Jennifer Lopez and John Travolta in Gurinder Chadha's next

Filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, of ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ fame has finalised John Travolta and Jennifer Lopez to act in the film adaptation of the American television series ‘Dallas’.

Robert Harling, who wrote ‘Steel Magnolias’, will be writing the script and the screenplay of the film. The film is to be produced by 20th Century Fox. Luke Wilson and Shirley Maclaine are also part of the cast.

The Bend it Like Beckham director said she had signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to direct the film, which will star Travolta as oil magnate JR Ewing and Lopez as his wife, Sue Ellen.

Chadha said her appointment meant the sort of South Asian-themed British films that made her name had "huge credibility and respect in Hollywood."

Chadha, who gave Jane Austen a Bollywood twist in last year's Bride and Prejudice, is involved with adapting another TV hit, the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. She said the film "is in the pipeline but there is still some way to go on the script."

Filming on Dallas is due to start in October, with the movie slated for a late 2007 release.