KITT Sells More Fords

More news on the cool, hip, "now" Knight Rider rejigger that Ford and NBC are going to attempt to shove down our throats in the shape of a stupidly large 2009 Ford F-150 FX-4 that apparently KITT can transform into.

As seen in this preview clip KITT does a drive-through pickup of the telly show's heroes by allowing them to jump into his F-150 tray. He then transforms back into his usual 2008 Shelby GT500KR Mustang form magically getting said heroes from the tray into their seats without chopping them in to mince meat.

Autoblog has a write-up on the "thinking" behind this seemingly rediculous transformation with Executive Producer Gary Scott Thompson explaining. To quote Autoblog "the idea for having KITT morph into a truck came to Thompson when he needed his main character and that week's damsel in distress to make a quick getaway without KITT having to stop for them to get in, so he imagined the car as a pickup." Riiiight, apparently he hasn't heard of convertibles.

Thompson also went on to say that the GT500KR is "about the same mass" as the F-150. Huh? The Mustang has a 3,800 lb (1,700 kg) curb weight and the F-150's curb weight is between 4,881 lb (2,213 kg) and 5,411 lb (2,454 kg).

KITT's A Transformer Now?

We all know that the last Knight Rider outing was an abomination and should never have seen the light of day no matter how cool the Mustang was. After such a dismal failure I've had high hopes for the reinvention of the reinvention but what I'm hearing out of ComicCon is not good.

First we have the new Attack Mode KITT (hit up Shadowy Flight for more pics) which looks plain ridiculous and is far from an improvement over the previous attack mode KITT.

Then we have the preview clip (below) where it looks like the director wanted less cowbell and more Fast and Furious neon lighting, more lasers and a chick that looks like whatshername from Transformers... and they STILL have Val Kilmer doing a bad job of KITT's voice! Oh, and KITT doesn't just make a minor change to his appearance to avoid the bad guys (in the telemovie he turned into a white Mustang) he can actually transform into a totally different vehicle, one that Ford is having trouble selling at the moment and needs some extra marketing (and a drop in fuel prices) for people to consider purchasing.

With this news I have to say that my interest in the remake of a remake of a remake is making me sad and unhappy. I'll give the pilot a go but I'll have my thumb hovering over the delete button while watching.

GLaDOS GPS Speaks, No Mention Of Cake

On the heels of last week's news about a KITT GPS kit comes this little tid bit from Engadget. Some Portal loving tech head has gone and made a voice pack for his GPS starring the voice of one mentally disturbed AI known to gamers everywhere as GLaDOS.

If you've played Portal you'd know that GLaDOS isn't known for "her" helpful directions so I'm not sure you'd want to be driving around under its instruction but it'd be fun to freak out your passengers.

I was a little disappointed there was no mention of cake during the entire video though.

KITT Speaks

Further to my post the other day about a Knight Rider themed GPS Autoblog have posted a video from Knight Rider Online of the device in action.

I think hearing the original KITT after all these years has lessened my enthusiasm for such a device, not that I was going to get one.

On a side note, William Daniels and Anthony Daniels are not related even though they were both responsible for effeminate robotic voices.

Hello Michael, where do you want to go today?

Autoblog has an article on a new GPS navigator from Mio which has a bit of an 80s twist. This kitschy KITT kit has the voice of William Daniels, TV's KITT not the voice from the highly forgettable tellimovie, to help you escape the bad guys (or find your way to a baby shower).

When you power it up the scanning red LEDs flash a la KITT's grill and it says "Hello Michael, where do you want to go today?". Cheesy, but fun.

Knight Rider and Sarah Connor Chronicles Cast Announcements

Movieweb tells me that Paul Campbell (Billy the deceased presidential adviser from Battlestar Galatica) is joining the cast on the re-re-done Knight Rider and Leven Rambin (never heard of her) is joining the cast for the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.