It's About The Car!

[Brian Damage]

February 17, 2008 -- Even cars have to audition in Hollywood.For NBC's two-hour movie remake of the NBC series "Knight Rider" (1982-86) executive producers Doug Liman ( "The Bourne Supremacy") and David Bartis ("Heist, "The O.C.") printed out pictures of every cool car they could think of and hung them on their office wall.

"There were some practical considerations and some creative considerations," says Bartis, who has worked with Liman since 2001. "The original car, a Pontiac Trans Am, isn't made any more. But we knew it had to be American because otherwise it felt like we were selling out. We wanted something the American audience would feel connected to. And we knew it had to be two-door, have some muscle to it and include that intangible cool factor."

And the winner is: the Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR (which stands for King of the Road, not "Knight Rider"), a limited-edition remake that will be available to a lucky few for a suggested retail price of $79,995 come May. Car geeks across America will recognize the Shelby as the quintessential American muscle car.

"There's something about the way guys connect with cars that doesn't really change. It's something visceral, something fundamental," says Bartis.

For the movie, Ford donated several versions of the car, which is known as KITT (or Knight Industries Three-Thousand) in the TV movie. The KITT Hero is the everyday version of the car; KITT Attack is a super high-speed version that can change color and shape and KITT Remote can be driven from a distance.

"It's pretty bizarre to see a car drive up with nobody in it," says Bartis.

Even cooler is that the movie's producing team rigged a cage on top of the KITT Attack, allowing a stunt driver to drive the car while the actors sat inside while being filmed and recorded the entire time. Movie-car designer Harald Belker ("Cat in the Hat," "XXX") created the customized car.

"The bar for stunts is pretty high right now. People expect the kind of action and reality that you saw in the 'Bourne' movies. I don't think we can hold an audience unless it feels real," says Bartis. The movie also includes scenes recorded against digital green screens, which allows producers to insert digital backgrounds and effects.


Val Kilmer ("The Doors," "Batman Forever") will provide KITT's voice, which needed to sound "logical, precise and possessing infinite knowledge," according to NBC. Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") had been signed up to voice KITT, but had to drop out of the project because he has a conflicting commercial contract with General Motors.

Bartis and Liman hope to apply the same transformation to "Knight Rider" that they brought to the "Bourne" franchise, which began as a series of Robert Ludlum spy novels that were popular in the '80s.

"When I heard about the project, Ben Silverman [co-chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios] already had latched on to the idea of bringing back the show," says Bartis. "He was originally inspired by seeing the film "Transformers" and seeing the relationship between Shia LeBoeuf's character and that car. Everybody realized that 'Knight Rider' was a Universal-owned show and that it may be ripe for reinvention."

The cast of "Knight Rider" plays a supporting role to KITT. Nebraska native Justin Bruening co-stars as 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger Mike Tracer, along with Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman, Tracer's best friend from childhood and daughter of KITT's creator, and Sydney Tamiia Poitier as FBI agent Carrie Rivai. The three are on a mission to find Charles Graiman (Bruce Davidson), who invented the first KITT 25 years ago and is now in danger.

As a little shout-out to "Knight Rider" fans, David Hasselhoff makes a guest appearance as Michael Knight.

KNIGHT RIDER

Sunday, 9 p.m, NBC

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02172008...812.htm?page=0

[Mikado]

Somehow, having KITT being a Mustang rather than a Trans-Am is akin to King Kong being represented as a giant chimpanzee, rather than a gorilla.....the least they could have done was used the T-As nearest "living relative" , the new Camaro (And what a great way for GM to promote their new ponycar)

[TJL]

^ True, the new Camaro was featured in the Transformers movie, and it looked pretty darn good.

I will be watching tonight.

[Dr. John Becker]

The movie was better then I expected. I still would like to have seen a cameo from the original KITT.

[TJL]

I wasn;t very impressed with the pilot movie. To me the show felt like a 2 hour long Ford ad - the commercials featuring the show's star and KITT sold me on that idea.

But... I liked Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT. Good choice.

[nostalgicgirl93]

they should have gone with the new camaro. i hate mustangs.

[TJL]

I am really surprised the show got picked up for a series run, considering the critical drubbing the movie pilot recieved.

Hopefully, the series will be better.