John Travolta has signed on to star in the thriller 'Black Tides'.

The 71-year-old actor is set to lead director Renny Harlin's upcoming movie, where he will play a father forced to battle orcas at sea, Deadline reports.

'Black Tides' tells the story of Bill Pierce (Travolta), an estranged father who attempts to reconnect with his daughter and grandson.

However, their reunion takes a terrifying turn when their boat is attacked by rogue orcas off the southern coast of Spain, forcing them into a desperate fight for survival.

The movie - which is slated to begin filming at the end of the summer - will reportedly be "shot old-school, with in-camera effects and real water work".

'Black Tides' will be co-written by 'Buried' scribe Chris Sparling and 'Apocalypse Z's Ángel Agudo, while Adrián Guerra and Nuria Valls produce for Nostromo Pictures.

Harlin told Deadline of Travolta's casting: "John Travolta brings the perfect combination of grit, depth, vulnerability and charisma to the character of Bill Pierce, the estranged father, that achingly captures the tragedies of family dynamics.

"I can't wait to show fans of big screen cinema how his movie star presence and physicality will add gravity to the epic action sequences and deeply emotional personal drama.

"As a director, I consider myself fortunate to join a list of acclaimed filmmakers who've had the privilege of getting to know John as an artist and a person."

Guerra added: "You build a film like this around very few people. John's one of them. He brings the history, the craft, and the instinct that lets a character land in a way that lasts."

Travolta is best known for starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis in director Quentin Tarantino's critically-acclaimed 1994 film 'Pulp Fiction', in which he portrays gangster Vincent Vega.

Reflecting on the movie's success, Travolta paid tribute to 'Pulp Fiction' for giving him "a second chance at a high-end career" in Hollywood after his career took a slump following 'Grease' and 'Saturday Night Fever'.

He told Variety: "The last success [I'd had] before 'Pulp Fiction' was the 'Look Who's Talking' films, so getting the 'Pulp' offer was certainly a next-level, upper echelon opportunity more along the lines of the Oscar nomination-type performance of 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Blow Out' integrity.

"I was one of his [Tarantino's] favorite actors growing up on 'Welcome Back Kotter', 'Saturday Night Fever', 'Grease' and 'Blow Out', and he wanted to work with me."

The actor shared that he holds 'Pulp Fiction' in "one of the most special places" in his career, crediting the film with revitalizing his Hollywood trajectory and re-establishing the iconic status he first attained twenty years earlier.

He said: "[I hold it in] one of the most special places, because it rekindled my career to a level that I always wanted it to be. It also matched an iconic status with 'Saturday Night Fever', which was very rare in movie history."