Keep your scanners peeled: A new Knight Rider is in the works.
Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg are in early talks to adapt Knight Rider for the big screen at Universal Pictures, Entertainment Weekly can confirm. Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg are in early talks to write the screenplay and produce, with Hurwitz and Schlossberg in early talks to direct. The trio is also in talks to produce through Counterbalance Entertainment.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, Kevin Burrows (The Pickup) and Matt Mider (The Package) wrote an initial draft for the project.
Knight Rider first entered the public lexicon as a TV show, which aired on NBC from 1982-1986. Created and produced by Glen A. Larson, the series revolved around crime–fighter Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff), who is famously partnered with an artificially intelligent 1982 Pontiac Trans Am known as K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand). Together, the unlikely duo take down criminals around the country.
Two Knight Rider TV movies were released in the 1990s — Knight Rider 2000 and Knight Rider 2010. A spin-off series, Team Knight Rider, also debuted in 1997, but was canceled after 22 episodes.
It’s unclear if Hasselhoff will be involved in the project, but in a 2012 interview with EW, the actor did say he’d be into making a Knight Rider movie provided it was “retro,” because “if you don’t [make it retro], it’s not gonna be Knight Rider.” EW has reached out to reps for the star for comment.
As fans of Netflix’s megahit Cobra Kai know, Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg are no strangers to rebooting old favorites; the series serves as a sequel to the first three The Karate Kid films created by Robert Mark Kamen. The reboot, which ran for six seasons, was a hit with audiences and critics alike and was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
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Kelly McCormick and David Leitch will produce through their 87North first-look deal with Universal Pictures. Gary Barber, and Chris Stone will produce through Spyglass.
Universal’s Executive Vice President of Production Development Matt Reilly and Director of Development Tony Ducret will oversee the project for the studio.
There’s no word on potential casting for the project at this point, but stay tuned for more details as the project gets further down the road.
