Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 2000American film adaptation of the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. It was a commercial and critical disaster and has been widely criticized as one of the worst films ever made. Starring John Travolta, Forrest Whitaker and Barry Pepper, the film depicts an Earth that has been under the rule of the alien Psychlos for 1,000 years and tells the story of the rebellion that develops when the Psychlos attempt to use the surviving humans as gold miners. Travolta, a long-time Scientologist, had sought for many years to make a film of the novel by Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. After a long search, he obtained funding from Franchise Pictures, an independent production company that specialized in rescuing stars' pet projects. However, Battlefield Earth received abysmal reviews on its release and failed to recoup its costs at the box office. Franchise Pictures was later sued by its investors and was bankrupted after it emerged that it had fraudulently overstated the film's budget by $31 million. (more...)
... that Belgian filmmaker Armand Denis, who became famous for his wildlifedocumentaries with his wife Michaela in the 1950s, began his career working as a scientist and inventor?
An international relief operation begins after Cyclone Nargis strikes Burma, with at least 63,500 people reported killed or missing. The Burmese military regime conducts a significant referendum days from the cyclone's strike despite international appeals.
