Rikki
Lee Travolta screen-tested for Bond?
Posted
by: Paul Heath
Source:
'LL'
Date: 19th August 2005
 Okay,
it's very late on a Friday night, and I was just about to put The Hollywood News
to bed for the week, when I stumbled across the following email in my inbox. I
can only credit the source as 'LL' , but it looks like it's come from a press
release. I'm not even sure if this one's been put out there, so here goes anyway.
The jist of the story is that Rikki Lee Travolta has screen tested for Bond! Here's
what the source had to say... According
to a source in the Screen Actors Guild, ponytailed actor Rikki Lee Travolta of
the well known entertainment family was ushered from the Chicago set of 'Crime
Fiction' and flown to London for a closed door screentest for what is only being
described as 'a franchise action role.' The news comes on the heels of a report
that actor Hugh Jackman has declined a three picture offer to play the title character
in the James Bond action film franchise. In 2004 Jackman and Travolta were identified
in the press as two of the final contenders under consideration to take over the
Bond role from Pierce Brosnan. The shortlist of contenders was nicknamed 'the
Bond Five' and consisted of Jackman, Travolta, Eric Bana, Clive Owen, and Adrian
Paul. Following the acquisition of MGM Studios by Sony Pictures, by July 2005
it was believed that the focus for Bond casting had moved to a stable of Goran
Visnjic, Henry Cavill, Alex O'Lachlan, and Ewan Stewart, with Jackson and Travolta
as backburner considerations, and Owen, Bana, and Paul eliminated from contention.
Following screentests by Visnjic, Cavill, O?Lachlan, and Stewart at Pinewood Studios
under the supervision of director Michael Campbell in late July, no decision was
announced.
Instead, news leaked on August 12 that Jackman had been offered
a three picture deal and turned it down. If Travolta was indeed beckoned to the
U.K to test for Bond as the timeline of events suggests, it could be a hairy situation
on the set. O'Lachlan reported that for his screen test the producers had his
hair cut to their specifications. Travolta, however, is under contract to play
Jesus Christ in an upcoming feature and cannot shed his should-length locks until
filming completes. If the rush London screentest was for a rival franchise role,
speculation has Travolta's long mane giving an uncannily ideal look for the title
character in the film adaptation of the comic book 'Thor' which Marvel confirmed
on July 28, 2005 as being in development. Marvel is also developing feature adaptations
of 'Captain America', 'Nick Fury', 'Silver Surfer', and 'Killraven.' Travolta's
representatives were not available for comment. Principal photography on the twenty-first
James Bond feature 'Casino Royale' is scheduled to begin January 17, 2006 for
a planned October 2006 release.
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