The name’s Travolta. John Travolta.
And the Hollywood superstar might soon be ordering his own gizmo-weapons and specialty drinks as a Bond-like superagent in MGM’s “Quiller Solitaire.” Daily Variety says the studio’s hot on the project, with an eye on turning it into another action-adventure franchise.
The story’s based on a series of books by author Adam Hall about a top-flight British spy. Travolta’s participation in the mission is said to be contingent on two factors: director approval and the status of his other (many) assignments. Travolta’s projected immediate workload includes the dramas “Travel Agent” and “Steinbeck’s Point of View”; the biopic “Standing Room Only”; and the sequel to this summer’s “Battlefield Earth.”
Travolta’s set to hit theaters next in director Nora Ephron’s Paramount project “Numbers.”
TUBE OF ‘TERRORS’: Aidan Quinn is game for one bizarre trip in the pilot for Fox’s “Twilight Zone”-esque anthology “Night Terrors.” The actor will play a transportation official who starts to lose his mind while investigating a plane crash. It turns out that he’s one of the passengers on the doomed flight. Like any good Rod Serling victim, he does his darndest to warn the pilot before it’s too late.
The Hollywood Reporter says the series will feature a different cast each episode, with an actor of Quinn’s caliber headlining every show.
‘ER’ DOC IN ‘DANGER’: Eriq La Salle’s no stranger to emergencies. Now he’s ready for ‘Danger,’ a low-budget thriller he’ll direct for Platform Entertainment and his own Warners-based Humble Journey Films. According to the Reporter, shooting begins in May in Los Angeles.
The script by Joe Singer and Jason Squire involves a severe case of mistaken identity. The hero finds himself being chased after sitting on a plane next to a serial killer. La Salle last helmed the 1996 HBO TV movie “Rebound.”
FEELING NO PAIN: Laura Dern’s the latest to make her dental appointment in the Artisan comedy “Novocaine.” She’ll join co-stars Steve Martin and Helena Bonham Carter on the project, set to shoot in mid-April with “Arizona Dream’s” David Atkins at the helm.
The story has Martin playing a dentist who gets into all sorts of mischief after a mysterious patient (Bonham Carter) cons him into prescribing her drugs. Dern’s cast as Martin’s dental hygienist/girlfriend.
