Netflix has already added a number of high-profile shows and films to its roster this month, including The Abandons, The Northman, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, the Kung Fu Panda franchise, and several holiday-themed films and shows. All of those were part of the monthly announcements for the streamer, but a wild psychological thriller just shadow dropped on the service out of nowhere, and it features an almost unrecognizable John Travolta.
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The film is titled The Fanatic, and stars Travolta as a rabid movie fan named Moose. As you can see in the trailer below, Moose is obsessed with an actor named Hunter (played by Devon Sawa), and his attempts to get an autograph never seem to go well. The obsession turns into something much darker and more dangerous when he finds where Hunter lives, and while it might have started out as harmless at the beginning, it’s certainly not harmless any longer.
The Fanatic Was 15 Years In The Making
In addition to Travolta, the film features some unexpected star power behind the camera, as Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst was in the director’s chair. In fact, the seeds of this film were planted 15 years ago in a chance meeting with Durst at a party, and they finally had the chance to work together and make this project happen.
“Well, a very long time ago, Joaquin Phoenix and I were at a party for Ladder 49, the firefighter movie, and Fred Durst was friends with Joaquin and Balthazar Getty and that whole group of guys in the movie. So we were just there hanging out, and [Fred] was excited to meet me, but interested in telling me that really his first love is filmmaking and film and the music that he’s done is just a road to get there, and that one day he’d love to submit something to me,” Travolta told Awards Daily.
“I said, ‘Sure, I’m open for it.’ Of course, that was maybe 15 years ago. Then two years ago, he submitted the script and when I read it, I fell in love with it, but I knew that it would be hard to get financed because it was such an eccentric and offbeat film. But I did! I got a friend of mine to go to different places to raise money and they got enough for us to do that movie. It was a really wonderful passion project for Fred and for me as well,” Travolta said.
As for playing the character of Moose, it was a role that had a major effect on Travolta, and one he truly enjoyed playing.
“I’m very proud of this movie and very proud of this performance. It’s one of my acting roles I’ve probably enjoyed playing more than most. It was an interesting thing. A lot of times actors feel like they have to stay in character all day to remain in the zone and I felt like I wanted to be him all day,” Travolta said. “Also between takes, I was ‘him’ to entertain the crew and entertain Fred. We would improvise in order to get it worked up to do the scripted dialogue. It was really a pleasure to play Moose, and I felt like I knew him like the back of my hand, for all sorts of reasons.”
The Fanatic is streaming on Netflix now.
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Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures -
Cover art from the back of the Ultima Online CD jewel case. -
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