Crew: July 2008 Archives
NBC have been hosting a press tour of all their different shows, and yesterday was the Knight Rider panel. Here below is a selection of interesting sound information leaned as well as images from the event.
Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff quoted on Knight Rider today:
Ben on the cozy relationship between "Knight Rider" and the car company that sponsors the show.Graboff: "If there's too much product integration, we don't even like to call it product integration...we're trying to integrate it more organically with the show, in a way that is organic to the show, something that advertisers are comfortable with and the show runners, more importantly, are comfortable with. And which the viewers are ultimately comfortable with."
Did they go too far with 'Knight Rider'?
Ben: "Well, it's about a car, ultimately. . . that was the star of the show."
From BuddyTV:
The Knight Rider series will be quite different and more evolved than the two-hour TV movie. The differences begin first with showrunner Gary Scott Thompson (who previously created Las Vegas and The Fast and the Furious), who was given carte blanche to fabricate his own world. Though the basic characters from the movie will remain, certain character backstories will change. Mostly, the lesbian subplot with Sydney Tamiia Poitier's character introduced in the movie will possibly be altered.There are also new characters who will help to maintain the car by working in what Thompson calls the KITT Cave. Thompson added that he has a long-term mythology plan for the series through at least two seasons which is based on the origins of KITT. He posed one question that he promises to answer throughout the series: "Why would you put artificial intelligence into a car?" Finally, despite rumors on the Internet, there are no plans for Thompson to bring characters from Las Vegas onto Knight Rider.
From EW:
Knight Rider Panel
The Players: Justin Bruening, Yancy Arias, Bruce Davison, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Paul Campbell, Deanna Russo, Smith Cho and exec producers Doug Liman, Dave Bartis and Gary Scott Thompson3:09 pm: Thompson doesn't rule out a cameo by The Hoff later in the season.
3:11 pm: Echoing the opinion of 98 percent of the critics in this room, Thompson felt the two-hour movie was lacking several things. Among them: "a turbo-boost." Interesting. I would've said "a decent script."
3:17 pm: Regarding reports (OK, one report) that Las Vegas' Danny and Delinda might make a cameo on KR, onetime Vegas EP Thompson confirms that the idea was broached in the writers' room, but, ultimately, he decided "it would be unfair to the fans of both shows to do that."
3:30 pm: It was just a phase! It's undecided whether Poitier's character will remain bisexual in the series. KITT, on the other hand, will continue to swing both ways.
In an interview with ComingSoon, Val Kilmer was asked about how he became the voice of the new KITT.
As you might remember, Wil Arnett was originally selected as KITT, until an 11th hour contract conflict forced the actor to drop out. Val Kilmer stepped in to voice KITT for the TV movie and will be KITT for the series beginning in September. Here is his take:
He also told us how he got roped into providing the voice for KITT, the sentient car in the recent television movie and soon to be returning series "Knight Rider." "It was a really weird happy accident," he said. "It was very strange just because they called me, not Wednesday afternoon, it was Wednesday about 8:30 at night. I live in the wilderness and my private phone just never rings because if you know me, you call the cell because I travel a lot. It was ringing and I looked at the phone like, 'That's really weird. Someone's calling me.' Went over, picked it up and it was the agency saying, 'Do you want to be the voice of KITT?' and I said, 'I remember that show. It was a fun when I was a kid, sure. Should I do a tape?' 'No, it's not an audition. They're offering it to you.' I said, 'When?' 'Tomorrow at 7:00.' What had happened and I can't take any credit for it at all, is that the actor Will Arnett, someone had seen him on the commercial for a car company and called him up and said, 'I think we have a problem.' He'd signed, done the job and been paid for it, but then they found out his voice is owned for another car company, which they found out by accident."We asked if this was something he would continue doing with the upcoming "Knight Rider" series that was picked up after the success of the TV movie. "It is, they did and I am," he responded. "I'm doing it right now. I haven't done it yet, but I do the whole show in 3 or 4 hours."
