John Travolta ‘leaves’ upcoming Dallas movie

John Travolta has bolted or been sent packing depending on what you believe from the upcoming Dallas movie it’s been reported, to be replaced by Ben Stiller.

But the Grease star was still handed a seven-figure sum for his work on the project, sources said.

Travolta was set to play Texas oil baron J.R Ewing in the big screen remake of the popular 1980s television show after being promoted as the project’s anchor for more than two years.

Bend It Like Beckham director was replaced by Betty Thomas earlier this year.

Producers decided the movie needed “more laughs” and called for an entirely new, slapstick script which was supposedly rewritten as “a ‘show-within-a-show’ comedy.”

While this story is being played up as the studios ’dumped’ Travolta, it’s just as likely that he badly wanted out.  The project, which has been in the works for several years vision has changed so much from the originally intended drama to a “comedic, behind-the-scenes” movie instead. 

An insider said: “John was given a nice seven-figure ‘gift’ to go away quietly. “He also got five family members roles in the movie, and they aren’t going to be in it now, either.

“He was let go about two weeks ago. He had the role of J.R. Ewing taken from him and given to Ben Stiller.”

A friend of Travolta told a US newspaper: “He is not doing the movie. “They’ve gone in a different direction than was originally intended.

“I don’t know about any ‘gift,’ and I don’t think the family member thing is correct.”

A spokesman for Travolta, 53, who has just landed a Golden Globe nomination for his cross-dressing role in movie musical Hairspray, declined to comment.

A spokesman for Ben Stiller denied the actor had been offered the part of Ewing.

In the past Jennifer Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Luke Wilson and Meg Ryan and Matthew McConaughey have all also been touted as possible cast members for the troubled flick, which is now expected to be released in 2009.

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox is said to have declined to comment.

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