The actor and director wanted to make a movie about bikes really bad.
Dax Shepard, who wrote, directed and stars in the big screen adaptation of the vintage TV series CHiPs, says he did the movie for one reason -- and it wasn’t necessarily because of any great love for the show itself.
Shepard, a motorcycle enthusiast, said that the film was "100 percent motorcycle driven,” adding, “I love motorcycles and I'm always looking to do anything that can hold comedy and motor sports. So I did this little movie, Hit and Run, that was a car chase movie, and this seemed like an amazing opportunity to do motorcycles -- which you don't see. There hasn't been a motorcycle chase movie in I can't even think of when, you know, the '70s or something."
While Shepard, who plays straight-laced Jon Baker in the film (the role originally played by Larry Wilcox on the show), has logged lots of time on two wheels, co-star Michael Pena -- who plays his partner Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, the Erik Estrada character -- had rarely been on a bike before: “I had training for four weeks and felt pretty confident, but then I got on these CHP bikes, which are much, much heavier, and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m gonna die.’”
CHiPs, which also stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosa Salazar, Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, comes out March 24.