How to best solve the Knight Rider Movie problem...

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What series/movie plots should the new Knight Rider movie consider canon?

Only the original "Knight Rider" series. Everything else is crap!
29
59%
The original series and Knight Rider 2000. They'll figure out how to axe Shawn, Maddock, reinvent KITT and relocate FLAG.
11
22%
The original series, KR2K and TKR. All 3 were great and nothing needs to be ignored!
2
4%
The original series and TKR. KR2K sucked the big one but TKR was cool.
1
2%
Reinvent the series! Pitch everything and start fresh with all new characters, a new plot and a new KITT. Hasselhoff and the original crew need to be retired!
6
12%
 
Total votes: 49

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How to best solve the Knight Rider Movie problem...

Post by KFCreator » Wed Nov 26, 2003 2:26 pm

Ok, this has been bugging me for a while and might be why it's taking so long for the script for the new Knight Rider movie to get off the ground. Which series and/or movies should the studio, producers, directors, etc. consider as canon that HAS to be followed if it's to be a hit in theaters? Obviously, I think that the original series HAS to be considered as actual KR history, but I'm not so sure about Team Knight Rider or Knight Rider 2000. I think TKR was interesting but doesn't fit well into the rest of the KR legacy, and therefore should be considered as never having happened. KR2000 was a good reunion movie in some aspects and answered a lot of uestions about what happened to Michael, KITT, Devon and FLAG from 1986-2000 but NBC really was using KR2000 as a potential launching point for a never-developed KR spinoff. Therefore, while it gave Devon a decent sendoff, it left KITT stuck in the ghastly tomato-on-wheels body, Shawn as KITT's new partner, Maddock as Devon's replacement and Michael once again leaving FLAG. Because of the way KR2000 ended, it doesn't set up very well for a new movie if the majority of non-KR fans have never even seen KR2000.
So, the big question I have is how do the fans propose that the studio execs. solve the continuity problems that they'll face if they try to bring back Michael and KITT without bowing to KR2000's plot? Just ignore it? Pretend KR2000 never happened? Start the movie from scratch and reinvent KITT and leave Hasselhoff's character out of the picture? How do you decide which series and movies the new Knight Rider movie should be based upon?
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Post by Michael Pajaro » Wed Nov 26, 2003 2:35 pm

Ignore everything except the original series. In fact, they can ignore season 4 if they want. I don't think they should even mention RC3 or SPM. Not they weren't important parts of the series, but they are just extra baggage that shouldn't be forced into the movie.

They should go back to basics: A car, a driver, a boss, a mechanic. They should be new characters (maybe Hasselhoff as Michael, but in the Devon role), but not a reinvention of the series.
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Post by ColeGrad01 » Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:00 pm

I feel like since KR2000 has already been made, the new movie is a later happenning of it. Now they don't need to mention anything from it nor should it have to include Shawn McCormick or Russ Maddox. But the new movie must have Hasselhoff return as Michael Knight and KITT being in the form of the KNIGHT 4000.

Knight can be retired from action and just be an experienced member of F.L.A.G. KITT can be upgraded into a better version. They can consider KIFT to be obsolete and have him built into an even better model. One that looks more like the original.

Since I've never watched TKR (and never ever will), I say just pretend none of that exists. It is only a silly TV series messing with the original story.

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Post by JL » Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:11 pm

^To place a movie after KR2K with those events as canon would be... well, silly.

Why? KR2K predicted a future where most of the little details that made the "background canvas" of that film have not come to pass:
--cities banning handguns in favor of "ultrasound" pistols
--President Dan Quayle
--cars running off the fumes from algae farms driving the oil industry into bankruptcy
--keeping prisoners in cryogenic storage rather than traditional cells

Then there's the other, more major changes, that KFCreator pointed out, which would totally confuse anybody who didn't see KR2K back when it aired in 1991 (or the couple times SciFi has rerun it).

The only way you could include KR2K is if KR: The Movie takes place in an alternate universe. No way that would get greenlighted, much less sell over $100 million in tickets.

Basically, there's two ways for them to go with the movie. They either reboot everything, with the only thing carrying over from the series being William Daniels as KITT's voice, or do like Mike said, go back to basics, but with Hasselhoff still around to provide a connection with the original show.

