Dallas shot down, but not JR
Friday October 13, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
In a tense cliffhanger to rival the show's Who Shot JR? storyline, Hollywood has put the brakes on a big-screen version of the long-running TV soap opera Dallas. The film adaptation of the hugely popular 1970s television show about rival Texas oil barons had been due to start shooting in November but, according to Variety, the film's makers have decided to abort the film's cast, with the exception of John Travolta as JR Ewing, and retry with lesser stars.
If you remember, the film was supposed to star Jennifer Lopez as JR's longsuffering wife Sue Ellen, Shirley MacLaine as matriarch Miss Ellie and Luke Wilson as Bobby Ewing. Lopez left the project under mysterious circumstances in August, and talks then started with Meg Ryan for the role.
However, word has emerged that director Gurinder Chadha, who was parachuted into the production to replace Robert Luketic, was not happy with the cast. Also, focus group research has convinced makers Regency that the only character audiences care about is JR. So the plan now is to recast the film by January to make Dallas for a substantially lower outlay than the current budget of $65m, and tweak the script to make it more appealing to young viewers.
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I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that the script will include some kind of environmental protestors... maybe JR will bump them off, proving his evil oil-baronability!
