Thursday, 31 July 2008

K.I.T.T. F-150 First Look!

Pickuptrucks.com have a cool first-look article at K.I.T.T.'s new 4x4 disguise.

"K.I.T.T.'s got a lot more capabilities than before," said executive producer Gary Scott Thompson. "Twenty-five years ago a talking car was cool. Now everybody's car talks with GPS. Speeds have increased, too. The advances have been astronomical. All these things added up to, 'What would [K.I.T.T.] do now?'"

This was the starting point of an idea that evolved into the transformation sequence that proved so popular at the Comic Con. "The main characters get themselves in a predicament and I was trying to figure out how to get them out," he said. "They were running from bad guys, who are shooting at them. How could I get them into the car without stopping it? I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if they just jumped in the back of a pickup truck?'"

Thompson also said NBC execs told him that Knight Rider fans didn't think the movie pushed K.I.T.T.'s capabilities far enough.

"It wasn't enough that the car could morph and change colors, I said it had to change itself into another vehicle," he said. "They responded, 'Yeah! That's what we need to do. Go do that!'"

The result was the K.I.T.T. F-150, which was designed with a look similar to the GT500KR. In one early rendering, K.I.T.T.'s scanner is embedded in a custom power-dome hood, but production practicalities won out, forcing them to move the red light above and behind the top bar of the FX4's tall grille. The rest of the truck remains near stock, in contrast to K.I.T.T.'s modified GT500KR's body.

While preparing for the new series, Thompson and the Knight Rider production team talked to futurists at Microsoft to find some grounding in reality. Their meetings covered what cars and trucks might be like in 2030.

"They talked about vehicles being able to maneuver between smaller spaces, meaning it would have to squeeze itself, or it would grow larger or grow bigger wheels to get over a large obstacle," he said. "I thought, 'Wow, if these guys are already thinking about this now, then we need to be looking at this.'"

Thompson went on the record to say that the K.I.T.T. F-150 will appear in two of the first four episodes. There might be other modes on the horizon, too.

"As long as we stay within about the same mass, you might see other versions of K.I.T.T.," Thompson said. "You're not, however, going to see it turn into a huge spaceship."

Pickuptrucks.com - Knight Rider 4x4: First Look

Saturday, 26 July 2008

The Knight Rider Comic Con Panel

NBC.com have posted video of yesterday's Knight Rider Panel. I'll let the following speak for itself:

Friday, 25 July 2008

Attack K.I.T.T. Revealed!

And it's one good-looking car!

In a blaze of publicity over at the San Diego Comic-Con, NBC today unveiled the new version of their "K.I.T.T. Attack Mode" car. In the show, its speed will top-out 377 miles per hour. It’s made from parts from many different cars, including a Ford Mustang and it has Lamborghini doors.

Fans of the original Knight Rider may very well be reminded of the original K.I.T.T.'s Super Pursuit Mode. The intake vents and overall style of this new vehicle -- especially the rear -- seem to have taken their design cues from the earlier car.



NBC.com - Knight Rider

Shadowy Flight.com - Knight Rider @ SDCC

Thursday, 24 July 2008

The San Diego Comic-Con KR Panel

Appropriately for Knight Rider, the majority of the cast were late to their SDCC panel due to bad traffic. As it kicked off at 11:45am, only showrunner Gary Scott Thompson and new series co-star Paul Campbell were present. They held the fort, cracking jokes with Mr. Thompson imitating the absent cast members.

The clip was unveiled and seemed to get a positive reception, with K.I.T.T.'s transformation scene greeted with a round of applause.

The TV movie garnered its share of criticism but, as has been heavily pointed out since the show went to series, new exec GST will be taking the show in a new direction. The characters will be more layered, the mythology will be deeper, and K.I.T.T. will have the trademark Turbo Boost!

