Katherine Heigl to Star in New Rom-Com With John Travolta

Katherine Heigl and John Travolta will team up for a new romantic comedy written and directed by Green Book co-writer Nick Vallelonga. That's Amore! will feature the two stars as two unlikely characters who strike a connection. Christopher Walken, who worked with Travolta on Hairspray, is in talks to join.

Travolta will star as Nick Venere, who has never been married and is convinced his best chances to date are behind him. He has given up on love. That all changes when he meets the shy and introverted Patty Amore (Heigl), whose overbearing father convinced her to leave the dating game, too. Nick and Patty have an immediate connection. "When these two emotionally damaged people attempt to date one another, their families get involved, and the results are hilarious," reads the movie's logline.

Vallelonga won Oscars for co-writing and co-producing the 2019 Best Picture winner Green Book. Before Green Book, Vallelonga directed a string of B-movies during the 1990s and 2000s, including A Brilliant Disguise, The Corporate Ladder, Choker, All In, and Stilleto. He also appeared as an actor, with small roles in The Many Saints of Newark, Jersey Shore Shark Attack, Goodfellas, and Prizzi's Honor.

Shortly before Green Book dominated the Oscars, Vallelonga told Deadline that That's Amore! was a dream project for him. He compared it to the romantic classics Marty, Moonstruck, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. "The basic story – a love story about people who can't find love – has been in my head for years, but I finally finished the screenplay during breaks in the Green Book production," Vallelonga said in December 2018.

Vallelonga is producing though his Vallelonga Productions with Cassian Elwes of Elevated Films, and Brenda Emmett and Vince Emmett of American Troubadours. David Polemeni; and Palisades Park Pictures' Tamara Birkemoe and Mark Damon are executive producers. Filming will start in August, with Pacific Palisades presenting the package to potential buyers at the Cannes Film Festival this month.

Travolta, 69, has Oscar nominations for his roles in Pulp Fiction and Saturday Night Fever. His more recent credits include Paradise City, Die Hart, The Fanatic, Gotti, and The Poison Rose. Heigl, 44, won an Emmy for Grey's Anatomy in 2007. She made several popular romantic comedies during the 2000s but returned to television in the 2010s with State of Affairs, Doubt, Suits, and Firefly Lane. Heigl recently starred in the thriller Fear of Rain alongside Harry Connick Jr.