John Travolta lives up to his effortlessly cool screen persona. Dressed head to toe in black, the svelte fifty three year old comes across as surprisingly modest, given his top Hollywood status. He�s in the UK to promote the hit US comedy with co-stars Ray Liotta and Tim Allen. Wild Hogs has already yielded a record-breaking opening weekend in the States, so far reaping over $130 million in domestic box-office receipts. Following the adventures of four suburban middle-aged men trying to recapture their youth on an epic road trip across the States, Wild Hogs has claimed it�s place as the year�s most successful comedy, giving bloodthirsty battle epic 300 a run for its money. �I think America is tired of Spartans�, quips Allen. �Seeing our poster, you want to see these four guys on a trip, no matter what we did they cast us beautifully. You want to see this group of people doing what they�re doing.� �This is a closet family movie, really.� Says Travolta �It�s got an edge to it, but a lot of families are going to this. You have eight year olds and eighty year olds going to this.�

The film�s runaway success has already prompted the studio to consider making a sequel. �We woke up to $39.7 million, which broke something like five records in a row.� Reveals Travolta �Sunday night the movie�s been out two days and I get a call that I�m getting an offer for the sequel on Monday.  I said, �come on, let us enjoy a week!� They were already on it on Sunday night.�

The film�s protagonists take to their Harleys to escape the drudgery of their everyday lives. They have all reached middle age with the nagging feeling that they�re missing out on something. Do the cast share the same anxieties? �The only time it occurred to me was when I turned 50.� says Allen. �My brother sent me AARP, which is a retirement magazine. It didn�t occur to me until I saw that, I got really depressed for about a day.� �But you�re still having sex at 52!� Travolta interjects. �That�s what the cover of the magazine said.� says Allen  ��still having sex at 52!� that�s when I started sobbing.� Travolta claims his wanderlust has remained a thread throughout his life. �I always wanted to travel, in any form � by plane, train, boat, car or motorcycle. Now I think that if I ever do have a mid life crisis I have all the toys to turn to quickly.� The star has been a trained pilot for decades, and is rumoured to have flown into London himself, in his own Boeing plane. Allen, on the other hand, has become more of a bike aficionado over the course of making Wild Hogs. �I have a Ducati 990 and also a Norton, both set up for road racing. And because of this movie I�m going to go to superbike school, because I want to learn. The Harleys are wonderful for long distance cruising but to me they�re a little dangerous when it comes to manoeuvring them.� �The best way to learn anything is through a movie, because you have so much time to do it and you have great people teaching you.� Says Liotta, who plays the film�s villain, Jack. �They had tons of bikes, we started out on the dirt on little bikes and gradually worked our way up.�

The film culminates in a face off between our four protagonists (Travolta, Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) and Liotta�s gang of psychotic bikers, who follow the creed of the legendary Damien Blade, played by the equally legendary Peter Fonda. �It was my idea to cast Peter Fonda.� Says Travolta. �I remember I was thirteen or fourteen years old when he arrived on the screen in Easy Rider. It would be like me showing up in a white suit and a black shirt in some dance movie twenty years from now: It has significance, and I knew it would, even though it addresses a certain generation. But it worked like a charm.� �I wanted Eddie Izzard but they wanted to go another way.� Jokes Allen. �I thought that would have made quite a statement.�

With Allen�s constant comic adlibs, it comes as no surprise that some of the film�s funniest moments were improvised. �I would say every scene, each actor had an improvisational take, and 90 percent of them were used in the movie.� Says Travolta. �Even if a script�s well written, there�s something about the life of an improvisation that resonates better than the written word sometimes.� So did the cast have as much fun off-screen as they did in character? �John is pretty aggressive on a bike, I tell you.� Says Allen. �Tim is an antagoniser.� Retorts Travolta. �You have to drop the gauntlet at some time after all those jokes at our expense. He would rev the bike until it was deafening. I couldn�t get off my bike to handle him so I had to bump into him � lots.�

With a stellar cast and broad comic appeal, it seems likely that Wild Hogs will repeat it�s US success when it hits theatres in the UK this Friday. It�s only a matter of time before the studio knocks on Travolta�s door once more , asking if he wants to commit to that sequel. �So what we say to that is, let�s see a script. But I know the boys want to be together again.