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Post by KFCreator » Wed Nov 26, 2003 5:26 pm

I guess my only qualm is that despite KR2000's obviously faulty future predictions (cryogenic prisons, ultrasound handguns, cars running on algae fumes, twelve Star trek movies, etc.), I did like how it brought Michael back into the picture, how it included/sent off Devon and explained what happened to KITT in the years since the last episode of the original series. If they do a new movie with Hasselhoff as Michael Knight and brng William Daniels back as KITT AND they ignore KR2000, then it's gonna be weird for the hardcore fans to have two versions of a reunion movie that's gonna try to explain what happened since the original series left off. I mean, for all of KR2000's shortcomings, it did have its valuable points and I'm not so sure it should be knocked aside so quickly by the studio execs. Maybe there's a way to just sidestep KR2000 without actually making it clear that it never happened?
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Post by ColeGrad01 » Wed Nov 26, 2003 5:55 pm

As I said, KR2000 did happen, but the movie just doesn't mention anything from it. The story in the movie just moves on. They can show flashbacks from it if necessary. But they don't need to bring back Shawn McCormick or Russ Maddox. We need to understand that Devon was killed off and KITT had been temporarily dismantled until being rebuilt into a better model. That's all the movie needs to include from KR2000.

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Post by The Real Michael Knight » Wed Nov 26, 2003 6:50 pm

One thing I do hope, is that they keep KITT a Trans Am, that car in my mind will always be KITT. Now maybe they can put KITT in the most recent model. 2002 I believe. Its such a shame Pontiac doesn't make it anymore. Same as the Fiero.

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Post by March2875 » Thu Nov 27, 2003 9:49 am

I voted for only include the original series. However I disagree that KR2000 and TKR were all just crap. I happened to like both. Just not as much as the original. I want to see all 4 season's of the original included.

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Post by monstermichael » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:29 pm

Orginal. Knight Rider 2000 movie sucks a$$. No turbo boost, No high speed chases, a stupid long red car that does nothing that KITT in the series did except maybe smell. But if I remember KITT could smell in one epsiode (cood be rong). Kitt was even a boat in the orginal series once. That movie is srupid and the should just pretend it didn;t happen. Just like I do.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:37 pm

Well, that movie does seem kinda corny compared to what the show was like. But as I've said before, we gotta act like it happened cause it explains what happened to Devon and will show a reason why KITT will no longer look like a 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am. But we can do without Shawn McCormick and no need to bring back the ass Russ Maddox.

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Post by knightimmortal » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:43 pm

Maddock, not Maddox

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Post by KITT » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:06 pm

i say keep with the original series. KR2K is a good movie, but it's just that. a movie.

keep with the original series, it's what we are fans of. TKR wouldn't be around if it wasn't for the original series, neither would any of the movies.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:36 pm

I only say keep KNIGHT RIDER 2000 cause it has Michael and Devon. The other stuff has nothing to do with them at all. We gotta have something tell that Michael retired and KITT had been dismantled so he can be rebuilt into a more advanced supercar.

So if they pretend the TV movie didn't happen, will they just do something where Devon died of old age in the 90's?

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Post by Cougar » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:08 pm

Say a nuclear war started. Chicago was nuked. Devon was killed. The only thing that survied was KITT's CPU and Michael. There you go. :wink:

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:26 pm

When would this have supposedly happened?

Sounds like we're doing a Judgement Day thing from the Terminator movies.

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Post by Cougar » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:32 pm

Hey, it was an idea wasn't it? :)

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:34 pm

Nothing against it. But would Michael be retired or still working for the Foundation all this time?

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Post by seeker78 » Fri Nov 28, 2003 11:30 pm

I agree with the people who say disregard KR2000. Although the reason I have for rejecting it is different from others. Part of the mystique of Knight Rider was that occured in the present time. We could relate to Michael in that he was a man of the 80s, and part of the appeal of KITT was that it was the car of the future. If the new movie acknowleges KR2000, it will no longer take place in the present day. Hence we lose relation to the driver of the car and a great deal of the appeal of the KITT character. There is also the ancillary problem that someone else mentioned, that KR2000 supposed many things in the time between 1980s-2000 that never happened.

In my view, if KR2000 is used as canonical literature, this movie will be as great a disappointment as KR2000.

They should keep the original formula: futuristic car in the present day, driven by a man or woman of the present day, with a manager character and an engineer character.

Of course, the guy who drives KITT is going to have to be considered sexy, as that was part of the reason David Hasselhoff was chosen originally. I noticed that People magazine claims Johnny Depp is the sexiest man in America, but I don't see him as a Michael Knight type.

