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Amph One Man Can Make a Difference: Knight Rider

Discussion in 'Community' started by The2ndQuest , Sep 28, 2007.

  1. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    [​IMG]

    http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972829.html?categoryid=1237&cs=1&p=0]NBC[/url] taps Liman for 'Knight Rider'

    NBC is bringing back "Knight Rider," tapping Doug Liman to produce a "Transformers"-inspired reworking of the 1980s hit action-drama series about a man and his indestructible supercar.

    Peacock is readying a two-hour backdoor pilot for the project, with tentative plans to air it as a telepic later this season. Liman is open to the idea of directing, assuming his feature sked allows. If the telepic clicks, a new-model "Knight Rider" could be on the air as early as next fall.

    Dave Andron ("Raines") is writing the pilot script and will serve as supervising producer alongside exec producers Liman and Dave Bartis ("The O.C.," "Heist") for Universal Media Studios and Dutch Oven Prods.

    Success of "Transformers" had a role in inspiring NBC Entertainment chief Ben Silverman's decision to revive "Knight." The thinking is that smallscreen f/x have advanced to the point where it'd be feasible to have a weekly series in which cars shift shapes.

    It's also likely the new show will explore the idea of "evil" cars to offset the heroic talking K.I.T.T. car of the original skein, which starred David Hasselhoff. That said, skein is expected to essentially remain focused on the story of a single man fighting for justice with the help of his superadvanced car.

    There's also huge potential for advertiser integration. General Motors was all over "Transformers," and it's easy to see NBC striking a rich deal with a single automaker to serve as the exclusive auto brand for the new "Knight." It's understood preliminary talks have already begun.

    Peacock is also veering from current conventional wisdom by moving forward with a telepic/backdoor pilot for "Knight." Nets rarely produce telepics with an eye on turning them into series anymore, in part because the telepic has essentially disappeared from the broadcast network scene.

    But NBC execs no doubt feel "Knight Rider" is enough of a pre-sold brand to lure an audience. What's more, the telepic could serve as a good replacement for repeats come spring, perhaps replacing an encore of "Heroes" or "Bionic Woman."

    "Knight" originally aired on NBC from 1982 until 1986, with Hasselhoff playing smooth crimefighter Michael Knight. A spinoff skein, "Team Knight Rider," aired in syndication during the 1997-98 season.





    Well, "evil cars" is nothing new to the franchise (KARR most famously, but Goliath, the Juggernaught and the Drones could probably count too) and transforming isn't exactly new either (Super-Pursuit Mode, Convertible, and Knight Rider 2000's amphibious mode) but I wonder how far they're going to push the concept.
     
  2. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    Probably everything short of actually turning into a robot.

    Car Wars style action would be cool. The less humans, the better.
     
  3. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    <shudder>
    Glad to see originality disappearing from TV again. Everything is going back to the 80s...
     
  4. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    As long as I get the ultimate super-car duel between KITT and KARR I'll be happy.
     
  5. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Did they not learn anything from the failure that was TEAM KnightRider?
     
  6. Mustafar_66

    Mustafar_66 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 20, 2005
    If it doesn't have The Hoff in it, I won't watch it [face_talk_hand]
     
  7. DarthSapient

    DarthSapient Jedi Youngling star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2001
    Bringing BACK Knight Rider??? Oh no. I for one am also tired of the lack of originality. Just this year alone we've got Bionic Woman. I saw talk of redoing the Karate Kid and now this. This show was the right one for the right time. It was cool but it's way out of its element now and I think anything now will only serve to tarnish it.
     
  8. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Well, they've been talking about a Knight Rider movie for about 5 or 6 years now, so some new incarnation was inevitable.

    Personally, I'd rather see a new incarnation of a sci-fi-based show in primetime than yet another CSI, lawyer or medical show (albeit one with with crime investigation elements, though not exclusively so).

    And, seriously- anything to erase the stain known as Team Knight Rider is fine by me.
     
  9. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    The thing that bugs me about this is that there are loads of original scifi sitting on bookshelves in stores that could easily be adapted for tv and do well if given even a little TLC. Instead, KITT becomes Optimus Prime. [face_plain]
     
  10. DarthSapient

    DarthSapient Jedi Youngling star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2001
    I have to agree with LaMent. With the thousands upon thousands of writers and scripts out there, the best we can continually come up with is what's been done? Just over the past few years alone we could run down a whole list of TV shows and former movies that have all been redone. I-)
     
  11. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    I hear a lot of similar apathy all over lately. Maybe the 30-something nostalgia factor has finally crested. I kinda find it getting silly too.
     
  12. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    The 70s and 80s are back.
    What more proof do you need?
    It's in the clothes(fashions&colors), the attitudes (big gov't BAD, Corruption BAD, big Corporate BAD) and we even have an increasingly unpopular war!
    So naturally it should show up in TV
    Knight Rider, Cattlestar Galactica, Dr Who, Bionic (Wo)Man, etc.

