The movie adaptation of Dallas has been sent back to the drawing board. They're throwing the whole thing in the trash, firing almost the entire cast, and starting over from scratch. Things must be pretty bad.
Variety says they will however hang on to John Travolta, who will still play J.R. Ewing. Everyone else though, is out. That means Luke Wilson and Shirley MacLaine are fired. Jennifer Lopez, who you may remember was supposed to play Sue Ellen, left the project under mysterious circumstances on her own in August.
Actually, so far the entire thing has been a disaster. The movie's original director dropped out suddenly only to be replaced by Bend it Like Beckham helmer Gurinder Chadha… a strange choice to say the least. Then there's their rather bizarre decision to shoot as little of it in Dallas as possible, much to the consternation of my home town. Oh and there's Jessica Simpson, who's still out there somewhere whining that she didn't get a part.
Well Jessica, feel free to start your campaign to be in Dallas all over again. You've got a clean slate. The movie's not dead, they are simply rebooting. Regency plans to completely recast and be ready to start shooting as early as January, only with a significantly smaller budget. Originally they'd planned to spend $65 million, now they'll lower that by hiring less expensive (and much less interesting) talent.
