Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Gary Scott Thompson Talks Knight Rider

Our new Executive Producer Gary Scott Thompson has been spilling the beans about the direction the series will take when it returns in the fall, and it looks like there will be a lot of changes. Thompson compares his Knight Rider series to one of the best shows currently on TV, Battlestar Galactica (also originally created by Glen A. Larson).

"We're determined to not have another Bionic Woman," Thomspon said, referencing the failed series revival NBC undertook last year. He also sees the new series as a separate entity from the recent TV-movie: "There's the original series. There's the two-hour movie. And now there's the new series." Plot points from the movie will form a strand in the new show, but the new staff basically intend to start over. Thompson has hired writers from Lost, Prison Break, Smallville, Walker, Texas Ranger and Charmed.

Cutting to the chase: Justin Bruening will return as Mike Traceur, and the rest of the team -- Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison -- will also be onboard. Val Kilmer will continue as the voice of K.I.T.T. Thompson was coy about the possibility of David Hasselhoff returning as Michael Knight.

K.I.T.T. will still be in the form of the Shelby Mustang, but there will be some big changes when the new Knight Rider goes episodic. "K.I.T.T. is still the Shelby," says Thompson. "But the 'Attack Mode' is completely different. We're going to see a lot of cool stuff. A thousand times cooler than the morphing we've seen before. As my kid said, 'Big deal, our car can talk.' "Yeah, but can it do this? Or that?' It's the 'do that' that will be different."

"There will also be a new base —- a top secret lab, a K.I.T.T. cave -— that will be super-awesome," Thompson says. There is a possibility that both the original series semi-trailer and the airplane from the film will return in some form as well.

And...

"The Turbo Boost... yeah, we're still trying to figure out exactly how to make that work. It's one of the reasons why I watched as a kid, and loved to see that car jump. But also it's problematic in terms of jumping a car. They get destroyed when you do it and Ford's not going to give us an infinite amount of cars.

"We're doing an hour movie every week. We want the 'wow' factor."

So do we, Mr. Thompson, so do we!

Shadowy Flight.com - Exclusive Interview with Gary Scott Thompson

Edmunds.com - Knight Rider's New Boss Talks to Inside Line

AutoBlog.com - Knight Rider Producer Interviewed

On This Day: 1983

April 29th, 1983 was a Friday, and it saw the first-run broadcast of Nobody Does It Better. In that one, Michael investigates a case of industrial espionage in the video game industry and crosses paths with an inexperienced private eye. It guest-starred Robert Ginty and Gail Edwards, and it's 25 years old today!

Monday, 28 April 2008

Knight Rider Convention In Benidorm

The Costa Blanca Leader reports that the fan-site El Coche Fantastico.net has organised a Knight Rider convention in Benidorm from 9th-11th May, at which as many as 70 replicas of K.I.T.T. could be on view. This is the third edition of the event, and it's expected to attract at least 10,000 visitors.

Several cars from American films and TV series will be on show, including K.I.T.T., the Ford Mustang GT500 that is being used as the Knight 3000 in the new Knight Rider remake, and the Delorean from the Back to the Future films. Also attending will be Jose Luis Angulo, who provided the dubbed voice of David Hasselhoff when the original series aired in Spain. Hasselhoff himself is not expected to appear.

The highlight of the 3 day event will be the eighth of a mile acceleration display on Saturday 10th, at the Avenida Vicente Perez Devesa. Full details of the schedule can be found on the website.

Costa Blanca Leader - Knight Rider Convention in Benidorm

Sunday, 13 April 2008

News Round-Up

The UK's Sun tabloid sent their car correspondent to the States to test-drive the new K.I.T.T. You can read about her experience (and memories of the original show) here:

The Sun - K.I.T.T.'s Out For The Lads

Motor Trend have an interview with George Barris:

Motortrend.com - George Barris Interview

A list of Sci-Fi Sound Effects that get stuck in your head, and of course, it includes K.I.T.T.'s distinctive scanner sound:

Sci-Fi Sound Effects That Take Over Your Brain

The Press Association has reported that K.I.T.T. has been voted second-best movie car of all time, after the Mini Coopers from The Italian Job and just pipping James Bond's Aston Martin from Die Another Day. Well done, K.I.T.T.!

Press Association - Most Iconic Movie Cars

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Knight Rider Guest Star Passes Away...

Stanley Kamel, who guest-starred in the Knight Rider episode Dead of Knight as Sonny Martin, passed away at his home in Hollywood on Tuesday. He was 65.

Kamel enjoyed nearly 40 years as a TV regular, appearing in hundreds of TV episodes of series including Mission: Impossible, Kojak, Charlie's Angels, Hardcastle & McCormick, Riptide, Hunter, The Fall Guy, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Some of his most memorable roles included a starring run on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives; a turn as mobster Tony Marchette on Beverly Hills 90210; and a role as a lawyer with AIDS on L.A. Law. In recent years he became known as eccentric detective Adrian Monk's psychiatrist in hit show Monk.

In a statement from the USA network, which airs Monk, executives said: "USA is deeply saddened by the news of Stanley Kamel's passing. Stanley was an amazingly talented and extremely kind man, and an important member of the USA family. He will be sorely missed."

Access Hollywood - Monk Star Stanley Kamel Found Dead

E! News - Monk Psychiatrist Dies

Contactmusic.com - Monk Star Kamel Dead

Tuesday, 8 April 2008

On This Day: 1984

24 years ago today saw the first screening of Knight Rider episode Mouth of the Snake. The two-hour special was conceived as a backdoor pilot for the character of David Dalton (played by L. Charles Taylor), who would eventually get his own shortlived series Code of Vengeance. Look for more Code of Vengeance material here soon...

