Originally set to start shooting in November, the feature film adaptation of “Dallas” has hit a bit of a snag… there is only one person left to star in the film, and while John Travolta can steal a scene I don’t think a “Dallas” movie with only J.R. Ewing will work.
News has come out of Variety that Luke Wilson, Shirley MacLaine and Meg Ryan have all followed Jennifer Lopez’s lead and exited the project leaving Travolta and director Gurinder Chadha all alone. It seems production house New Regency finally turned the light on upstairs and realized that reviving a 15 year-old television show might have a bit of a problem with the younger moviegoing audience. The new mission is to make Dallas for a substantially lower price than its most recent $65 million budget by going out to actors with lower quotes.
On top of that the article reports that Chadha was not happy with the cast as focus group research concluded that J.R. was the only character auds felt strongly about. While 20th Century Fox has dropped out of the project New Regency states, “We are moving forward with the project.”
