We’ve been threatened promised a cinematic take on cult ‘80s telly drama Knight Rider for years now. Original star David Hasselhoff has been talking about it for a decade and there was more chatter back in 2006 when The Weinstein Company bought the rights. But since 2008’s short-lived TV reboot, we’ve heard little. That changed today when a source whispered to the LA Times that Brad Copeland is writing a new draft of the script.
Knight Rider, of course, saw the Hoff hassling criminals with the help of the Knight Industries Two Thousand, or K.I.T.T, a powerful Pontiac Trans Am with a sarcastic central intelligence (voiced by William Daniels) and all manner of special features including Turbo Boost and bulletproof armour.
TWC wants the film version to be a souped-up, high-octane affair with bigger stunts and even more gadgets than the original show could achieve given the budget and technical limitations of the time; whether anyone can outdo Hasselhoff’s perm is another matter entirely. But given the current success of the** Fast & Furious** franchise, the appeal of a movie set around a high-tech car must be huge.
Copeland’s a leftfield choice: he’s a veteran of classic US sitcom NewsRadio, was part of the Arrested Development writing staff and worked on the US version of The Inbetweeners. But cinematically, his scripts have brought us misfiring John Travolta / Tim Allen comedy Wild Hogs and the memorably bad Yogi Bear, neither of which convince us he’s the man to write an all-action update of Knight Rider. Still, given the history of the attempt to date, we could go through many years, lots more writers and several directors before it ever hits the screen, and the Hoff’s cameo is reduced to a skull with a big perm in a museum scene. Oh, who are we kidding? The Hoff is immortal.