'CHIPS' movie revs up
Remake of classic TV series veers from old formula
Dax Shepard and Michael Peña knew they had big shoes to fill when they signed up to star as Officers Jon Baker and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, played by Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada in the classic 1970s TV series CHiPs.
What Peña and Shepard didn’t know was just how hard the shoes — or more specifically, the snug motorcycle boots worn by the California Highway Patrol — would be to take off, even when using a specially made boot puller.
“The hardest part of the job was getting those boots off at the end of the day,” says Shepard, 42. “I snapped two boot pullers while shooting. Your foot just gets stuck.”
“He wanted everything tighter, including the boots,” says Peña, 41.
Things are a lot tighter and raunchier in CHIPS the movie. Peña steps into the snug, tan CHP uniform as Poncherello, and Shepard wrote and directed the rowdy R-rated action comedy (in theaters Friday), as well as starring as Baker.
Shepard began this ride accidentally, while writing an unrelated script featuring a joke involving Poncherello and Googling the name’s spelling. The picture that popped up caught his eye.
“It was Jon and Ponch from the shoulders up in their helmets, staring off into the distance,” Shepard says. “They looked kind of tough and cool. I was like, ‘Maybe there’s a Bad Boys movie version of this.’ ”
Heavy emphasis on the “bad” as Shepard began crafting an action-injected CHIPS with shootouts, swearing, sex, Pilates pants obsession and maneuvers executed on stunt-friendly Ducati Hy- permotards. It’s a far cry from the family-friendly TV series, where officers kept the talk clean and almost never drew their guns.
Shepard plays Baker as a pillpopping former motocross champ who joins the force to impress his ex-wife (his real-life wife, Frozen star Kristen Bell) and teams up with Poncherello, who is actually an FBI agent investigating CHP corruption.
“I was not trying to make the TV show. I was very much trying to do something entirely different inspired by the show,” Shepard says. He saw the love for the original series firsthand while putting together an early internal CHIPS teaser for studio executives to give them a preview of the edgy humor and action. That involved transforming his own Ducati into a CHP bike, complete with flashers and police insignia. Rushing to a concert later, he was stopped by an unamused cop.
“He was like, ‘You cannot have this stuff on your motorcycle,’ ” Shepard recalls. “And I go, ‘I’m so serious, I’m directing CHIPS.’ ” And he was like, ‘Wait, they’re making a CHiPs movie?’ And he let me park.”
The duo know that they will come up against resistance from die-hard fans of the show looking for a faithful reboot without the crudeness. One extended scene, glimpsed in the red band trailer, features Poncherello carrying his naked, injured partner to the shower and falling, sticking his face in Baker’s crotch.
“Dax pitched to me like, ‘You’re not going to like it,’ ” Peña recalls, saying he was against the face plant. “But I reread the script and thought it was really funny.”
Test audiences love the scene, Shepard says. But Wilcox, TV’s original Baker, tells USA TODAY that the rowdy CHIPS trailers make it look like “Dumb and
Dumber on motorcycles.” Estrada, who makes a CHIPS cameo, has given the movie his support.
Shepard says he believes he has made a modern homage to a classic show. “The things I loved about CHiPs were the motorcycles, California and two best friends taking on the world,” Shepard says. “The magic recipe is still there.”
“I was very much trying to do something entirely different inspired by the show.” Dax Shepard