Recent content by BlackWave

Having been using XenForo 2 I'm fine with this; the likes thing seems a bit odd to me but it won't be a dealbreaker. The color scheme I might miss, since it's going back since the beginning for me, but if it can be replicated as mentioned above I can adjust. Well, new year and new decade, time...

Anyway, how might this film look if: A. It does indeed get produced via a real studio, albeit with directors and/or writers in Scientology's thrall, with Hubbard involved either indirectly or directly as a 'creative consultant'? B. It does get produced in-house, so to speak, with all that...

The director was basically perpetually on drugs throughout production. I'm also being literal.

True, but this is the seventies, where a 'message film' could involve Sean Connery running around in red lingerie. ;)

Oooh, nice one.

Hubbard had a prolific career in the 30s but by the 70s he was starting to get high on his own supply, so to speak, and was often tinkering with Scientology 'scripture', making up stories about underwater UFO bases and whatnot.

Battlefield Earth was apparently hoped by the Church to be a boon for them, up to filling up theaters with members to try and boost ticket sales. Supposedly its leader David Miscavige considered it a great embarrassment. Perhaps here Hubbard manages to snag a capable director or two to get it...

In 1969, United Artists took possession of the film rights for the Lord of the Rings. In the subsequent decade, a little religious group known as Scientology was making headway into Hollywood, bringing stars like John Travolta into their fold, and had enough connections to kick-start the careers...

Because those OTL events, having various factors that lead into them, evidently aren't ASB. Now, if a scenario has good thought and explanation put into it, that's another thing, but sometimes it's on the level of 'Hitler dies, and then, like, the Nazis get LAZER ROBOTS.'

According to Michael Ironside, the choice for Rico's race in the film was more to do with Verhoeven riffing on the 'perfect blonde heroes' of old military propaganda. 'cause, y'know, they were totally trying to do a realistic and straight portrayal of military training, much like Robocop was a...

Er...near as I can tell, Verhoeven never said anything like this. The Nazi imagery was pretty much just there for effect. The film does, however, nicely parody shots of things like Triumph of the will, so maybe somebody took that far too literally. As for the book...ironically, given the...

Nice. More of a Black Sabbath guy myself, but you can't beat a bit of Stairway to Heaven and Dark Side to the Moon. :) Still, good to see this sort of stuff.