Travolta's Next Movie Delayed

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/11/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

The fallout from the $70 million John Travolta flop "Battlefield Earth" may affect the release of the star's next movie, "Numbers," which was originally set to open July 14 -- at the height of the summer sizzle. "I wouldn't be surprised if Paramount ended up pushing it back to Christmas," Robert Bucksbaum, president of ReelSource (a box-office tracker), told the New York Post. Bucksman believes the studio wants to distance the comedy from "Battlefield Earth," which "left a bad taste in moviegoers' mouths." Travolta, a Scientologist, intended "Earth" as a tribute to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote the sci-fi novel on which the movie was based. In "Numbers," Travolta plays a TV weatherman who tries to rig the numbers with his station's Lotto ball girl (Lisa Kudrow). "The July opening was a hilariously optimistic thing," the comedy's writer-director Nora Ephron told the Post, adding that she didn't know whether or not the status of "Battlefield Earth" played any part in her movie's delayed release.