David Hasselhoff is set to reprise his role as Michael Knight in what appears to be a remake of his classic ‘80s TV show, Knight Rider. I said "appears to be" since details about this project are still scarce. There is a trailer, which shows the Hoff in his trademark leather jacket and aviators, waiting for a black car in the middle of a desert. The car, of course, is KITT, and those who were fans of the TV series will definitely appreciate the solid nod to the show’s opening sequence.
The mysterious project is called Knight Rider Heroes, and if there’s anything to be taken from the trailer, it has the makings of a “mentor-student” story with Knight handing over the crime-fighting responsibilities, and presumably ownership of KITT, to an equally mysterious young man. That’s as far as the trailer went, as it skipped out on some other important details. For one, there’s no word on whether it’s going to be a TV series, a movie, or even a reality show. It also doesn’t say if the project is being backed by a prominent Hollywood studio, or any studio for that matter. The only company that’s attached to the project is Knight Media Industries, which may or may not be a real company.
Christopher Rutkowski, the creator of the Aficionauto series that featured the same visual treatment as the trailer, did tell Autoblog that a new Knight Rider project is in the works. Hasselhoff will be there, as will be the original KITT (Pontiac Trans-AM) and not the newer version (Ford Shelby GT500) that appeared in the ill-fated 2008 remake. There’s also an official website - knightriderheroesmovie.com - but a quick look at the site doesn’t reveal anything.
By the way it looks now, there are still too many unanswered questions to take this project seriously. I hope that something comes out of it because I’m a huge fan of the original Knight Rider series. But, until more details are unveiled, I’m taking this one with a grain of salt.
Early Pontiac Trans Ams are very easy to love. They had classic muscle car looks and huge amounts of power. But by the late 70s, emissions-neutered engines were just sad, and the styling was overcompensating by getting more outrageous. Liking these later Trans Ams is something of a guilty pleasure, ’cause they’re just so cheesy; but they still have their fans, and the reviewer in this video and myself are two of them. And the Trans Am in the video is one of the easiest of its generation to love, as its a rare Turbo model.
GM would figure out how to make turbocharging genuinely badass a few years after the car in this video was made, and while the 1982-1987 Buick Grand National was amazing, this ’81 Turbo Trans Am isn’t quite there. But that’s okay, because the audacity it takes to cover the entire hood of a car with a giant screaming chicken (the common slang term for the Trans Am eagle logo, it’s used several times in the video without explanation) sort of excuses a lot.
