Wilmer Valderrama will star as motorcycle cop Ponch in Warner Bros. Pictures' big-screen version of "CHiPs." The studio has just acquired the rights for the TV series and has set Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove to adapt.

Erik Estrada famously originated the Ponch role in "CHiPs," which ran on NBC in the late 1970s and followed the adventures of California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers Francis "Ponch" Poncherello and Jon Baker. Larry Wilcox played Baker.

The show had a serious macho tone, but over the years has achieved a cheesy, cult status. Sources say the project was built around the involvement of Valderrama, best known as Fez on "That '70s Show."

The movie will be an action-comedy set in the present day. The formula has worked well for Warners, which has had success with recent TV-to-film translations such as "Starsky & Hutch" and "The Dukes of Hazzard."

The project has no producer and no director attached.

Original show creator Rick Rosner is exec producing.

Warners' Greg Silverman and Nina Perales are overseeing.

UTA-repped Kaplan and Torgove are writer-exec producers on "George Lopez" and worked on "Spin City" and "Just Shoot Me" as writer-producers, respectively. This is their first foray into film.

Valderrama is working on the final season of "That '70s Show" and appears in "The Darwin Awards," an indie that will screen at Sundance. He is starring in the indie "El Muerto" and is starring in and producing "Yo Momma," a show for MTV that will premiere in February. He is repped by UTA, Rigberg Entertainment Group and attorney Michael Gendler.