Yesterday, it was announced that Universal Pictures is behind a new “Knight Rider” movie that will be coming from the “Cobra Kai” series creators, with Kelly McCormick and David Leitch of 87North producing (part of their overall first-look deal with the studio) alongside Spyglass.
Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald are in “early talks” to develop a script for a feature iteration of “Knight Rider,” as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. Not only that, but Hurwitz and Schlossberg (“Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay“) are said to be eyeing the director’s chair on the legacy action project as well.
The original NBC series, created by Glen A. Larson, debuted in 1982 with David Hasselhoff starring as Michael Knight and William Daniels (“Boy Meets World”) voicing the sentient robotic sports car, KITT. “Knight Rider” featured all sorts of thrilling, practical car stunts, as CGI simply wasn’t a thing or even accessible to television productions of the time.
In the show, Michael Knight was a detective who became an agent for FLAG (Foundation for Law and Government), and ended up partnering with the artificially intelligent and nearly indestructible Trans Am.
It would go on to spawn three TV movies, multiple video game releases, and a series reboot back in 2008 that featured the late Val Kilmer voicing KITT. Another HUGE aspect of the show was the extremely catchy theme song that Busta Rhymes would eventually sample for the song “Fire It Up,” and the show’s 80s/cyberpunk aesthetic was influential on the French electronic scene with acts like Kavinsky.
Considering this movie version of “Knight Rider” is in the early days, who exactly they’ll be casting as the next Michael Knight remains to be seen. But this would certainly be a solid action vehicle for all sorts of actors, or even actresses.
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