income.
One book written by Mr. Hubbard was Battlefield Earth, a pulpy story about a race of aliens who enslave humans on earth and the eventual rebellion that ensues. The book was nothing to brag about; it was written quickly and fed into the pulp Sci-Fi machine to be read, then discarded. These types of books were so disposable they were printed on the cheapest paper the publishers could find. Mr. Hubbard, however, thought he could do much more than just churn out these cheapie books; he desired to start up his own religion.
Thus began the new age-y Scientology religion. L. Ron took his crazy book ideas and spun them into a religion that would make him more money than merely writing forgettable books. Fashioning himself into a guru, he soon found great success with this new religion. Taking some elements from his books, he created his religious system in which believers paid increasing amounts of money to get further "enlightenment". His religion took Hollywood by storm, signing up celebrities like John Travolta. With Hubbard's books now being pushed as the writings of an enlightened messiah instead of the cheesy pulp fiction they actually were, Battlefield Earth became of greater importance to Scientology's adherents. Mr. Travolta became obsessed with turning the book into a big budget film.
When Travolta first started trying to get the film made, he eyed the part of the young hero from the book. By the time the film was greenlit, however, he was much too old for the role so he settled on the part of the lead villain. Scientology embraced the project, certain that it would be successful and lead to new recruits. Instead, they ended up with a massive box office failure. At first, things seemed fine. Franchise Films, an independent studio aligned with Warner Brothers, had promised a gigantic budget for the film. Toy contracts were signed and the film went into production. Things weren't as they seemed, however.
Other than the "crap-lousy" script, the production was hindered by a low budget. Franchise Films turned out to be a massive scam. The studio would rope investors with promises of a $100 Million budget, then spend half of that total and pocket the rest. This resulted in laughable special effects and a cheap looking film. Even the toy line was rumored to be fake. The toy company just repainted existing stock from an unrelated toy line, replaced the heads and voila! An ugly, ridiculous looking range of unwanted toys.
Despite all this, Scientology went all out to make the film huge. They even bought up blocks of tickets to create artificial "sell-outs." In the end, both critics and audiences hated the film. The film put Franchise Films into a death spiral and bankrupted the toy company. Scientology quickly distanced itself from the film and plans for a trilogy were scrapped. No one escaped this battle with their dignity intact.
