Blogging the TCA

Collision: Actors Dennis Hopper, left, and Don Cheadle attend a panel for Starz original drama series "Crash."

When Dennis Hopper says a character he’s playing in a new show is the craziest one in his career, it’s probably worth checking out.

Mr. Hopper says in his first scene in Starz’s adaptation of the Oscar-winning movie “Crash,” his character is riding in the back of a limousine driven by a beautiful young African American woman. Mr. Hopper opens his pants and has a conversation with his penis about its inability to perform. The driver, thinking Mr. Hopper was talking to her, is horrified when she discovers what’s really going on in the back seat.

“I try to convince her it was a private conversation,” Mr. Hopper said. “He’s totally out of control.”

“Crash,” set to premiere Oct. 17, is Starz’s first attempt at producing an original drama.

One thing we’ve always wanted to get to was compelling content that would bring customers back week after week,” said Bill Myers, president-chief operating officer of Starz Entertainment.

The series is “about the city of Los Angeles and the people who are from elsewhere and trying to understand what’s going on around them,” said executive producer Bobby Moresco, who also executive produced the movie.

While race and class were big elements of the move, the series is “really a story about the characters, about their lives, just like any TV show,” he said. “You can’t make the movie again. You’re making a television series.”

Don Cheadle, who appeared in the film and is an executive producer for the series, helped figure out how to move “Crash” from the big screen to the tube. If he can fit it in, he might also appear in the show.

—Jon Lafayette