Travolta Now Commands A Few Extra Zeros

John Travolta has hit the jackpot again. The “Get Shorty” star will collect $16 million upfront - and $20 million if all his bonuses are included - to star in “The Double,” which Roman Polanski will direct and Oscar winner Lili Fini Zanuck (“Driving Miss Daisy”) will produce.

The money is somewhat less than the record-breaking $21 million that Travolta’s William Morris agents had reportedly set for him after the double whammy of “Pulp Fiction” and “Get Shorty.”

Either way, it marks a big jump for Travolta, who received $150,000 for “Pulp Fiction,” $5 million for “Shorty,” $8 million for the now-shooting “Phenomenon” and $11 million for the upcoming “Michael.” Travolta received only $150,000 for “White Man’s Burden,” a $6 million picture that he committed to partly out of commitment to its anti-racist message.

The film is a modern-day adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novella about a man who wakes up one day to discover that his doppelganger has literally stepped into his life and is beginning to take it over. The current script centers on an American in Paris, where the film will be shot.

Stone sets lense on tabloids

Oliver Stone is turning tabloid.

The director of such films as “JFK” and the upcoming “Nixon” has trained his sights on another controversial target. He is attached to direct a film based on “Spy Vs. Spies,” an expose of the tabloid print and television industry by investigative journalist Stuart Goldman, published in the December issue of Spy magazine.

“Spy Vs. Spies” will be produced by Janet Yang and Stone through their production company, Ixtlan. No screenwriter has yet been assigned to the project.

“Spy Vs. Spies” is the story of how Goldman went undercover to work as a journalist and producer for several tabloid institutions including the National Enquirer, the Star, “A Current Affair” and the Globe in order to expose the way they operate. During his investigation, Goldman was arrested on computer hacking charges in March 1990, after he was charged by executives at Fox television with stealing information from their computer. Goldman subsequently was absolved of all legal charges. In the article, Goldman makes a number of accusations about the Fox executives suggesting strongly that they were out to get him.

The magazine article draws on material Goldman will use in a book he is preparing, “Snitch: Confessions of a Tabloid Spy, Computer Hacker, and All Around Scoundrel.” There is no publishing deal at present.

Kilmer is ‘The Saint’

Val Kilmer has ended months of speculation about who’ll star in “The Saint,” director Phillip Noyce’s feature about the classic debonaire detective. The new Batman has signed to play Simon Templar - after Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson and Ralph Fiennes turned down the role. If “The Saint” is a hit, and Kilmer stars as expected in the fourth Batman movie, he will have two franchises going. Meanwhile, he has three other movies on the way. He’s got a supporting role in “Heat,” the Pacino-De Niro movie opening Dec. 15. He recently finished “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Marlon Brando. And he’s currently shooting “The Ghost and the Darkness” in South Africa with Michael Douglas.

Prefontaine film in works

Steve James and Peter Gilbert, the filmmakers responsible for the basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams,” will tackle their first feature project, Hollywood Pictures’ “Pre,” the story of the late charismatic track star Steve Prefontaine.

Prefontaine, who grew up in Coos Bay, Ore., became America’s premier middle-distance runner in the late 1960s. At the time of his death at age 24 in an auto accident in 1975, he held every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters.

He was the youngest athlete to compete in the track and field events during the 1972 Olympics.

James and Gilbert will first rewrite Eugene Corr’s script, then James will direct the film with Gilbert serving as director of photography. Both will serve as executive producers.

Hollywood Pictures hopes to launch production on “Pre” in the spring. There is a sense of hurry to Hollywood’s project because of the existence of a rival Steve Prefontaine project, which noted screenwriter Robert Towne is penning for Warner Bros. According to a Warner spokesman, that project remains in active development.

James and Gilbert came to the attention of critics and audiences last year when “Hoop Dreams,” a documentary that traced the basketball careers of two black youths in the Chicago area, wound up on many critics’ Top 10 lists.