Face/Off Werb and Michael Colleary tried to sell to a studio from as early as 1990. The first actors who were chosen to play Sean Archer and Castor Troy were Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively but John Woo instead hired John Travolta and Nicolas Cage to play those characters. It took numerous studios, producers and rewrites before John Woo became attached several years later. For the Archer character, Woo considered casting either Michael Douglas or Jean-Claude Van Damme with whom he had worked in "Hard Target". When the film was eventually made, Douglas served as an executive producer. Werb and
John Travolta reviews and did very poorly at the box office. Travolta's performance in "Battlefield Earth" also earned him two Razzie Awards. Throughout the 2000s, Travolta remained busy as an actor, starring in many films including "Swordfish" (2001), "Ladder 49" (2004), "Be Cool" (2005), "Wild Hogs" (2007), the animated film "Bolt" (2008), in which Travolta voiced the title character, "The Taking of Pelham 123" and "Old Dogs" (both 2009). In 2007, Travolta played Edna Turnblad in the remake of "Hairspray", his first musical since "Grease". Since 2010, Travolta has starred mostly in action films and thrillers. In 2016, he returned to TV