Variety June 10, 1999

Thornton talks ``Shipping News'' after Travolta exits

By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - In a radical sea change for Columbia's adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning Annie L. Proulx novel ``The Shipping News,'' John Travolta has quietly exited the project, and Billy Bob Thornton is being courted aggressively to star in and direct the film.

Travolta was expected to play the title role and costar with his wife, Kelly Preston, until he jumped ship. His exit allowed Columbia to begin pursuing Thornton.

Meanwhile, Thornton is well into production for Columbia and Miramax as the director on another novel adaptation, Cormac McCarthy's ``All the Pretty Horses,'' which stars Matt Damon from a script by Ted Tally.

Involved parties were mum on the prospect of Thornton taking center stage in ``Shipping News.'' But insiders said that talks now underway could render the film another co-production between Columbia and Miramax, where Thornton made ``Sling Blade'' and ``Daddy and Them.''

The latter is an ensemble he stars in, wrote, and directed and which Miramax will release this fall. Thornton, who got an Oscar nomination for ``A Simple Plan'' and recently starred in ``Armageddon'' and ``Pushing Tin,'' is eager to act again, and it appears likely that ``Shipping News'' will be his next film.

Thornton is a strong match for the lead character of R.G. Quoyle. In the novel, he's big physically but timid from an unhappy upbringing that leaves him at sea emotionally.

Freshly widowed, he decides to change his life by bringing his two daughters to the Newfoundland town from which his ancestors hailed.

There he discovers himself and falls in love, though he also finds that even a continent away, his family's dark secrets can still find him.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.