Roger Christian’s biggest directing assignment—adapting L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth with John Travolta and Barry Pepper—became a public and critical calamity on release. The Guardian labeled the film both a commercial and critical disaster and even placed it among the "worst films ever made," while NPR later called it "the worst science fiction film of the decade." The production was controversial in part because of its source material and Travolta’s association with Scientology; Christian publicly insisted he did not regard the picture as a "Scientology movie," describing it instead as a throwback to conventional science fiction. The film’s failure left a lasting stain on its creators: Christian received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, and Battlefield Earth has endured in cinema history as a notorious studio-era misfire.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2000s
Battlefield Earth: Roger Christian and the High-Profile Collapse of a L. Ron Hubbard Adaptation
Battlefield Earth (2000) / 2000s
Roger Christian’s biggest directing assignment—adapting L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth with John Travolta and Barry Pepper—became a public and critical calamity on release. The Guardian labeled the film both a commercial and critical disaster and even placed it among the "worst films ever made," while NPR later called it "the worst science fiction film of the decade." The production was controversial in part because of its source material and Travolta’s association with Scientology; Christian publicly insisted he did not regard the picture as a "Scientology movie," describing it instead as a throwback to conventional science fiction. The film’s failure left a lasting stain on its creators: Christian received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, and Battlefield Earth has endured in cinema history as a notorious studio-era misfire.
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