Dude, where's the General Lee?

[Murphy3]

Scott, Knoxville: Oh, Them Dukes?

Thu Sep 9, 7:55 PM ET Add Movies - E! Online to My Yahoo!


By Joal Ryan

Dude, where's the General Lee?

E! Online Photo



Seann William Scott, who had a hard time mastering parking logistics in Dude, Where's My Car?, will share driving duties with Jackass Johnny Knoxville in the planned big-screen rendering of The Dukes of Hazzard, People magazine says.


A spokesman for Warner Bros., a corporate cousin of People in the Time Warner clan, could not confirm the reported hires. The film, still minus an announced director and cast, is nonetheless slated to speed into production in mid-November, the studio says.


According to People, Scott, 27, will play Bo Duke, aka the one with blond hair (actor John Schneider in the 1979-85 Dukes TV series); Knoxville, 33, will play Luke Duke, aka the one with brown hair (Tom Wopat in the TV show).


Jay Chandrasekhar of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, makers of Super Troopers, et al., reportedly is in line to direct.


At this point, screenwriters Jonathan Davis and John O'Brien (news) are the only official Dukes boys. O'Brien cowrote Warners' most recent TV-to-film transformation, Starsky & Hutch. Any resemblance between Dukes and S&H, which grossed $88 million at the box office last spring, likely will be encouraged.


Though Jessica Simpson (news) was said to have nabbed the plum, if drafty role of shorty-shorts devotee Daisy Duke earlier this year, the part remains up for grabs.


Simpson is in the running, though. She told Access Hollywood that a recent audition "went amazing."


"I actually wore a short skirt, not shorts," the risk-taking singer-actress-famous person shared with the TV show.


Others whose names have been in the Daisy Duke mix: Jessica Biel (news), Elisha Cuthbert (news) and Mandy Moore (news).


Britney Spears (news), a real-life shorty-shorts devotee, was the reputed frontrunner to succeed Catherine Bach (news) (TV's Daisy) when news of the movie first surfaced last year. But that was one marriage, one annulment, one engagement, two future step-children and one entirely different image ago.


Paul Walker, who raced cars in The Fast and the Furious, and Ashton Kutcher, Scott's Dude costar, were the original picks for Bo and Luke Duke, respectively--at least according to circa 2003 buzz dismissed by Warners.


In addition to Dude, Scott has goofed in the American Pie trilogy. Knoxville has appeared in Walking Tall and Men in Black II, among other films, after finding fame for doing unwise things on Jackass, his MTV stunt show.


No word on a storyline for the big-screen Dukes. Suffice to say the TV series rarely deviated from the following plot: Bo, Luke and their Dodge Charger, known as the General Lee, get chased all over Hazzard County by the lackeys of Boss Hogg (the late Sorrell Booke).


Burt Reynolds is the "top choice" to play big-screen Hogg, People says.


Presumably, the fender-bending production is after Reynolds for his expertise in car-chase movies (Smokey and the Bandit, et al.)--and not his MAACO connection.

[Rod1975]

This is one retro concept I wish they'd leave alone. I like it the way it is.

I'd rather see a remake of B.J. And The Bear with Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Lobo, and Matthew McConaughey as Billy Joe McKay.

[EricaLubarsky]

No Owen Wilson?!?!?! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Just211]

why not just the Wilson brothers

[sike]

Originally posted by: Just211
why not just the Wilson brothers

an idea worthy of serious consideration....this does seem an odd pair.....I bet they were turned down by several bigger name actors before they found this duo.