Thompson went back and watched the entire first season of the original Knight Rider, and said that he wanted to create a new mythology that would be similar to the '80s series. On the Original Series, Michael Knight was a man who had a new face, a new identity, and no option to go back to his normal life. In the new series, Mike Traceur is an Iraq war vet who participated in dangerous black ops missions during his time in the military. Not only will the series explore what happened to Mike while he was in Iraq, but his past is destined to come back to haunt him. Thompson stated that his goal was to put Traceur in the same difficult situation that Knight faced, which will eventually force him to assume the identity of Michael Knight. "There is something more to that," Thompson said. "What he was doing, what he remembers and what he doesn't remember." This ties in with a scene screened from the first episode in which a beautiful and dangerous woman is surprised that Mike doesn't remember her... just before she hits him.

Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica) plays Billy, who, according to the actor, is "the head tech for K.I.T.T. He makes sure he's always on-line and up and running." He's also "kind of a social pariah. He crushes on anything in a skirt."

Yancey Arias said his character, Alex Torres, "Gives out the missions at the beginning of the episode. He shows them how much is involved in making sure our country is safe. K.I.T.T. is too integral a piece of equipment and cannot be taken lightly. That's a big challenge for Michael Knight; to not wreck such an expensive piece of equipment." Which sounds kind of like the Michael-Devon dynamic at the beginning of the Original Series...

Smith Cho's character is a linguist, and Thompson said, "In the first episode she speaks Spanish, Hebrew, Korean... she's sort of our contact with the outside world if we need to speak to [anyone]." Campbell added that she, "Keeps [Billy] off balance. He's madly in love with her. She's very snide and also very charming."

Justin Bruening was asked about changes between the show and February's TV movie. "The biggest change is a visual one," he said. "It's more cleaned-up from the original pilot. They've added so many layers to my character. They're filling in the blanks and making him a much deeper, more well rounded character. It makes a whole new mythology for the new fans and the older ones."

Deanna Russo said her character is now, "beating up bad guys myself. The fight training has been the best part. My fight trainer calls me Annie Oakley, because I have such good aim."

What every Knight Rider fan wanted a straight answer to was the question: will David Hasselhoff appear on the series, as he did in the pilot film? Thompson said he and Hasselhoff recently had breakfast together, and that he told him, "Look, if we use you, I want to use you in a way that's story driven." He said Hasselhoff agreed it should be "Something big. We both agreed there's no reason to bring him back unless it's something very specific. There is a possibility. It's contingent upon schedules. We are openly speaking."

Then it was K.I.T.T.'s turn: When asked if the William Daniels-voiced Knight 2000 might show up, Thompson replied, "Look, you're probably probing my mind right now. I don't see any reason why we can't see the two K.I.T.T.s side by side." And what about K.A.R.R.? Thompson said, "Hmm... What do you think? That would be a yes. There will be some version of that. That will go through in our mythology."

Another fan addressed the issue of Turbo Boost: Would it carry over from the Original Series, and most importantly, would the car jump when it was used? Thompson said that indeed, Turbo Boost was back, and more so, "K.I.T.T.'s gonna jump. You're gonna go, 'Quit making the car jump already!'"

Fans around the world rejoice!

BuddyTV.com - Live From SDCC: Will New Knight Rider Live Up to the Original?

IGN.com - SDCC 08: Knight Rider Lives

TV Week.com - Travel Snarls Delay Comic-Con Hordes

Sneak Peek!

NBC have unveiled a one-minute sneak peek of Knight Rider: The Series, which is expected to be shown at the San Diego Comic-Con. A series of short clips from the show, it reveals the "K.I.T.T. Cave", a brief glimpse of K.I.T.T.'s new "Attack Mode", and an all-new voice modulator that will remind fans of the original!

Check it out, it looks great!



NBC.com - New Knight Rider Video

Spoiler TV - Knight Rider: Sneak Peek

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

NBC Talk Knight Rider

NBC have been conducting a press tour to promote their latest shows, and yesterday saw the Knight Rider panel. The result was some interesting soundbites and hints of what to expect when the show returns in the Fall.

