Knight Rider Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you were one of the folks who weren't too impressed by the sight of the new KITT for the television remake of Knight Rider, you can now bid on one of the original Knight Rider cars over at eBay. (There are a ton of pics in the link for potential bidders to check out how well it has held up, and how it looks inside.) For fans, this is all sorts of good news, but man, the reason this car is up for auction is completely messed up.

Over at The Bad and Ugly, they run down what happened to get this car listed on eBay. The car was bought for $69,000 in May of 2005 by a businessman named Andrew Kissel. However, he had increasing legal issues due to some document forging and bogus loans, so he was never able to pick it up. The man was then found murdered in his house before starting his prison sentence. But that's not all -- it seems that his brother also met a terrible fate when he drank a milkshake poisoned by his wife.

Since the car never ended up in the hands of Kissel, hopefully it won't have the same bad karma. (It's not like we're talking about James Dean's cursed ride.) Me, I'd like to see Glen A. Larsen pick it up and use it in his upcoming Knight Rider feature, even if it is a bit old-school.

My post-Christmas stomach is in very bad shape ...

Some new artwork from this summer's The Incredible Hulk has arrived online, and while it's still only artwork (in fact, all we've seen so far of this film has been artwork), it's definitely a piece that should whet your appetite for destruction. Arriving in theaters on June 13, this version of the Hulk stars Edward Norton as the emotionally-conflicted Bruce Banner, who's on the run hiding from authorities, as well as his own demons. Tim Roth will play Hulk's nemesis Emil Blonsky, while Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), William Hurt (Gen. Ross) and Tim Blake Nelson (Samuel Sterns) also star. Check out the new artwork to the right, via Coming Soon.

That TV movie/series launch/contemporary re-boot of Knight Rider now has a very very brief 15-second teaser trailer online for all of you to geek out over. While there's not much except the uncovering of the new, updated car, we do get to hear a brief snippet of that classic Knight Rider music, followed by some other, flashy TV music. Ah, and Will Arnett as the voice of KITT -- does it seriously get any better than that? From the official Knight Rider press release: "The movie stars Justin Bruening ("Cold Case," "All My Children"), Deanna Russo ("NCIS," "The Young and the Restless"), Sydney Tamiia Poitier ("Veronica Mars," "Grindhouse") and Bruce Davison ("Breach," "Close to Home"). In addition, David Hasselhoff (NBC's "America's Got Talent") - who starred in the popular lead role as Michael Knight for four seasons during the original series - returns as the same character in a special guest-star appearance. Will Arnett (NBC's "30 Rock," "Blades of Glory") will provide the voice of KITT." Don't you love how Hasselhoff's credit is from America's Got Talent, as if no one would remember the dude's awesome turn in TV's Baywatch. (Check out the teaser after the jump.)

Finally, we haven't heard much about the Pixar film arriving in between Wall-E (2008) and Toy Story 3 (2010), titled Up. Now, Upcoming Pixar has picked up a note from the film's official wikipedia entry which stated that Up may in fact be a "re-telling, somewhat, of the classic Don Quixote fable." Here's what we have so far by way of a synopsis for Up; let the speculation begin: "Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson are preparing this "coming-of-old-age story" about a seventysomething guy who lives in a house that "looks like your grand-parents' house smelled." He befriends a clueless young Wilderness Ranger and gets into lots of alter kocker altercations. Says Pixar: "Our hero travels the globe, fights beasts and villains and eats dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon." (via CinemaBlend)

There's no more Trans Am goodness for Michael Knight or rather, the next generation -- Mike Tracer. (Every time I hear his name, I think of the Chasing Amy tracer rant.) The first KITT was a Pontiac Trans Am T-top, but this time around, the Knight Rider back-door pilot/television special is getting some Ford power. Jalopnik scored pictures of the new generation KITT, and it's a 550 HP Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, which you can see above.

Never being a Trans Am fan, I'm pretty happy with the auto choice. It's modernized, but it still has the lights and KITT feel to it. (The site mentions that the lights were photoshopped in for the picture, because they weren't working when it was taken; but otherwise, that's the car in all its real glory.) Before, I just liked the idea of a car you could chat with -- it makes long trips alone all the more fun. (I wonder if KITT would sing along to the radio?) But now, I would love to take that out for a test-drive. How about you?

[via Coming Soon]

If anything could really hurt the feature film for Knight Rider, the one that series creator Glen A. Larson has been working on for a while, I would guess that it would be the Hoff. As you might remember, NBC wanted to get in on the KITT action, so they started to make a 2-hour movie/back-door pilot to come out before the movie and steal its thunder. Justin Bruening joined the cast earlier this month, and now the NBC project might have scored the big cheese -- David Hasselhoff. Reuters has reported that he's in talks to reprise his role as Michael Knight for the project.

