Hollywood star John Travolta explains why he directed new movie
John Travolta has opened up about the experience of making Propeller One-Way Night Coach.
John Travolta waited nearly 30 years to direct Propeller One-Way Night Coach.
The 72-year-old actor wrote the book, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, as a Christmas gift for his family in 1997, and he's waited decades to direct the project himself.
John - who is making his directorial debut with the film adaptation -told Entertainment Weekly: "There were several people who wanted to direct and produce it, but part of me said, Would they really capture what I experienced as a child? Would they really capture and take the audience through this journey that is so subjective, so personal? Would it be authentic? I'm sure it would be good, but would it be exactly how I saw it?
"But that day kept on getting postponed. At first, it was in the late '90s, I was gonna do it, and then I kept getting booked in movie after movie, and I wasn't finding any room for it."
John feared he might miss out on the job, if an external investor financed the project.
He said: "If someone else finances it, then I'll be stuck with their vision. So I decided, Save your money and you'll finance it, you'll direct it, you'll produce it."
Despite this, John thinks he was right to bide his time, and he's pleased to be releasing the project later this month.
The Hollywood star - who is, perhaps, best known for appearing in the movie Grease - said: "It took 30 years to come to fruition because I was getting older, and I thought, When are you ever gonna tell this story on screen if you don't do it now? Like, this is the time."
John has described the new movie as being "about a child's viewpoint of hopefulness".
The actor added: "When you're young, that's what you see in yourself or feel in yourself, and that's what you see in other people as well. So, it’s that, along with the ambiance of the mid-century, which is permanently in my mind; I can't shed it.
"The music, the visuals are just embedded in my DNA, it’s what gave me that hope, the architecture of the time, the music of the time, the way people dressed; it was this new, fresh, hopeful thing that was happening."
