Los Angeles

Steven Istock has a hot script. He just needs a star.

“John Travolta?” the veteran producer asks the room. The A-lister once commanded $20 million a movie and the total production budget for Mr. Istock’s project is about $600,000. But he’s a producer: He has a fix.

Mr. Travolta spends part of his time in Florida, where the movie was supposed to film later this year, so Mr. Istock practices his pitch out loud.

“Hey, John, I hear you like shooting movies in Florida. We got one,” he says to a room of colleagues.