Hello Schmoeville!
And yes, you read the news up top correctly. The Weinstein Company is, in fact, behind the proposed KNIGHT RIDER remake that was originally reported on by The Los Angeles Times. Thanks to the article, we learned that Brad Copeland (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) would be writing the script
And now it seems, things are getting closer to a green-light. For lo and behold, our go-to scoopster The Phantom has dropped by to deliver some interesting news:

Thought you’d be interested in knowing, Chris Pratt and Danny McBride are in talks for the KNIGHT RIDER remake at The Weinstein Company.

And booyah!

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way… Do we need a KNIGHT RIDER movie? Everyone will tell you, “probably not”; but hearing that the movie is now closer to happening and that they are talking to Chris Pratt and Danny McBride, I am now, strangely, intrigued.

Based off of the 1982 television series about a lone crime fighter battling the forces of evil with the help of his indestructible and artificially intelligent car, KNIGHT RIDER was one of my favorite shows growing up. Now, the only question I have is: who is up for what?

Is Chris Pratt up for Michael Knight? Or is it Danny McBride? My two cents? I think Pratt is being looked at for Michael Knight and McBride for the voice of KITT. Yup. There I said it.

And with that being said, we would be getting a decidedly different tone than we’ve previously had with any KNIGHT RIDER incarnation (and for The Weinstein Company). Obviously, this is turning into a sort of action-comedy hybrid; perhaps in the same vein as 21 JUMP STREET. That remake worked and with the possibility of Pratt and McBride teaming up for a KNIGHT RIDER movie, I see no reason why this can’t work too. Consider me optimistic that this news will be confirmed soon.

But as I always say, never count out the Phantom who has a pretty solid track record. Now, the waiting game to see if this pans out.

Could David Hasselhoff make a big screen return as Michael Knight, the crime fighting hero behind the wheel of the NBC action series Knight Rider? While it doesn't sound like there are any firm plans for a big screen Knight Rider film quite yet, Hasselhoff confirmed to CinemaBlend that not only does he want to return as his iconic character, he wants to do so in a storyline he likens to 20th Century Fox's recent R-rated comic book adaptation Logan.

I have met Robert Rodriguez. He does Dusk til Dawn and Machete. And I said 'You need to do Knight Rider.' Because he was doing a marathon of Knight Riders and he said 'Can we have a selfie!?' And I said, 'No, I don't want a selfie! I want to do the movie! I want to shoot the TV series! I want to bring it back and make it dark! Michael Knight comes back and he's pissed.' ... I hope it happens, and if it does, it'll be kind of like Logan. It will be dark. Hasselhoff as Michael Knight in 2017. Knight Rider. The saga continues.

The biggest hurtle to overcome with a Knight Rider movie like that is landing the right tone. A huge part of the charm of the original series stems from the silliness of the basic plot. David Hasselhoff might actually be onto something in approaching Robert Rodriguez. The Austin, Texas based filmmaker tends to deliver R-rated action with a level of tongue in cheek humor that would be exactly what a Knight Rider movie needs. What's more, Rodriguez is famously budget conscious and would be a major factor in revving up KITT for the big screen. The budget for Logan was nearly $100 million and Knight Rider doesn't exactly have the same franchise track record at the box office. Still, seeing an aging Michael Knight ride KITT through a Mad Max style post-apocalypse would make for one fun summer blockbuster.

As cool as a Logan-esque big screen Knight Rider finale might sound, the odds aren't exactly in favor of such a project. It was revealed last year that plans are underway for a Machinima webseries reboot of the franchise with four-time The Fast and the Furious helmer Justin Lin producing. David Hasselhoff recently teased that he's involved in this new take, so any plans for a Knight Rider movie are likely going to have to take a back seat.

While it's certainly true that Robert Rodriguez is a director who likes to keep multiple projects in development at once, he himself has not made any indication that he has plans (or even the desire) to take on a Knight Rider movie. The selfie that David Hasselhoff refers to is likely this one, which appeared on Rodriguez's Twitter feed last summer, several months before the new webseries was announced.

Premiering on NBC in 1982, the original Knight Rider ran for four seasons and 90 episodes. The show followed David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight, a skilled crimefighter operating alongside an advanced A.I. vehicle, the Knight Industries Two Thousand (or KITT, for short). Following the end of the original Knight Rider series in 1986, David Hasselhoff returned for a 1991 telefilm called Knight Rider 2000. The project failed to develop into anything more substantive, however, and Hasselhoff wound up not returning for several subsequent attempts to reboot the franchise.

David Hasselhoff did finally reprise the Michael Knight character in 2008 for what was, to date, the most recent iteration of the Knight Rider franchise. Hasselhoff makes a cameo at the end of the NBC series' pilot telefilm, revealing that the show's lead (Justin Bruening as Mike Knight) is the son of his original character.

EXCLUSIVE: Spyglass Media Group has teamed with Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear to develop a film based on the 1980s classic action series, Knight Rider. TJ Fixman, a former video game writer, is adapting the screenplay play.

Created by Glen A. Larson, Knight Rider first aired on NBC from 1982-1986 and is credited for launching David Hasselhoff’s career. It’s about a smart-car named KITT that assists the mysterious crime-fighting driver Michael Knight (Hasselhoff).

The series amassed a significant cult following and spun more TV spinoffs, films, video games, books, and a Knight Rider convention known as KnightCon.



Plot details for this latest installment are being kept under wraps but we hear it will be a present-day take that will maintain the anti-establishment tone of the original.

Judson Scott will serve as executive producer.

As a video game scribe, Fixman wrote and developed Ratchet and Clank and Resistance: Fall of Man. On the film side, Fixman has sold a number of scripts Including One Night On the Hudson to Universal Pictures, Brotherhood of Magic to MGM, and Men Who Kill to Fox with Greg Berlanti producing and Michael B. Jordan starring. Most recently, he sold his original pitch Rogue to STX with David S. Goyers’ Phantom Four producing and feature pitch Legacy to Village Roadshow with Phantom Four producing. Fixman is repped by Grandview and Ziffren Brittenham.

Atomic Monster has upcoming Malignant for Starlight Media and Midas Innovation, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It for New Line Cinema, There’s Someone Inside Your House for Netflix, and Mortal Kombat for New Line.

Wan’s reps are CAA, Stacey Testro International, and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP.