Autoblog

One week from today, we'll be watching Knight Rider, the 2-hour telemovie that resurrects KITT as a new car (Mustang) with a new voice (Val Kilmer), a new driver (Mike Traceur, son of Michael Knight), and, if ratings are good enough, a probable weekly gig in primetime next Fall. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Before that can happen, the pilot needs to be a success, and we're as interested as everyone else in seeing what the network and executive producer Doug Liman have cooked up. Liman's body of work as a director and producer is so money that despite our fears, the Knight Rider reboot could actually work.

Then again, based on some of what we've seen in the commercials and promos so far, it could just as easily wind up being a giant black hole of suck. On the upside, we expect to be entertained either way. The latest TV spot introduces us to KITT's new, raspier voice and magic disappearing shifter. If you have any issues watching the fancy-schmancy NBC embed above, the YouTube version's pasted after the jump.

[Source: Knight Rider Online]

Man, how time flies. The return of Knight Rider to the small screen happens in just nine days when a two-hour movie featuring a new Michael Knight and his talking, jumping, cloaking car airs February 17th on NBC. You'd think with such little time left that the movie itself would be finished and ready to go. Not so. A few weeks ago, Will Arnett, the chosen voice of KITT in the movie and upcoming series, was forced to back out because someone realized that he also did voiceover work for GMC. Being a professional grade voice for General Motors doesn't jive with playing KITT in a show that's sponsored by Ford, so the Arrested Development star vacated the role. His replacement: Val Kilmer. Wha?!?!?!

Doc Holliday? Ice Man? Nick Rivers? It's true. Kilmer's a pretty big star for the production to score on such short notice, but then again, Kilmer hasn't had a mainstream hit in a while. Still, why doesn't someone just bite the bullet and call William Daniels, the original voice of KITT who is also known for playing Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World? Admit it, Val Kilmer's synthesized pipes coming from KITT's tweeters will never live up to the high standard set by Daniels. But don't worry Val, we'd say the same thing about anyone they got for this job except for the original voice of KITT.

[Source: knightrideronline.com via Jalopnik]