Gary Scott Thompson Interview - Part 2

[goldbug]

how about that stupid voice box that looks like a cartoon.

I don't understand how KITT's voice box looked like a "cartoon". It represented waves of sound that increased and decreased depending on the tone of voice. Add to that the color changes to match the "mood" of the conversation and I thought it was very visually expressive.

[PHOENIXZERO]

I did like the color changing, my biggest thing is just for it to be moved somewhere closer to eye level instead of being a part of a glorified iPhone/GPS display..

[Lost Knight]

I understand why they chose to go with the color changing (and can even admire the creative ideology behind it), but I still hated it. I feel that K.I.T.T.'s voice modulator should only be red. The voice modulator should be as much of a trademark for the Knight 3000 as the new scanner is, and they should also have color consistency. That's why it bugs me that K.A.R.R.'s scanner is red in "Trust Doesn't Rust" when his voice modulator is yellow.

With that being said, I have no problems with the placement of the modulator, as almost all of the shots of it are close-ups as they were in the original series. I didn't even know where the voice modulator was located in the dashboard for years when I used to watch the original series as a kid. Where Mike is looking when he occasionally will glance over to the dashboard makes no difference to me, because even Michael Knight had to constantly look at classic K.I.T.T.'s monitor all the time (on the opposite side of the dashboard), anyway. I don't remember anyone complaining or caring about that. I don't have a problem with the EKG-styled display, but I guess one criticism I could make is that it's not a physical dashboard feature, but merely a graphic on a screen. I'd like to see it protrude from the dashboard in some way or at the very least have some kind of specific indentation.

[KRAvengerII]

I thought classic K.I.T.T's modulator was above the steering wheel.

[Victor Kros]

Yes,

The original voice box is located above the steering wheel, not in the dash to the right. That's the beauty of camera placement and editing.

=VK=

[Kram061-1]

They could probably CGI in a folding/hinged roof, but I would prefer more actual car tricks than drones and CGI.

[Sue]

Also ask him, if you want to, if there will be anymore of the old school KITT Knight 2000 tricks/functions, other than Turbo Boost, such as ejection seats, ski mode, and also the Knight 3000 was supposed to have a mini KITT Drone and other stuff we didn't see in the movie. Maybe he'll hint at some of the new KNIGHT 3000 functions

Yes a mini KITT drone would be weird, but of course he can control the Prometheus UAV drones. Humm here’s one called shadow,

RQ-7 Shadow UAV.jpg (17.42 KiB) Viewed 5539 times

that would be very fitting. Of course if they call it that you all will be wondering if it is KI2T. I definitely want to see KITT morph into a convertible, but I don’t really need ejector seats or oil slicks. I’m okay with the new voice box and the lack of buttons, everything is touch screen and hands free these days.
As for ski mode, I noticed the car in Transformers managed to pull it off, so why not.

[Kram061-1]

I would DEFINITELY love to see the pre-commercial freeze frame

[Sue]

I would DEFINITELY love to see the pre-commercial freeze frame

Oh, please no! But perhaps NBC will humor all of our old school KITT fantasies with a dream sequence on Scrubs, have the Hoff, KI2T, the freeze frames everything, just go nuts. ...There was an old episode of KR where KITT had to save a little girls life when she needed a transplant, so there you go.

[PHOENIXZERO]

Well, doubt something like that would happen on Scrubs since NBC canned it and now it's moving to ABC. The freeze frame thing before a commercial break isn't going to come back, those few seconds could be used for something more important, like an extra commercial near the end!

[goldbug]

They could probably CGI in a folding/hinged roof, but I would prefer more actual car tricks than drones and CGI.

Agreed. While whiz bang gizmos are awesome, I also want to see cool car chases, stunts and some nice camera work for the car. One criticism that came up over the movie is that when Sarah and KITT are talking, he's supposed to be moving at some insane speed but the scenery was going by at a fairly normal rate. I think GST will make sure things like that don't happen. The FATF movies definitely showed a good eye for car action, so I'm excited about him being on KR.

[Kram061-1]

The freeze frame thing before a commercial break isn't going to come back, those few seconds could be used for something more important, like an extra commercial near the end!

Yeah....
but I was just hoping for some old school stuff, nostalgia, you know............