John Travolta's new look By Craig Kopp, Post movie writer

The conspiracy theories are rampant when it comes to the John Travolta- led ''Battlefield Earth.''

Since the book Travolta's new sci-fi epic is based on was written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and Travolta is a Scientology member, the suspicious among us wonder if ''Battlefield Earth'' will be some sort of promotional film for the religion. Others have gone so far as to claim their is a subliminal recruiting message in the movie. All of which John Travolta laughed off, saying, ''Let's not hope it's that kind of message,'' referring to the plot of ''Battlefield Earth,'' in which aliens have taken over Earth and made human beings their slaves. Travolta himself plays the head alien.

Travolta points out that Hubbard was a writer of science fiction long before he became famous for Scientology. And Travolta is convinced it's the science fiction that will bring people to the theater to see ''Battlefield Earth.''

''You know, first, the great thing is that Hubbard was much more famous for science fiction than philosophy,'' Travolta said. ''And, second, the book is such a successful science fiction book, six million copies worldwide, so there are a lot of readers. Three times 'A General's Daughter,' three times more than 'Get Shorty,' three times more than 'A Civil Action.' So, you're starting with a head-start of people knowing what the movie is going to be about because they read the book.'' The book, ''Battlefield Earth,'' is an old-fashioned science fiction yarn that Hubbard published in the early '80s, after taking a 30-year lay off from the pulp sci-fi writing that made him famous. It tells of an alien race that defeats Earth armies in just nine minutes. These aliens are known as Psychlos, an obvious reference to psychologists, of whom Hubbard had a low opinion.

The population of Earth has been relegated to beast-of-burden status, except for a small tribe hiding out in the mountains who believe man angered the gods, somehow, and the god abandoned Earth to demons in the form of these aliens. One man, however, believes reason and intellect can be used to fight these evil aliens. Again, a reflection of Hubbard's philosophy of turning to reason over blind faith.

''Yeah, there is that,'' Travolta said. ''But there's also the conflict between criminals and good guys, which is just a classic story-telling thing.''

And, when it comes to bad guys, Travolta plays one of the worst in the character of Terl, the Psychlo head of security for Earth.

''Terl has got to be one of the best comic villains in literary history,'' said Travolta. ''And to get to play that is great. He thinks he's so smart, but he's so stupid. I mean this guy thinks that rats are man's favorite food and goes all the way with it thinking this is the leverage he can use to get them to do anything he wants. He's funny, and classic.''

And also a real pain when it comes to make-up. In ''Battlefield Earth'' Travolta is nearly unrecognizable as the giant alien with the huge head and yellow eyes.

''That was hard. Getting it on was four hours of work a day,'' Travolta said. ''It's a claustrophobic get up, I had a foot-long extension on my head, I had talons and amber eye contacts, a suit that was very constriction. Although it helped me be more evil, it was really rough to be in.''

Publication date: 05-11-00