Jessica Simpson, in getting the part of Daisy Duke, beat out Britney Spears, Mandy Moore and Jessica Biel for the role.
Paul Walker and Ashton Kutcher were considered to play the Duke boys. Anthony Anderson was also considered to play Boss Hogg.
Dolly Parton was offered the role of the mother (according to Jessica Simpson) but turned it down.
Filming commenced on 8 November 2004, 26 years almost to the very day that shooting began for "One Armed Bandits," the first episode of the original TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979).
Many of the jumps and car chase scenes were filmed on a Louisiana State University, Agricultural Research Station in Louisiana. The Station was leased to Warner Brothers during the off season for filming.
One of the original series car from the '80s was also used in this new movie as a close-up car. It's a converted '68 Charger to look like a '69. The original engine was replaced by a brand new Hemi-engine. The car was used for a few close-up scenes and was send back to Warner Bros.
In 2005, Warner Bros settled a lawsuit filed by representatives of late film producer Robert Clark. Lawyers for the producer claimed that when the studio bought the rights to Clark's film Moonrunners (1975) in order to make "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV series, they bought the TV rights only, not the feature film rights. The lawsuit attempted to hold up release of this film. Settlement amount was not disclosed.
26 Dodge Chargers were used for the making of this film. Several 1968 and 1970 Dodge Chargers were converted to look like 1969 Chargers. Only one hemi Charger was used, the rest were 440s, 383s, and a few small block 318.
Two Dodge Charger's were purchased for a total of $2, given that after the making of the film they would be sold back to the original owner for $1.25 a piece.
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