If he signs on the dotted line, he'll join Bruening and another soap opera alum, Deanna Russo -- who will follow in Hoff's footsteps, by getting into the Rider via The Young & the Restless. And here's the story: Mike Tracer (Bruening) is Michael Knight's son, but he never knew his dad. "Burned by his love for childhood best friend and one-time girlfriend Sarah Karmen (Russo), Mike is wasting away in Las Vegas when Sarah reappears and is willing to pay off Mike's gambling debt in exchange for help." You see, Sarah's dad is KITT inventer Charles Kamen, and she works in the engineering department of Stanford. KITT tells her that her father is missing, so she recruits the kid. How Hoff fits in, oh, I imagine he'll give his son some tips or something. Oh yeah -- and Sydney Poitier, of Grindhouse fame, is also involved.

Could Hasselhoff be involved in both projects? Or, if he signs onto one, will that mean the end of the other? What are your thoughts?

One KITT driver has been named in this dueling Knight Rider kerfuffle. If you remember from last month, as series creator Glen A. Larsen has been slowly forming a feature film based on the series, NBC decided to zip in and create a 2-hour movie/back-door pilot to steal the spotlight. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it's one step closer to being the first one out there -- taking a cue, it seems, from David Hasselhoff's previous hunt for Michael Knight's son. NBC has picked soap star Justin Bruening to star as Knight's offspring.

Just like The Hoff years before, who joined the classic show after a stint on The Young and the Restless, Bruening will make the jump into KITT from soap operas -- for the last four years, he's played Jamie Martin on All My Children. Personally, I'm more interested to see if he follows Hasselhoff's path and dips into bikini babe television and international singing superstardom after the role, rather than what he does with this questionable project. With a star in place, the network, so far, is beating Larsen's movie project to the punch. So, onto the questions. Can this actor pull it off and draw KITT fans in? Will this steal the thunder and end/hurt the film? Do you care? When did Knight Rider become such tasty subject matter that people would battle each other for it?

*cue Knight Rider theme song* Knight Industries Two Thousand is coming... or will it be Three Thousand? First, David Hasselhoff, aka Michael Knight, was looking at having a cinematic shot at the classic '80s show, and then came word that the series creator Glen A. Larson was working on the feature. Finally, The Hoff was trying to give the role of his son off to a certain passerby named Orlando Bloom. But now, there's more, and by more, I mean more news, and more Knight Rider. Oh yes, according to AICN, there will be not one, but two reappearances of KITT for Knight Rider fans.

Forget about thinking one sequel or remake is enough -- the time has come for the dueling features. How could two places have the same rights, you wonder? Well, one of these productions, Larson's, is heading for the big screen. Universal/NBC, however, is jealous, so they're going to make their own 2 hour movie/backdoor pilot. Basically, they own the television rights while Larson has the rights for the film. AICN's source says: "If this series is created by Universal, it is not being created to revive the series, nor is it to draw in new viewers for the fans. This series is Universal's attempt to couple together a sub-par rushed project and attach a big name to it with intentions to try and sideline the movie Glen has been working endlessly on getting to the big screen." I'm all for a well-down return of KITT, but is anyone else thinking that this NBC rush-job is a big, embarrassing waste of time? No wonder networks are struggling if this is the best they can come up with -- trying to beat the series creator to the punch.

Odds and ends from Thursday:

• Apparently, David Hasselhoff is looking to bring on an A-list star to play his son in a planned Knight Rider film. After crossing paths with Orlando Bloom in Hollywood recently, Hasselhoff extended an offer to the actor for him to appear in the flick as Knight Rider, Jr. Bloom gave him the old, "You'd need to speak to my manager about it" routine, which, in actor-speak, means "Um, no."
• For those of you interested in exploring the life of Rembrandt, you'll be happy to know a biopic is currently in the works. In fact, four more actors have just signed on to the project, which already has Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) starring as Rembrandt himself. Hopping onboard the flick are Eva Birthistle, Nathalie Press, Emily Holmes and Jodhi May. Birthistle will play Rembrandt's wife May, while Holmes and May will play his mistresses. Pic, entitled Nightwatching, is said to "shed new light on the painter's life through a fresh reading of his 1642 painting Night Watch."
• Screenwriter Terry Rossio stopped by the Word Player forums to officially confirm to fans that the title of the third and (final?) Pirates flick will be Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. Supposedly, the studio had been tossing around At Worlds End and Worlds End, finally deciding to go with the former. Pic is scheduled to hit theaters on May 25, 2007.

Ok, hands up if you're surprised by the news that The Weinstein Company is going to make a movie version of Knight Rider. Yeah, that's what I thought -- I see three hands. Despite the fact that, thus far, big-screen versions of TV classics (using the word loosely, in some cases) have for the most part not only been critically lambasted but also box office failures, Hollywood seems to have a wild hair about the concept, and are clearly determined to beat that horse until its good and dead (while I sit here and gleefully mix my metaphors). Weirdly, the IMDb already has a listing for the film, starring David Hasselhoff -- a project that must be either dead or made-up.

What's going to be even more fun that then inevitable "If The Hoff's not in it, I'm not going!" versus "OMG! Owen Wilson would be so great in this!" debates is the fact that TWC apparently see this thing as having "franchise potential." Come on -- what's better than a whole lot of movies about a talking car?