Gill Pringle and Chelsea Wick
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
Michael Pena: I remember in my house the TV series was an event, my mom would cook dinner a little bit early, it was like a ceremony to watch it. My mom loved Erik Estrada, like ‘calm down a little bit, don’t be so excited.’
Dax Shepard: It was really fun when Erik got there [Estrada has a cameo in the film]. We were shooting in Palmdale [California], which was cold as hell, and I was like, ‘oh, he’s going to be so mad he had to drive up here to do this’, but he was just in a great mood, really excited, he’s a star!
MP: I mean, he’s Erik Estrada.
DS: Within five minutes of talking to him, we were like, ‘oh yeah, that’s why this guy was a huge star.’
MP: He’s still got a great smile, and a lot of hair.
DS: Oh yeah, very envious.
CHIPPING IN
DS: Starsky & Hutch went the parody route, and we were going the Bad Boys/Lethal Weapon route. I think there’s two ways to skin that cat, and the previous versions the studio had developed of CHiPs were parodies. This was the first time that someone had written a script that was taking itself seriously.
MP: I think it is ultimately a bromance, it was written that way, but it also kind of mirrored real life, because we didn’t really know each other, and by the end of it, I was like, ‘oh, I got a new friend, that’s cool.’ And I was quite happy, actually, a couple of times, I showed up to his house, kind of unannounced and uninvited, just with my kid.
DS: We worked out together.
MP: Like, ‘oh, what are you guys doing, just chilling?’ And they had to leave somewhere. I don’t know if they really had to leave, or if they were – but they’re just kind of stuck with me now.
SOMEBODY STOP THESE GUYS!
DS: I would love to remake The Fall Guy: stunt man, private investigator, he had a cool brown truck that he jumped all the time. I would like to do that, and Starsky and Hutch, they’re badass cops, I’d like to see the badass version.
MP: I think of Knight Rider, set in the future, and what was that movie that Tom Hardy was in that George Miller directed?
DS: Fury Road.
MP: Mad Max. Not as far down, not as much into the future as that, but maybe a kind of Blade Runner-esque – especially with the cars that drive themselves. It would be really cool to have a car where it’s your partner, like I think that would be really, really cool.
DS: And I’ll do the voice of the car.
MP: Or Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman dude!
CHiPs is in cinemas April 6, 2017
