It was certainly one of the more eye-popping moments from any of the awards season films last year. In “Flight,” a hungover, disheveled airline pilot, played by Denzel Washington, is suddenly forced to crash land his plane while saving as many people as he can. So, what does he do? He flies the damn thing upside down (a scientific reason why this is plausible is given in the movie, but we forget what it is now) and lo and behold, he’s able to spin back around, and gracefully (as possible) touch down behind a church (symbolism or something). It was a pretty heart-stopping sequence, but it turns out, one actor thought it wasn’t quite up to par.
John Travolta, a trained and practicing pilot himself, recently chatted with Contactmusic and revealed he was offered “Flight,” but had some issues with the big show-stopping sequence. “The funny thing was it was written for me. But it was not written well enough yet—the plane stuff, not the character. I loved that he was an alcoholic and I loved his journey a lot. But the plane stuff was silly, from my perspective,” the actor said. “Flying upside down—it’s a bit much. I just wanted those bits to get redone. I asked the writer, ‘Did you not ask a professional or someone who knew something?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t want any interference—I just wanted the screenplay done. To hell with that stuff!'”
We’d guess that Travolta’s definition of “silly” is malleable or at least doesn’t apply to the facial hair he’s wearing in the upcoming “Killing Season” with Robert De Niro. Or maybe that script is miraculously better than “Flight.” Suffice it to say that perhaps everyone wins in the end since Travolta ultimately didn’t wind up doing that movie. [via FilmDrunk]