    Maybe Hasslehoff can take over the Miles/mentor role and coach the new hotshot hero?

    Next I expect to hear plans to revitalize A-Team, Hawaii 5-O, Magnum PI, AirWolf (a horror show about a lycanthrope airliner pilot?) and more. Maybe D Lynch will give us a new version of Twin Peaks more in line with his drug-addled vision?

    Used to be, movies were based on literature (Gone with the Wind, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, War and Piece, various shakespeare, various bible). Even short stories from magazines (Zorro, Tarzan). Now the height of culture is to make comic books movies (Spider-man, BatMan, Superman, X-Men, Hellboy, even V for Vendetta). I can't help but feel there has been a serious drop in cultural values and expectations.

    Even Heavy Metal, the ultimate in Teeny-bopper geek titillation... In the 80s original, the movie was a series of vinettes based on stories from a magazine--you know, actual TEXT. Come Heavy Metal 2000, the whole thing was one story, and it had the sophistication I would expect from a very bad comic book.
     
  13. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Last word on the Knight Rider movie was that The Hoff would take on the mentor role to a new, younger character that would drive KITT, but it's hard to say if that element will remain or not.

    And there is an A-Team movie in the works.

    I'd actually love to see a new incarnation of AirWolf though- I recently watched the first season and it holds up suprisingly well- it'd be rather spectacular to see what they could do with the concept when they're not constricted by stock footage and cartoon missles. Different enough to be worth the endeavor, IMO.

    Personally, I don't find there to be anything wrong with continuing existing franchises and reintroducing them to new generations- they're the enduring pop culture elements. There will always be new and original stories tld, but they'll always be mixed in amongst higher-profile existing properties, until one they they too might become such a property. And there's always a deep appeal in seeing interesting concepts and stories from the past retold in a means that can do better justice to the concepts and better show why such concepts were so appealing in the first place and have continued to endure- unfortunately with a lot of these concepts, many viewers are too shallow to look deeper beyond the surface at whats truley fun or entertaining about these things and either dismiss it or fail to allow themselves to enage with the property, thus a new incarnation can help bridge such a gap, while (ideally) maintaining the link that forged such a fascination in the first place).
     
  14. Healer_Leona

    Healer_Leona Squirrel Wrangler of Fun & Games star 9 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jul 7, 2000
    While many are crying for more cars less humans for this, I want to see the opposite.

    It's going need to be character driven because if all we get is transmogrified cars, it'll only look like a cheap Transformers ripoff.
     
  15. Darth_Maul_Sith_Lord

    Darth_Maul_Sith_Lord Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 11, 2004
    "It's also likely the new show will explore the idea of "evil" cars to offset the heroic talking K.I.T.T. car of the original skein..."

    I was so in, until I read that... That is just lame.

    I've got an inspired idea: Quit remaking old shows... Just cuz it worked, what, once, doesn't mean it'll work for everything.

    D_M_S_L
     
  16. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    "Evil" cars aren't necessarily a bad thing- KARR was fantastic as a villian in both incarnations (the more naive and violently insecure Peter Cullen-voiced first appearance & the scheming, manipulative, genie-analogy-producing vindictive Haunted Mansion Narrator-voiced second appearance).

    "I am the prototype of the car of the future- what you saw last night was an inferior production line model!"


    "If I am destroyed- so shall you be!"


    (after turbo-boosting into the FLAG semi-trailer)
    "Unless you want to be pressed right into the deisel block, I wouldn't move, Mr. Miles." (bemused) "And what's this? A laser! Intended for me, no doubt. I came for Alpha Capacitors- what an unexpected surprise."
     
  17. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    The KARR episodes are the only ones I really remember.
     
  18. Darth_Maul_Sith_Lord

    Darth_Maul_Sith_Lord Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 11, 2004
    Yeah... An evil car with a superiority complex and extremely bad dialog just doesn't work for me. Of course the show will probably just be an hour long commercial for the new Trans Am anyway. Any casting details yet? I'm curios as to whom they'll get to replace the Hoff.

    D_M_S_L
     
  19. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    AICN Script review-SPOILERS!

    Ya know- that actually sounds very good. Sounds like they didn't radically change the core of Knight Rider and it's appeal, and that it's a generally realistic update (versus Knight Rider 2000), with exception to a couple Bond-esque elements (visual cloak, etc).
     
  20. Excellence

    Excellence Jedi Knight star 7

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2002

    Cake looks promising, but will it taste good? Time will tell.
     
  21. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Of course all of this means jack if the writers opt to strike.
     
  22. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Not if it's already written before the strike happens, which it apparently has been.
     
  23. Sith_Lord_Linkoping

    Sith_Lord_Linkoping Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2001
     
  24. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Like the Hoff Bruening also married one of his co - stars:

    [image=http://l.yimg.com/img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/site/41/30/0000034130_20061021003104.jpg]

    Of course Bruening's a better actor IMO.
     
  25. Sith_Lord_Linkoping

    Sith_Lord_Linkoping Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2001