- Deanna Russo turned 29 this week, we wished her well.
- IGN had a pretty positive review (for them) from this weeks episode A Hard Day's Knight
- Knight Rider UK relaunched their site this week, bringing a fresh coat of paint and a bunch of updates about the new series. If you like your KR news with a UK slant - check out their site.
- The Gazette has an interview with Paul Campbell and his role as a clown in the new series: ""I think they're trying to keep me away from KITT as much as possible," the Knight Rider star whispers conspiratorially, referring to the show's infamous robot car. "I don't know why, but I hear them in the hallways. I hear 'Don't let him near the car!'"
- Bild.de runs down the top ten car-actors in film and TV history, KITT holds his own at tenth place.
- Sioux City Journal interviewed Justin Bruening, where he talks about he got into acting, the audition process as well as being a fan of the original:
"I was the second person to read for 'Knight Rider,'" the 29-year-old says proudly. Producers cast him in a two-hour TV movie (viewed as a pilot for the revival) and strapped him inside a car.
The movie got mixed reviews (even though it brought David Hasselhoff back as Michael Knight) and complaints about product placement. It was shot during the writers strike, however, and might have benefited from another revision.
"I'm a fan of the original series and there were things I wanted to see in the pilot," Bruening says. "But we can't fit everything from a four-year show into two hours. Now, if we run five years, we can."
In the intervening months, Bruening bulked up (one look tells you he's ready for those no-shirt scenes), studied stage fighting and learned how to do stunt driving.
"I'm trying to do reverse 180s and slide a car into the camera without hitting anyone -- which is really nerve-racking," he says with a laugh. "It's not that I'm not comfortable behind the wheel, but if there's a group of 30 people standing there and I have to slide the car, I don't want to hit them." His stunt driver "can take a car and make it go in a circle all day long. It's amazing."
The goal: To be able to do those stunts without help. Currently, he does 98 percent of the fights. "I've come out of them bruised and banged up, but nothing that wouldn't have happened anyway."
When he goes home at night, Bruening often finds himself playing video games. Grand Theft Auto 4 is a favorite. "After not being able to crash cars all day, I go home and take it out on the game."
Since landing "Knight Rider," Bruening hasn't had one speed ticket. "I haven't had any since college," he corrects. "And that was a speed trap."
Random: October 2008 Archives
G4's Attack of the Show recently aired an E! True Hollywood Story spoof on KITT. Dealing with the original KITT as if he were real, they talked about his rocky life after the series, with a particularly humorous scene nodding to David Hasselhoff and a hamburger.
It was Alex Wong (forum member n knight) who's replica was used for the filming. He had this to say about the experience: "First 2 hours was filming road shots me driving kitt and they were filming in the van next to me. then we headed to the studio and did more filming on the green screen. It was almost a all day shoot 10 am to 6 pm"
Check out Alex's website, or this YouTube video for more information about his KITT replica!
- NBC's media site is reporting that the last two Knight Rider episodes "A Knight in Shining Armor" and "Journey to the End of Knight" will be airing on NBC back to back starting at 8. However, TV Guide reports that only "Journey to the End of Knight" will air at 8pm followed by a repeat of Chuck. Viewer be advised.
- Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo and Sydney Tamiia Poitier speak with People about their roles and who's the biggest Hoff fan.
- Discover magazine speaks about the science behind 3D printing: "OK, so I'm impressed a little bit, too. I mean, a 3-D printer in the car may seem a tad gratuitous, but it could be handy when you run out of quarters for the meter. But this is technology we have here and now"
- MarionStar speaks with the people at RobotWorx about Katie and Lisa, the cool robots in the KITTCave: "A lot of what you're going to see in any type of television show or feature film is going to kind of delve into the realm of science fiction," Hall said, but added, "The scanning is not too far from the truth. There are robots in the automotive industry that do scan auto parts. Some of it is not really as far removed from reality as we think."
- NBC's blog for the character of Billy saw an update, where he talks about trust and his bucket list: "You can't trust anyone these days. I mean, if you can't trust a guy dishonorably discharged from the military, who spent time in prison, and now runs a bar that caters to an underground racing circuit that's actually a front for black market weapons merchants -- who can you trust?"
- Due to the success of the two hour movie airing in Australia, Channel 7 beings this weekend airing the series. The first episode airs Saturday at 9pm. [herald sun]
- We've posted the description for Knight of the Hunter as well as the title for the Halloween episode Knight of the Living Dead
- io9 wrote an article on how Knight Rider Teaches You How To Be A Man
- film.com talks about theme parties watching tv - for Knight Rider it's "Hot Wheels; traffic cones; a GPS (which is as close as we will get to our own KITT); and for nostalgia purposes, you must have this David Hasselhoff poster."
- This week marked the 24th anniversary of the third season premier "Knight of the Drones" This was also the return of Patricia McPherson, who was forced out of her roll as Bonnie the year before. Knight Watch has a special on it. [Knight Rider Archive]