On The Road Again

Herbie is to star in another movie, with Hollywooods Lindsay Lohan

While actress/singer Lohan is a shapely magnet for paparazzi and tabloid attention, the real story of Herbie: Fully Loaded is the unexpected comeback of its reconditioned star.

After rarly being sited in the last two decades, most would have given the Hurb up for scrap metal, Debuting in 1969 as the star of The Love Bug, Herbie steered three sequels out of the Disney garage.

A little car that could, the family-friendly Beetle won races and hearts helping humans get over the line, on and off the track.

By Herbie Goes Bananas in 1980, he was running out of gas, so he went into semi retirment a subsequent television series and 1997 telemovie didn't start any audience engines.

A phone call which emerging director Angela Robinson didn't expect came through after Disney honchos saw her feature debut, D.E.B.S. (2004).

"D.E.B.S. is pretty funny, has a lot of heart and some of the girl empowerment themes that Fully Loaded has," says Robinson, who only finished film school four years ago.

"And they wanted somebody fresh and fun, and a little indie, because they had this great beloved character which was a dusty franchise."

"I was really happy that it wasn't a remake when I read the script," she says. That's right: while Herbie was to get a refit, it would not be a complete overhaul. So don't expect Herbie in the slinky shape of new Beetles - he has kept his original 1963 body.

"Fully Loaded had been in development for about 10 years, but they were really waiting for the right time."

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