Travolta On Fire

Unhappily experiencing a sharp nose-dive in the career department of late, the ever indomitable John 'Staying Alive' Travolta is to appear alongside Joaquin Phoenix in the conflagration crazy drama Ladder 49. After the galaxy-sized disaster of Battlefield Earth almost scuppered his second attempt at stardom and Hugh Jackman acted him off the screen in Swordfish, poor old Travolta has had to suffer in such dross as Domestic Disturbance and turn in sad cameos in the likes of Austin Powers Goldmember. But now he's set to play the sort of hero all the public are guaranteed to love, a real, goddamn honest firefighter. Playing veteran blaze man, Chief Kennedy in the Disney drama Ladder 49, Travolta will act as the mentor to Joaquin Phoenix' fireman, who becomes trapped in an inferno and uses the moment to indulge in a spot of recollection about his professional life, heroic career and family life. Expect lots of mano a mano speeches including numerous heartfelt declarations of "I love you, man" and testosterone-fuelled backslapping aplenty. In another venture that bodes well for things chez Travolta, we'll see him next reunited with old Pulp Fiction buddie Samuel L. Jackson in the pic Basic helmed by Die Hard stalwart John McTiernan. Playing a DEA agent who must investigate the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry, Travolta must be hoping for a flick more along the lines of box-office military favourite A Few Good Men rather than his own lack lustre A General's Daughter.