Which filmmaker inspired John Travolta's directorial debut?

John Travolta took inspiration from Robert Altman, Mike Nichols and Quentin Tarantino for his directorial debut.

The Pulp Fiction actor has had a decades-long career on screen but he has now stepped behind the camera to direct Propeller One-Way Night Coach, an adaptation of his 1997 children’s novel of the same name.

And, John revealed he used years of observing some of the great movie directors of his own films to inspire his new movie.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I feel that in the 50-plus years I’ve watched directors, I’ve watched great ones, I’ve watched good ones, I’ve watched OK ones, I’ve watched mediocre ones and I’ve watched bad ones, and you sift out what they did right, what they did wrong. I only used the successful actions of the great ones - Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Quentin Tarantino, Tony Scott, John Woo, Brian De Palma.

“It’s funny because you let them do all the work for 50 years and you go, ‘OK, this works, that works, that works, that doesn’t work, that doesn’t work,’ and then you put it in a totality, and then finally you go, ‘That’s how you direct a movie, that’s what should be done.'”

Travolta also revealed that he “showed an early cut to a very famous person who’s also a director and they gave me one note, which was excellent,” but declined to reveal who the person was.

Travolta’s hour-long directorial debut follows a young aviation enthusiast and his mother on a cross-country flight to Hollywood.

Travolta also serves as narrator and makes a brief cameo in the film.

While others have shown interest in directing and producing the project, he insisted on taking on the movie, explaining: “only I can connect these dots the way it should be connected”.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach will drop around the world on Apple TV on May 29.

The movie marks Travolta's first time at the helm behind the camera, while his 26-year-old daughter Ella stars as a flight attendant.