Remembering Edward Mulhare

Today would have been Edward Mulhare's 85th birthday. The actor, who passed away in 1997 at the age of 74, is still in our thoughts. You can read more about Edward, including biographical and filmography information, at his cast page.

Sunday, 6 April 2008

George Barris Designs Sell for $500

A sheet of designs by George Barris that blueprint K.I.T.T.'s Fourth Season Convertible upgrade have sold at auction for just $500. The 17" x 14" design art (dated April 1985) from the George Barris Archive featured a series of 12 small ink sketches of concepts for the car's Convertible Mode, and was presented with a photocopy of the overall car design pasted in the upper left corner. The artwork also featured a "Barris Kustom Industries" stamp in the upper right corner.

Saturday, 5 April 2008

NBC Want Knight Rider To Deliver

SyFy Portal have some soundbites from NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman on the new Knight Rider series. He hopes to avoid the mistakes made by rushing the now-cancelled Bionic Woman series into production to ensure that Knight Rider has a better chance of surviving.

"We saw it with Terminator [The Sarah Connor Chronicles], and we saw it with Bionic Woman," he said. "Big openings, big branded titles, draw open the tent, and the show didn't deliver on that $10 million pilot. What we're doing with Knight Rider is we consciously delivered it on air so that we had nine months to make sure that series is great.

"We're hiring a staff. We're hiring the cast. We're honing the writing crew. And we're ensuring that the show lives up to the audience's expectation. The audience turned on and tuned into the two-hour movie premiere. Now we need to make sure they come in week in and week out, and for that we've got to take a rigorous approach."

Note Silverman's comment about the series living up to "the audience's expectation." Since the single most-criticised aspect of the pilot was the lack of K.I.T.T.'s Turbo Boost, it will be interesting to see if NBC incorporate it into the series...

SyFy Portal - Silverman Wants Knight Rider To Avoid Bionic Mistakes

Popular Mechanics have their own ideas of what Knight Rider needs to make it this time around. They compare pilot episodes old and new, and offer some interesting suggestions:

Popular Mechanics - Why Knight Rider Needs More Tech to Survive in Prime Time

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Fall 2008-9. NBC. Wednesdays. 8-9 pm. Knight Rider.

NBC have announced their Fall and Winter 2008-09 schedules, and have revealed that the new Knight Rider will be shown on Wednesdays at 8 pm, with an encore on Saturday night at 9 pm! Let's hope it does better than Bionic Woman, which occupied that time slot this year...

As per the press release:

NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR FALL 2008-09

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. "KNIGHT RIDER"
9-10 p.m. "Deal or No Deal"
10-11 p.m. "Lipstick Jungle"

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. "KNIGHT RIDER" (Encores)
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Encores)

Knight Rider - On the heels of NBC's hit movie, the iconic 1980s television classic comes roaring back to life as an updated drama series showcasing the new customized K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand) Ford Mustang. As the sequel resumes, K.I.T.T. is absolutely the coolest car ever created: its supercomputer capable of hacking almost any system; its weapons systems efficient; and its body -- thanks to its creator's work and nanotechnology -- is capable of actually shifting shape and color. It is the ultimate car -- and someone will be willing to do anything to obtain it. Knight Rider stars Justin Bruening (Cold Case), Deanna Russo (NCIS), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars) and Bruce Davison (Breach). David Bartis (Heist, The O.C.), Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity) and Gary Scott Thompson (Las Vegas, The Fast and The Furious) are executive producers and David Andron serves as supervising producer and writer. Based on characters created by Glen Larson, Knight Rider is from Universal Media Studios and Dutch Oven Productions.

More:

Variety.com - Full NBC schedule takes shape

New York Times - Live from NBC’s ‘Infront’ (Take 3): New Shows on the Fall Schedule

Entertainment Weekly - NBC's New Line-Up

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

Knight Rider Gets New Exec Producer!

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Gary Scott Thompson (who wrote The Fast and the Furious and created the recent Las Vegas series) is onboard the new Knight Rider as Executive Producer/showrunner, having signed a two-year deal with Universal.

Thompson will be joined by Las Vegas Executive Producer Matt Pyken, and the two of them will share producing duties with Dave Bartis and Doug Liman, who masterminded the series' recent two-hour pilot. Dave Andron, who wrote the telepic, will stay onboard as a consulting producer.

"We definitely wanted to stay in business with Gary, who has proven himself on Las Vegas," Universal Media Studios president Katherine Pope said. "If you think what the series would be, it's The Fast and the Furious meets Las Vegas."

Comparisons with The Fast and the Furious are obvious, and have been made frequently in Knight Rider Internet forums since the project was initially announced last year (in fact, The Fast and the Furious is very similar to the Knight Rider Original Series episode Knights of the Fast Lane). And, of course, Vegas has always been Knight Rider's spiritual home... see Glen Larson's 1982 pilot Knight of the Phoenix, and the episodes The Topaz Connection and Goliath. Andron's pilot episode paid homage to this by introducing new Rider Mike Traceur in Vegas.

Thompson is now in the process of hiring writers. The plan is to go quickly into production to allow plenty of time for postproduction.

"We didn't have a ton of time on the movie, which was done on a very tight schedule, so the biggest thing we want to do with the series is have more action and special effects, which requires time," Pope added.

Hollywood Reporter - Knight Rider Gets New Showrunner