Network Executives Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff spoke about the relationship between the show and the Ford Motor Company:

Graboff: "If there's too much product integration, we don't even like to call it 'product integration'... we're trying to integrate it more organically with the show, in a way that is organic to the show, something that advertisers are comfortable with and the showrunners, more importantly, are comfortable with. And which the viewers are ultimately comfortable with."

When asked if they went too far with February's TV movie, Silverman said, "Well, it's about a car, ultimately... that was the star of the show."

Showrunner Gary Scott Thompson revealed that he was given carte blanche to fabricate his own world. Though the basic characters from the movie will remain, certain character backstories will change. The lesbian subplot with Sydney Tamiia Poitier's character Carrie Rivai may be altered. There are also new characters who will help to maintain the car by working in what Thompson calls the K.I.T.T. Cave.

Thompson added that he has a long-term mythology plan for the series through at least two seasons which is based on the origins of K.I.T.T. He posed one question that he promises to answer throughout the series: "Why would you put artificial intelligence into a car?"

In response to rumours circulating on the Internet, there are no plans for Thompson to bring characters from Las Vegas onto Knight Rider ("it would be unfair to the fans of both shows to do that"), but Knight Rider fans will be pleased to hear that David Hasselhoff might make an appearance later in the season.

NJ.com - Day in the Life of a Press Tour

EW.com - NBC's Big Finish

Oregon Live.com - NBC Execs with Cameo from Leno

Buddy TV.com - Live from the TCA Press Tour

Knight Rider Online Forum - NBC Press Tour Event

Knight Rider: The Complete Series on DVD!

Universal Home Video have announced Knight Rider: The Complete Series on DVD, with a release date of October 21! The set will comprise of 24 single-sided discs -- as opposed to the less-popular double-sided discs on the single season releases. It will come packaged in a special K.I.T.T. Gift Box with Flashing Lights and Sound Chip.

Hopefully the set will include the repaired version of the Season 3 release. Fans will recall that when the third season was originally released on DVD, some episodes were missing crucial sound effects: K.I.T.T.'s engine was muted in some episodes, Turbo Boost and button-tones were silent in others. Universal provided replacement sets for fans in North America, so it would seem that this problem is consigned to history.

The set has a SRP of $139.98. No artwork is available at this time.

TVShowsonDVD.com - Knight Rider Complete Series Announced

Friday, 18 July 2008

Wait Til You See My Turbo Boost!

A few days ago, NBC started screening the first 10-second promos advertising Knight Rider: The Series. Composed of several really fast cuts taken from February's TV movie, they don't reveal anything from the episodes that are currently shooting -- the San Diego Comic-Con has the scoop there (expect some big updates next week). The first promo has Val Kilmer's K.I.T.T. say, "I'm shiny."



The second has confirmed what all Knight Rider fans have wanted to hear since the revival was first announced, nearly a year ago. Turbo Boost!

After several tip-offs, Knight Rider Online have captured the latest promo, in which K.I.T.T. teases us with "Wait til you see my Turbo Boost." Can there be any better news for Knight Rider fans?



The question is, what form will the Turbo Boost take? Will there be more morphing involved? In an earlier interview with Online, Thompson hinted that K.I.T.T.'s famous ability would be getting a modern-day makeover:

"We're still trying to figure out exactly how to make [Turbo Boost] work. Because Turbo Boost in the '80s is going to be something totally different today. It's the equivalent of NOS on Fast and the Furious. You push the button and you go. What exactly is the Turbo Boost? What's going to be our version of the Turbo Boost? And that's something I know the fans sorely missed. 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. The way we have it tricked out, [K.I.T.T.]'s about 155,000 dollars! It ain't a cheap car.

