Were you happy, sad or

• email this story
• read comments (1)
• post a comment
• 
  
  

Were you happy, sad or indifferent about the Variety story two days ago (Thursday, 3.30) that the movie version of Dallas, which 20th Century Fox wanted to start shooting in May so it would be in theatres by November, had fallen apart due to the sudden depature of director Robert Luketic (Monster in Law)? I was personally delighted. Fox may find another director and the film might get made down the road, but there would be a heavy spiritual price all around. Exposure to a thing like this can give you soul cancer. The rule, of course, is that you have to chuckle at gaudy garbage movies or people will shake their heads and call you a sourpuss. To hell with these folks and all the prescription drugs in their bathroom cabinet. Anyone panting to see a Dallas movie has a void in their soul the size of the Houston Astrodome. And who would want to see John Travolta and that bizarre tennis-ball haircut of his trying to re-invigorate the spirit of J.R. Ewing? (I can hear his drawling Texas accent in my head.) Why did Luketic bolt? I'm told that Fox honchos were "shoving casting choices down his throat." If this is true, I wonder which actor or actors were the deal-breakers? The names that had been kicking in the trades included Travolta, Jennifer Lopez (Sue Ellen Ewing), Luke Wilson (Bobby Ewing) and Shirley MacLaine (Ellie Ewing).