When word broke that Dax Shepard was going to bring CHiPs to the big screen, Liz Lemon and a few others screamed out in pure joy for a moment. Others probably shrugged and went back to their lives of pure hell, not caring that Shepard and Michael Pena were bringing Ponch and John to the 21st century.
Not much has changed, but the expectations are going to be a lot more mature because the film has been greenlit with a targeted R-rating, and Pena is comparing the film’s tone to an all-time police classic in a recent chat with Collider:
It’s more like a Lethal Weapon where there’s a lot of action and what we wanted to do is if there’s any comedy that we do, it’s not like one-liners here and there, like we’re the guys always being stand-up comedians. It’s almost like you lose a little bit of the plotline whenever you’re off doing your own comedy thing, so we’re focusing a little more on the plot, if that makes any sense whatsoever.
I can count the number of episodes of CHiPs I’ve seen on one hand, and I honestly don’t remember them solving one crime in that point. There’s apparently an episode where Erik Estrada fights a dude with karate, so I guess there’s a parallel with Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs right there.
The only problem is that now, when I think about an R-rated CHiPs film, all I’m seeing is Taylor Kitsch from True Detective:
If Ponch isn’t getting offered BJs during traffic stops, I’ll be disappointed. Also karate. That seemed cool.
(Via Collider)
