Travolta, Lopez to star in big-screen ‘Dallas’

John Travolta and Jennifer Lopez will star in a big-screen version of the prime-time TV soap opera “Dallas.”

Filming is set to begin in October, with the movie slated for a late 2007 release. British filmmaker Gurinda Chadha, who directed 2002’s “Bend it Like Beckham,” will direct.

Travolta will star as the conniving Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing and Lopez will play his wife, Sue Ellen.

“Dallas” aired from 1978 to 1991. In 1980, an estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out who shot J.R., played by Larry Hagman, in the previous season’s cliffhanger finale.

‘Apocalypto’? Not now

Movie fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Mel Gibson’s Mayan epic “Apocalypto.”

The action adventure has been bumped from an Aug. 4 release to Dec. 8 because of production delays caused by heavy rains in Mexico, where the film is being shot.

“Apocalypto” follows the journey of a Mayan hero on the run through the rain forests of pre-Colombian Mexico. Like Gibson’s religious blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which was shot in Aramaic and Latin, it is being done in an ancient tongue, Yucatec Maya.