"CG doesn't look that great when you do it solo, so what we really want to do is marry the two, and do a reality plus CG-enhanced. It's just a matter of what is that Turbo Boost. We want this all to be based in a reality... which is if you push the button, much like NOS, what happens? Or much like a drag race with the nitro. Those are the things that we're talking about. A lot of the stuff we're still working on and trying to figure out, but a lot we've got down pat."

Whatever happens, this is the first ever Knight Rider spin-off to use the Turbo Boost function!

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Happy Birthday, David Hasselhoff!

David Hasselhoff celebrates his birthday today! On behalf of Knight Rider fans around the world, The Knight Rider Archive sends best wishes for the day. To see how Michael Knight celebrated his birthday in 1985, click here!

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Knight Rider Pilot DVD Release Cancelled

TVShowsonDVD.com are reporting that Universal Home Video have cancelled plans to release February's TV movie on DVD. This is not all bad news: a spokesperson for Universal Studios revealed that the studio has instead decided to include the movie on the eventual DVD release of Knight Rider: Season 1.

TVShowsonDVD.com - DVD for Knight Rider Pilot Cancelled

Friday, 11 July 2008

New Cast Members at Comic-Con

The San Diego Comic-Con has verified the information posted by the IMDB, and reported here yesterday. Yancey Arias has joined the cast, along with Smith Cho. The press release is below:

11:45-12:45 Knight Rider: First Look at the New Series and Q&A with Cast and Executive Producers

On the heels of NBC's hit sequel movie based on the iconic 1980s television classic, Knight Rider has been reinvented as a supercharged action series showcasing the new K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand). Be the first to see exclusive footage from the new series. Moderated by Television Week deputy editor/columnist Josef Adalian, who participates in a Q&A session with executive producer/showrunner Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and The Furious, Las Vegas); executive producer David Bartis (Heist, The OC); and the cast: Justin Bruening (Cold Case), Deanna Russo (NCIS), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars), Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica), Yancey Arias (Kingpin), Bruce Davison (X-Men) and Smith Cho (Blades of Glory). Room 6A

San Diego Comic-Con: Programming for Thursday, July 24

Thursday, 10 July 2008

Another Recurring Character?

The IMDB.com has been updating its pages for the new episodes that are currently in production. They state that Episode 2, which is believed to have the working title Knight Fever, features actor Jeffrey Pierce as "Ryan Arrow", and that Yancey Arias will be introduced as "Alex Torres" -- a new recurring character. Pierce has previously appeared in Journeyman, Fear Itself and The Nine, while Arias has extensive credits in shows such as CSI, JAG, Law & Order, Charmed & NYPD Blue.

As with the earlier IMDB info, treat as speculation for the time being.

IMDB.com - Knight Rider: Episode #1.2

Kilmer Talks K.I.T.T.!

Coming Soon have interviewed Val Kilmer, and took the opportunity to ask him about the role of K.I.T.T.!

"It was a really weird happy accident," he said. "It was very strange just because they called me, not Wednesday afternoon, it was Wednesday about 8:30 at night. I live in the wilderness and my private phone just never rings because if you know me, you call the cell because I travel a lot. It was ringing and I looked at the phone like, 'That's really weird. Someone's calling me.' Went over, picked it up and it was the agency saying, 'Do you want to be the voice of K.I.T.T.?' and I said, 'I remember that show. It was fun when I was a kid, sure. Should I do a tape?' 'No, it's not an audition. They're offering it to you.' I said, 'When?' 'Tomorrow at 7:00.' What had happened and I can't take any credit for it at all, is that the actor Will Arnett, someone had seen him on the commercial for a car company and called him up and said, 'I think we have a problem.' He'd signed, done the job and been paid for it, but then they found out his voice is owned for another car company, which they found out by accident."

They also asked if he would continue with the role throughout the series: "I'm doing it right now. I haven't done it yet, but I do the whole show in 3 or 4 hours."

Coming Soon - Val Kilmer on Voicing K.I.T.T.!

Wednesday, 9 July 2008

Heads Up!

