‘Knight Rider’ To Ride Again As Machinima Digital Series With Justin Lin At The Wheel
Knight Rider, the 1980s action series that made David Hasselhoff a star, is getting the Machinima treatment. The digital network said today it is partnering with producer-director Justin Lin, YOMYOMF and NBCUniversal Brand Development to produce a digital series reboot that will target a 2017 launch.
Lin, who knows something about the care and feeding of franchises after directing Fast & Furious 6 and most recently Star Trek Beyond, is set to produce the series which is now in development. He also is developing another car-centric property, Hot Wheels, as a feature film at Legendary Pictures.
Machinma is backed by Warner Bros but is teaming with NBCU here. NBC aired the original series about the smart-car named KITT and its mysterious do-gooder driver Michael Knight, played by Hasselhoff. Created by Glen A. Larson, it ran four seasons from 1982-1986. The network tried to reboot the series in 2008 with Justin Bruening in the lead role but it lasted only one season.
Machinima has specialized in live-action series based on TV and and video game franchises. This will join Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, Mortal Kombat: Legacy and and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn among others. Combined, those series have garnered more than 300 million views on Machinima.
“Knight Rider is an iconic franchise whose concepts of AI and autonomous vehicles were science fiction in the 1980s and are now science fact,” CEO Chad Gutstein said. “Justin is one of the leading storytellers of his generation and we couldn’t be more excited to work with him on re-invigorating Knight Rider for a new generation of fans.”
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