In Barry Sonnenfeld's 1995 showbiz comedy "Get Shorty," John Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a loan shark from Miami who possesses more cool than anyone currently living. He's also a deep-cut movie buff, and bought a leather jacket specifically because it looked exactly like the one Al Pacino wore in "Serpico." Chili is sent to Los Angeles to shake up a low-budget movie producer named Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) who owes a great deal of cash. Harry Zimm most often produces movies with grave-robbing ghouls and slime creatures, frequently starring his preferred scream queen Karen Flores (Rene Russo). Chili, seeing an opportunity, doesn't shake down Harry for the money, but decides to go into business with him producing movies. Harry, you see, has found a very, very good, Oscar-quality prestige script that will pull him out of the B-movie ghetto.
Travolta and Hackman play off of each other well, as Chili is cool, confident, and collected, while Harry is scattered, devious, and kind of pathetic. "Get Shorty" is a great character piece overall, and the pairing of a Miami loan shark and a Hollywood small-timer is a delicious pairing.
You wouldn't know it by looking, but it seems that Hackman hated working with Travolta. In Sonnenfeld's new memoir, "Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood," he recalls Hackman becoming furious that he spent entire weekends learning his lines and going off book, while Travolta would waltz onto the set totally unprepared. Travolta was riding high in 1995, having just reclaimed his fame via the success of "Pulp Fiction." "Get Shorty" was a plum deal for Travolta, and it seems he had become cocky. Hackman, meanwhile, was never anything less than professional, and he hated Travolta's flippant attitudes toward his job.