More details have started to emerge about the new series. TV Guide got the scoop on some of the car's new features from showrunner Gary Scott Thompson: "The car's windshield turns into a touch screen you can interact with while driving 300 miles an hour," executive producer Gary Scott Thompson says. We will learn more secrets about Mike's past as an Iraq War vet, and three additional characters join the cast, including techie Billy Morgan (Paul Campbell of Battlestar Galactica). "It won't just be like Michael Knight calling Devon from jail when he needed help," Thompson says. "They'll be pulling off missions as an actual team."

KITTsite.com have also learned that the third show has the working title Journey to the End of Knight, which involves Mike being reunited with an old friend, and K.I.T.T. transforms into a 4x4 variation.

Saturday, 5 July 2008

Benchwarmers K.I.T.T. Replica Fails to Sell

The long running saga of the K.I.T.T. replica featured in the movie Benchwarmers continues; after being listed on eBay for the third time, it has failed to sell. The auction closed yesterday with no bids placed on the vehicle, which was modified by customiser George Barris to look like Knight Rider's Super-Pursuit Mode, a feature that was introduced in the fourth season of the Original Series.

The car was part of the estate of murdered businessman Andrew Kissel, and the first auction was halted when fans questioned the car's authenticity. It returned to eBay last month and garnered worldwide publicity that led to a flurry of 43 bids, eventually closing at $53,000, although the sale was not completed.

Sunday Night Project

UK viewers take note: David Hasselhoff is a guest host on Sunday night's Sunday Night Project on Channel 4 at 10 pm. He joins presenters Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr in several comedy sketches based upon his career (and Carr appears as Devon Miles). The show will be repeated on Thursday, July 10, at 11:15 pm.

Channel 4 - Sunday Night Project

The Daily Mail - Hoff's Wacky TV Spoof

Friday, 4 July 2008

Casting for the First Episode...?

It relies heavily on user-submitted info, so treat the following as rumour until further notice:

The IMDB.com have made the first update to their page for Knight in Shining Armor, the premiere episode of the new series, with some guest-cast information. Actor Mark Adair-Rios is creditted as "Jay Hunt", and Doug Scott Kramer is "Eurotrash Guy".

IMDB.com - Knight Rider: Knight in Shining Armor

Wednesday, 2 July 2008

NBC Official Knight Site Updated

A new KR logo, and a message: Return for an announcement from Knight Industries on July 25, 2008.

It's interesting that this coincides on the weekend of the San Diego Comic Con, where Knight Rider will be having a high-profile presence. Could it be something to do with the new Attack K.I.T.T., perhaps?

NBC.com - Knight Rider

"Can Your Car Do This?"

SFX Magazine is really Knight Rider-centric this month; they have a one-page article (Drive Time) on the new series, with some very interesting comments from Gary Scott Thompson. A taster:

"I guess the biggest thing is that I was watching the 'two-hour' and I thought, 'In the early '80s, cars didn't talk. Now everybody's car talks.' So big deal! What was missing for me was, 'Can your car do this?' I said to NBC, 'That's what you guys are missing and that's what you've got to do. This car has to not just change colours -- this car has to transform into other vehicles. This car has to actually do things. Nano-technology is limitless. Why would you limit what you can do when the whole world is open to you? And with visual effects the way they are now, there's nothing you can't do.' I told them that it has to be balls-to-the-wall fast-paced action and it just has to go, go, go. My biggest objection about the 'two-hour' is that it played just like an episode from the '80s and we're not in the '80s any more.

"The characters besides K.I.T.T. have to be fully-three-dimensional, outstanding and people you want to be around. The car is one thing, but the people need to be something else. Nothing against the 'two-hour', but all I know is that going forward this has to be much more elevated."

The issue also has a four-page spread dedicated to the Original Series, with rundowns on the greatest episodes, best baddies, and some of K.I.T.T.'s coolest features.

It's Issue #172, August 2008. Check it out!