If you’re old enough to remember watching cheesy but fun cop show CHiPs, chances are you were humming the theme tune even as you read the title of this story.
Because hot on the wheels of The Dukes Of Hazzard comes another movie based on late '70s US TV: the adventures of the California Highway Patrol. Best known for that theme tune and Erik Estrada as Francis “Ponch” Poncherello, the series starred Estrada and Larry Wilcox as highway cops keeping order on the, er, mean streets of LA’s freeways. The show may have had a serious tone, but that hasn’t stopped it attaining cult status over the years. You know you’ve made it into pop culture when shows like medical sitcom Scrubs reference you left, right and centre.
Warner Bros has acquired the rights to the show and hired Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgrove (Spin City) to adapt. And Wilmer Valderrama, best known as Fez on That '70s Show will play Ponch.
Warners plans to update the show as a modern-day action/comedy, and is currently looking for a director. And to avoid all the pesky legal trouble they had with Dukes, they have the original show’s creator, Rick Rosner, on board as a producer.
The campaign for an Erik Estrada cameo surely starts here...
