‘Knight Rider’ Film Planned With ‘Aquaman’ Director James Wan Producing

KITT may need another car wash because he is going out for another spin. Aquaman director James Wan has signed on to produce a movie based on Knight Rider, the classic 1980s series starring David Hasselhoff and a talking Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. It is the latest attempt to bring the franchise back to life since the short-lived NBC revival ended a decade ago.

The Knight Rider film is being developed by Spyglass Media Group, reports Variety. Wan is producing under his Atomic Monster production company with Michael Clear, but it is not known if Wan plans to direct himself. T.J. Fixman, who wrote the 2016 animated movie Ratchet & Clank and penned the Keanu Reeves project Past Midnight, wrote the Knight Rider script.

The original Knight Rider series was created by Glen A. Larson and starred Hasselhof as Michael Knight, an undercover Los Angeles detective who was almost killed while working on a case in Las Vegas. He is later rescued by billionaire Wilton Knight, who picks him to be the field agent for Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG). Michael is paired with Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT), the modified Trans Am voiced by William Daniels. The show ran four seasons from 1982 to 1986, with 90 episodes.

Last year, Hasselhoff told The Mirror there was going to be a new Knight River revival of some kind. He said he tried to work with Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to get the rights in 2017, but the effort ultimately did not pan out. “I was on my honeymoon and this guy said to be ‘You know why Knight Rider is so popular?’ so I said ‘Why?’ he told me ‘You put your morals into Knight Rider and into Baywatch, that’s why they are popular,’” the Hoff recalled. “I thought, yes that’s true!”

KITT has become a pop culture icon and one reason why the franchise has stayed alive for over 30 years and inspired spin-offs and TV movies. The first major spin-off was Team Knight Rider, which ran 22 episodes in syndication from 1997 to 1998. Hasselhoff also starred in Knight Rider 2000, a 1991 made-for-TV movie and the 2008 movie-length pilot for the 2008-2009 NBC Knight Rider revival. In 1994, Universal produced a post-apocalyptic made-for-TV movie called Knight Rider 2010, which ultimately had very little to do with the original series. There was also a 1985 spin-off called Code of Vengeance, which featured Charles Taylor’s Dalton character.