‘Knight Rider’ to be Adapted for the Big Screen

“Michael Knight, a lone crusader in a dangerous world. The world… of the Knight Rider.” These infamous lines closed the early episodes of the famous show Knight Rider (1982-1986), which featured a crime-fighting Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) who fought alongside his technologically advanced car, KITT. News has recently come about, however, that the dynamic duo may appear on the big screen in the coming years, as Brad Copeland (Arrested Development) is in the process of writing a script for the movie with the Weinstein Co, according to the LA Times. 

For the Weinsten Company, Knight Rider would figure to be a higher budgeted movie, more action-packed than their typical films, such as The King’s Speech and Silver Linings Playbook (Django Unchained and its $100 million budget being a notable exception, although Django was co-produced by Columbia Pictures). That said, Weinstein does have a track record of producing quality movies with major attachments on a (relative) budget. The Fighter, for example, was directed by David O. Russell, had a cast that included major stars Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, and Amy Adams, and still managed to keep the budget down to a reported $25 million.

In 2008 Universal Media Studios launched a new Knight Rider TV series, featuring  Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur, son of the original Knight Rider Michael Knight, who drove KITT 2.0. The series ran for 17 episodes with a TV movie; perhaps this recent television revival of the famous futuristic car has KITT in the back of everyone’s minds, stored just recently enough that a movie won’t leave the Millenial Generation saying, “What’s a Knight Rider?”

David Hasselhoff has expressed interest in being involved with the new movie. It seems unlikely he’ll return a solo leading role (though perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge), but there’s certainly precedent for a passing of the torch-type movie; both the Indiana Jones and Die Hard series have had such installments in recent years. Hasselhoff isn’t quite the icon that Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis is, respectively, but barring reboot it would be a little strange to see him shut out of the film entirely. Though if he is, he can always commiserate with William Shatner.