Anyway, if they do keep the original formula, then the trailer for the movie can be like the opening sequence from the show: KITT driving toward the camera across the desert, theme music starts, you hear a voiceover, "Knight Rider: a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist...". I think it would get standing ovations in the movie theater, like the trailer for Star Wars Episode 1 did. Remember how all of us went to movies that would have the trailer just to see that trailer, and some left after the trailer played. Knight Rider could be that way. In my opinion, though, that could occur only if the producers remain true to the original formula.

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Post by Arjun » Sun Nov 30, 2003 5:49 am

Getting Devon would be a problem.

Perhaps they can use the same idea as in the 4'th season of Airwolf- use old shots of Devon from the original series.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:46 pm

Do you mean as if KNIGHT RIDER 2000 never happened?

I still say it should have to be included cause of what happened to Devon and KITT. But there doesn't need to be any mention of it nor shall it bring back McCormick or Maddocks. Why would we want that ass back?

Especially after what he did to KITT. But the car wouldn't still look like that after 18 years. I don't think Michael would want to keep out going on action after that long either. He has had to retire sometime between now and since the show went off. The man would be over 50 years old.

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Post by knightimmortal » Sun Nov 30, 2003 7:16 pm

Maddock not Maddocks. ;)

Sorry, couldn't help it.

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Post by JL » Sun Nov 30, 2003 9:53 pm

ColeGrad01 wrote:Do you mean as if KNIGHT RIDER 2000 never happened?

I still say it should have to be included cause of what happened to Devon and KITT. But there doesn't need to be any mention of it nor shall it bring back McCormick or Maddocks. Why would we want that ass back?

Especially after what he did to KITT. But the car wouldn't still look like that after 18 years. I don't think Michael would want to keep out going on action after that long either. He has had to retire sometime between now and since the show went off. The man would be over 50 years old.
Okay, so let me get this straight. You don't like the Knight 4000 body, and you want to ignore Shawn McCormick and Russ Maddock. So you're keeping Knight Rider 2000 canon just because Devon dies in it. So the only part that actually needs to be canon is the three minutes or so when Edward Mulhare has his death scene.

Why can't they just say that Devon died? Face it, despite Devon's fate offering an easy explanation for why Edward Mulhare is not appearing in this film, Knight Rider 2000 is irrelevant to the new movie and should be considered totally apocryphal, in large part due to its pie-in-the-sky predictions of the year 2000, none of which have come true. The only way to have it remain canon is for the movie to take place in an alternate universe. This, of course, would turn off not just many of the fans, but also most of the members of the general viewing public who need to be attracted to this film if it's going to make mucho dinero and possibly generate a Knight Rider II and III and however many sequels they can squeeze out of it.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Sun Nov 30, 2003 10:24 pm

I didn't say anything was wrong with the KNIGHT 4000 body. It just wouldn't still be a 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am up to now. Michael would start to get too old for the fighting and want to retire. KNIGHT RIDER 2000 basically explained that.

So if they make a movie, perhaps they can still have Michael retired in 1990 and KITT was dismantled due to being obsolete. And Devon died sometime in the mid-90's. Perhaps old age or something like that.

If KR2000 is erased out, then they could have the Knight Foundation restarted and Michael fill in for Devon's position. They would need someone with experience and who knows how everything works. Since he is too old to go out into action, a new apprentice is recruited to continue for him. KITT is rebuilt into a new model which is twice as powerful as the KNIGHT 2000 body. He could just be a modern Pontiac Tran-AM.

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Post by Cougar » Mon Dec 01, 2003 9:08 pm

I think that Michael needs to be KITT's driver, and have someone else take Devon's posistion. It would be wonderful if Patricia would come back to play Bonnie. But there is a good chance she won't. My opinion is that they keep it fairly simple like in the original series with a driver, boss, mechanic, but add some more action to it. And KITT needs to be in a TA, no matter what year. Anything is better than that tomato-on-wheels he got stuck in last time! :wink: And they HAVE to have Turbo Boost! :D

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Mon Dec 01, 2003 9:13 pm

I guess that is the best way to do it. But we don't have an ass like Maddock running things. I don't know whether to just include KR2000 not mentioning anything about it or do a story completely erasing it. But it probably would be best just to have a story bringing back Michael Knight as the driver of KITT. Everything is what we remember only it happens in a modern world. Technology is up to date and things are like what we see today.

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