Caffeinated Clint
Suggesting K.I.T.T might be closer to revving up (haven’t heard anything on it in quite a while, assumed it had stalled – excuse the pun), a writer was announced this morning for the long-gestating “Knight Rider” movie.
Brad Copeland’s anointment – announced by The L.A Times – as writer would suggest that the Weinstein Company’s film version of the ’80s TV hit will be playing it for laughs. The scribe’s back catalog mainly consists of efforts from the comedy genre, like “Yogi Bear”, “Wild Hogs” and TV shows “Arrested Development” and “The Inbetweeners”, so it’s unlikely he’s been hired to write a thrilling action piece along the lines of that other series cum movie “Mission : Impossible” (the studio, however, has said in the past that it will be big on “action”).
I’d say the decision to go in that direction has a lot to do with the success of last year’s “21 Jump Street”, which abandoned the serious tone of the original series for something more rib-tickling. And just as that film featured a fun cameo from it’s original star attraction, a comedic “Knight Rider” movie would seemingly also spell good news for David Hasselhoff, who has long wanted to get involved in the feature film. Though it’s unlikely ‘The Hoff’ will be offered the shot to reprise the role of Michael Knight, I say there’s a good chance he’ll get to at least appear in it – particularly if the film is going to be somewhat of a satire of the ’80s series. A nice ‘hello!’ at the end of the film would work well. Maybe.
As a fan of the original show, I’ll admit a more serious-toned “Knight Rider” would be more appropriate (and less offensive to the loyals), and definitely serve the loyal fan base better, BUT a comedy makes more sense. At the moment, anyway. In addition to the “Jump Street” success excuse, they’ve tried to do the ‘serious’ “Knight Rider” reboot on TV, and it didn’t work, but also, the whole idea of a talking-car is gonna be hard to swallow unless they’re playing it up for laughs now.
Though those bloody film credits of his scare me (“Yogi Bear”!? “Wild Hogs”!?), hopefully Copeland will find a way to blend elements of the old with the new – something funny, but also packed with some great stunt sequences and a blast of adventure – but more so, come up with something half-decent. If all else fails, get the “Jump Street” guys on rewrite duty.
