Claim: Billy Bob Thornton appeared in a film based on the novel Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics.
Evidence: He appeared in several major film roles in the 1990s following Sling Blade , including Oliver Stone 's neo-noir U Turn -LRB- 1997 -RRB- , political drama Primary Colors -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , science fiction disaster film Armageddon -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , which was the highest-grossing film of that year , and the crime drama A Simple Plan -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , which earned him his third Academy Awards nomination.
Primary Colors is a 1998 film based on the novel Primary Colors : A Novel of Politics , a roman à clef about Bill Clinton 's first presidential campaign in 1992 , which was originally published anonymously , but in 1996 was revealed to have been written by journalist Joe Klein , who had been covering Clinton 's campaign for Newsweek.
The film was directed by Mike Nichols and scripted by Elaine May ; it starred John Travolta , Emma Thompson , Billy Bob Thornton , Kathy Bates , Maura Tierney , Larry Hagman , and Adrian Lester.