The actor calls directing his daughter in the project “the biggest joy of my life.”

John Travolta teases deeply personal directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, starring his daughter, Ella Bleu (exclusive)

The actor calls directing his daughter in the project "the biggest joy of my life."

By Mike Miller

Mike Miller

Mike Miller is the executive editor on the movies team at . He previously worked as a writer-reporter for PEOPLE and TMZ.

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May 5, 2026 11:00 a.m. ET

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John Travolta filming 'Propeller One-Way Night Coach'. Credit:

Courtesy of Apple

- John Travolta makes his feature directorial debut with *Propeller One-Way Night Coach*, which will debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

- The film is based on the semi-autobiographical children's books he wrote for his family in 1997.

- The actor's real-life daughter, Ella Bleu, stars in the film as an enchanting flight attendant.

After over 50 years in front of the camera, John Travolta is flying into uncharted creative territory.

Hollywood’s most accomplished aviator, 72, makes his directorial debut with *Propeller One-Way Night Coach*, a love letter to mid-century air travel scheduled to take off for the first time at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival — and * *has the exclusive first look.

Based on the children’s book he wrote as a Christmas gift for his family in 1997, Travolta has wanted to adapt this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story for nearly 30 years.

“There were several people who wanted to direct and produce it, but part of me said, *Would they really capture what I experienced as a child?*” the *Grease *star tells EW. “*Would they really capture and take the audience through this journey that is so subjective, so personal? Would it be authentic? I'm sure it would be good, but would it be exactly how I saw it?*”

Clark Shotwell and Kelly B. Eviston in 'Propeller One-Way Night Coach'.

Courtesy of Apple

Deciding he’d rather wait than find out, Travolta bided his time, hoping one day his schedule might accommodate the undertaking. “But that day kept on getting postponed,” he says. “At first, it was in the late '90s, I was gonna do it, and then I kept getting booked in movie after movie, and I wasn't finding any room for it.”

Plus, he thought, “If someone else finances it, then I'll be stuck with their vision. So I decided, *Save your money and you'll finance it, you'll direct it, you'll produce it*.”

Likening the stiaution to another Hollywood staple’s journey into his own past and psyche, Travolta asks, “Could anyone really do *The Fabelmans* without Spielberg's perspective?”

Still, it would take decades before the filmmaker found the right time and place. “It took 30 years to come to fruition because I was getting older, and I thought, *When are you ever gonna tell this story on screen if you don't do it now? *Like, this is the time.”

Ella Bleu Travolta and Clark Shotwell in 'Propeller One-Way Night Coach'.

Courtesy of Apple

On its surface, the plot of* Propeller One-Way Night Coach* is fairly straightforward: A young boy and his single mother, who has dreams of Hollywood stardom, embark on a cross-country flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in 1962. Along the way, they meet a colorful cast of characters, including a charming young flight attendant, played by Travolta’s daughter, Ella Bleu (more on that later).

The story might sound simple, but the film’s power lies in its ability to, like the plane on which it takes place, transport audiences to a different time, a hopeful, idealized version of the glamorous jet age as seen from a child’s awestruck eyes.

“It's really a movie about a child's viewpoint of hopefulness,” the actor explains. “When you're young, that's what you see in yourself or feel in yourself, and that's what you see in other people as well. So, it’s that, along with the ambiance of the mid-century, which is permanently in my mind; I can't shed it. The music, the visuals are just embedded in my DNA, it’s what gave me that hope, the architecture of the time, the music of the time, the way people dressed; it was this new, fresh, hopeful thing that was happening."

Though the story is semi-autobiographical (Travolta has said the book is about 50-50 real-life and imagination), *Propeller *is loosely based on the actor’s memories of his first plane ride, an experience that sparked a lifelong obsession with aviation.

Ella Bleu Travolta in 'Propeller One-Way Night Coach'.

Courtesy of Apple

For instance, in the beginning of the film, Jeff (played by newcomer Clark Shotwell) — the fictionalized version of young Travolta — turns to his mother, Helen (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett), as the plane takes off, and says, "I can't believe I'm flying.”

“Which is exactly what I said in 1962,” Travolta explains.

Similarly, before they board, “When this magnificent machine appears before this child's eyes, that's what happened to me, where it just took my breath away,” he adds. “It was like going on a date for the first time or something.”

While the film marks Travolta’s first time in the director’s chair, he says the book, along with his own memories, provided a clear blueprint to work from.

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“I could just feel how well it was working,” he says. “I had it all edited in my mind. We did very few takes. The actors were so good, and they were so effective, that my saying on the set was, ‘It doesn't get better than that. Let's move on.’

“My co-producers were saying, ‘He's not doing enough coverage,’” Travolta recalls with a laugh. “I said, ‘Trust me, this is all I need.’”

After a storied career spent with some of Hollywood’s greatest directors, Travolta says he picked up a trick or two. “I have worked with the best directors in the world, and took the commonalities of what they did, how they behave, what their choices were, and I registered that in the back of my mind, always,” he notes. “And then I also looked at the mistakes other directors made, where you go, *Hm, that's just not what the best do. *They don't have a vision. They're not telling the story. They're excessive. They're obsessing over extensive amounts of takes, and they're wasting time.”

He adds, “It's over 50 years I've been doing film, so if I hadn't learned something, I wouldn't have been paying attention. So I felt like the culmination of all these great directors gave me the opportunity to not make the mistakes that you could make if you were directing for the first time.”

Clark Shotwell and John Travolta behind-the-scenes of 'Propeller One-Way Night Coach'.

Courtesy of Apple

As for whether he’d want to direct again, Travolta recalls what Adam Shankman once said about *Hairspray*, that “it encompassed everything he ever wanted to do on film…and I feel similarly about this little book and this movie; this is my heart. This is my soul wanting to express something. So my answer to would I do it again or what it would be, it would have to affect me that way.”

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Perhaps, he adds, that might be another project with his daughter, budding actress Ella Bleu, 26. Working with her on this project, he says, was "the biggest joy of my life. Ella is such a terrific actress, and I've watched her audition and be in other projects, and she has got such depth and such rarefied beauty that I could not wait to display her in this movie the way I imagined she should be displayed.”

He adds, “I mean, it's my daughter, so I'm being a little biased, but I don't know, I don't think so. When Ella is on screen in this movie, it's a superstar born.”

Sit back, relax, and take a trip with both generations of Travoltas when *Propeller One-Way Night Coach *lands on Apple TV on May 29.

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