Knight Rider - TV Movie

[Darkmolerman]

The earlier commercial gave him an edgey action movie voice.

[Geekyfanboy]

Knight Has Transformers Vibe

Justin Bruening, who stars in NBC's upcoming Knight Rider movie and backdoor pilot, told SCI FI Wire that the show will have some Transformers-like elements.

"The Transformers aspect is that the car actually morphs into different colors and actually morphs into an attack mode," Bruening said in an interview on the show's set on Jan. 14, adding: "It grows a spoiler and becomes more aerodynamic than a stock Shelby Cobra."

The "car" is the new K.I.T.T., or Knight Industries Three Thousand, a computer-enhanced, 540-horsepower black Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR. SCI FI Wire got a look at the armored version of the vehicle during shooting in the remote Castaic area of Los Angeles County on Monday, where producers were filming the aftermath of a climactic crash between K.I.T.T. and a minivan. The "attack mode" K.I.T.T. had "armored" louvers over the grill, a large spoiler on the back deck, black rims on the wheels and other enhancements.

Adding a morphing capability to the car is only one of the ways producers are updating the 1980s series for a new generation, former soap star Bruening said. "It's got a lot of Bourne Identity kind of stuff," he added, referring to the 2002 Matt Damon thriller movie that freshened up the action-spy genre.

The show is a sequel to the 1980s TV classic that made a star of David Hasselhoff and featured a souped-up Pontiac Trans Am. Bruening plays Mike Tracer, a former Army Ranger and Iraq War vet who has fallen on hard times when he's called to help out Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo), the daughter of Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison), inventor of K.I.T.T., who has gone missing. Sydney Tamiia Poitier stars as an FBI agent. Hasselhoff has a cameo as Michael Knight, the original Knight Rider

Sharing a scene with "The Hoff" was "amazing, actually," Bruening said. He added: "I watched the original show, and I was a huge fan when I was a kid. And that was the first day of filming, and standing there, you know, I was already nervous just filming in general, and here comes this 6-foot-4 giant that I used to idolize as a kid. And ... it was just surreal, and getting to work with him was just so much fun. It's one of those moments that you get to tell your grandkids, I guess." Knight Rider airs as a two-hour movie on Feb. 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Patrick Lee, News Editor

[markinro]

http://www.nbc.com/Knight_Rider/

Do I dare ?  I really hope I'm busy that night. :)

[Geekyfanboy]

Kilmer Voices K.I.T.T.

Val Kilmer has taken over the voice duty for K.I.T.T. from "Arrested Development" actor Will Arnett for the updated "Knight Rider" television series remake.

Why? One may ask! NBC was happy with Arnett's performance, producers of the show thought his voice was perfect for the role of the high-tech, talking car, test audiences loved his tones.

Well, it seems that it has nothing to do with his voice or acting ability, but with a contractual conflict of interests. Will Arnett has been an official spokesperson for General Motors and GMC trucks for over ten years, according to network statement to the daily trade paper Variety.

In the TV series Arnett would be voicing a suped-up Ford Mustang. GM could get over that little discomfort if it wasn't for the fact that Ford plans on using the series to really push its automobiles in future ads, using the voice of K.I.T.T. as a major selling point. To that GM said no and Arnett, in order to honor his existing relationship with the Detroit automaker, was asked to back out of the making of "Knight Rider." He has complied with GM's wishes thus prompting NBC to scramble to find a worthy replacement with the kind of voice fans will appreciate.....and up pops Val Kilmer.

"I was very excited at the prospect of playing the part of KITT in the new 'Knight Rider' movie," Arnett said. "However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project."

Kilmer is no stranger to voice over work. Some of his movie "Batman Forever," was done using voice overs when Kilmer was speaking through that dark bat mask, he was the talking sword for "George and the Dragon," Kilmer voiced Moses in the animated hit film "The Prince of Egypt," and did most of the singing for the songs done in the bio-pic "The Doors." Kilmer has also done his own share of voice commercial work over his 25 year career.

Although much of the shooting for the show using Arnett's voice has been completed, NBC has indicated it shouldn't be a problem for them to simply lay Kilmer's voice over the existing footage, however, some frames will have to be re-done.

The "Knight Rider" series starring Justin Bruening is set to premiere Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 9/8C on NBC.

[jedijeff]

Possible Spoilers



I watched this last night, and was disappointed. At times I felt like it was a 2 hour commercial for Ford. Felt like the majority of the show KITT was chauffeuring Mike and Sarah around, and consisted of a lot of nothing. Kept waiting for the Hoff to show up, as I thought he would play an important role, but he did not, and only on for a few minutes. Plot seemed pretty thin, the bad guys were needlessly brutal and lame at the same time. The scenes at the motel near the end was laughable, getting chased by murderous bad guys, but they have time for a family reunion in plain view. Sorry, but I felt this was really weak.

[Ktrek]

I hope that NBC does not use just ratings to determine the success of this. I am reading tons of bad reviews of the TV movie/pilot, which means that most people who saw this would probably not tune back in for a series.

Kevin

[wraith1701]

Man; it sounds like Night Rider just might be the new Flash Gordon...

[KingIsaacLinksr]

To be honest, I'm not surprised to hear this.  I watched the original show and it was pretty lame.  But hey, we can all dream it would be good.

King

[billybob476]

Yeah but the original show was bad in the same way the A-Team was bad. It wasn't awful, just bad enough to be good.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I suppose thats true.

King