Our sister site Jalopnik has a stellar collection of movie cars — both official and replicas. These are mostly fan-made, drivable replicas of cars and bikes from science fiction.

Batmobiles

Some of the more ambitious projects are the Batmobiles. You can actually purchase kits to convert various car models into an Adam West-era Batmobile. But some fans prefer to make their Batmobiles the hard way.

It took Leif Garvin of Stockholm 20,000 hours and $1 million to convert a 1973 Lincoln Continental into the Tim Burton Batmobile. It may not be quite as hi-tech as Batman's car, but it does feature a voice recognition system and rear cameras. [via Toxel]

Bob Dullam attracted massive amounts of attention when he showed off his homemade Tumbler from Batman Begins. Dullam made the entire vehicle from scratch, and even made his own Batsuit and props to go with it. [via Superhero Hype]

And frequent builder Grant Hodgson made a Tumbler of his own. [via Jalopnik]

Bob Causey helped Dullam with his Tumbler and decided to create a Batmobile of his own. Causey took on the Batman Forever version, complete with a remote controlled top. [via /Film]

Kaneda's Bike

There are plenty of models of the iconic motorcycle from Akira, but many of those are non-working copies. Neo-Fukuoka, not a fan group but a professional garage, created multiple, working copies of Kaneda's bike, some offered for sale. [via Riding Sun]

But another fan, Matus, is also creating a replica of the bike from scratch, although he hasn't yet progressed to the exterior.

Mad Max Vehichles

Mad Max vehicles are a perennial favorite among vehicle modifiers. There are impressive lists of fan-made Interceptors at Last Interceptor and Mad Max Movies. But one fan stands out above them all. Adrian Bennett didn't just transform a Ford Falcon Coupe into the famous vehicle, he moved himself, his car, and his entire family from England to a tiny Australian town so he could live out his Mad Max fantasies. [via SCI FI Wire]

Other Mad Max vehicles have gotten the fan treatment as well, such as this Yellow Interceptor made by Grant Hodgson (who also did one of the Batman Tumblers):

And Goose's bike by Mike Acebo:

KITT

Knight Rider's KITT is another favorite, and again there are kits you can purchase to give your car KITT's Cylon eye. Of course, the best KITT mods don't just change the outside of the car, but are also incredibly detailed on the inside, such as this converted 1984 Firebird, which speaks in KITT's voice [via Jalopnik:

And this 1992 Firebird:

Frankenstein's Car

The Gator Car from the original Death Race 2000 would have been more fun, but some Russian fans of the Death Race remake took an impressive crack at Frankenstein's car, starting with a Chevy Camaro. [English Russia]

The DeLorean Time Machine

A DeLorean is already a DeLorean with those retrofuturistic gull-wing doors. But add a flux capacitor, a temporal display on the dashboard, and a liberal sprinkling of light-up buttons, and you've got yourself Doc Brown's time machine. [Auto Blog]

Ecto-1

George Barris, who famously designed the original Batmobile among other TV cars, famously made a replica of Ghostbusters' classic car, one that is perpetually for sale. But others have taken on the Ecto-1 challenge as well. Ghostbusters fanatic Joe Kerezman created an Ecto-1 of his very own.

And a fan calling himself "Venkman21" modified his from a Cadillac ambulance.

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder

They may not hover, but fans can always pretend in their homespun landspeeders. [all via Interbent]

This puppy was made from a 1988 Ford Escort and is actually a licensed, street-legal vehicle.

This pre-distressed model, created by Daniel Deutsch, runs on batteries and can climb to 25 MPH — impressive, though not exactly putting the "speed" in "landspeeder."

Why the teeth and the clown's head on a pole? It's an art car from Burning Man.

And this last one — which is a bit heavier on the wheels — comes from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and annual Star Wars Day.

The Affective Intelligent Driving Agent, or AIDA for short, is the result of a collaboration between Audi and MIT to try and find a way to humanize the relationship between nagging automated systems and a frustrated driver... by adding a face to the nagging systems:

A laser projector the size of a deck of cards is mounted inside the head and projects colour graphics to create expressions on its "face". According to Mikey Siegel, part of a team at the MIT Media Lab collaborating with Audi to design AIDA, the versatile neck and face allow the robot to make a wide range of human-like gestures that can send subtle signals to the driver. A downturned face with pleading eyes, for example, indicates that AIDA is "worried" because the driver has failed to buckle the safety belt.

It's not only when seat belts are left unbuckled that it'll plead with you, however; the entire car will help it spy on you to know what mood you're in:

It uses sensors inside and outside the car to pick up clues about the driver's state of mind: grip strength and skin-conductivity sensors in the steering wheel, for example, tell the robot when the driver is tense. AIDA also uses GPS logs of a driver's travels to learn favourite locations and suggest better routes.

Yes, the future of GPS is part friendly robot, part driving-centric lie detector. And it's not just Audi who're working on this; according to New Scientist, both Nissan and Pioneer are already working on similar systems.

Robot driving companion brings emotion to navigation [New Scientist]

Like it or not, there really is something compelling about Knight Rider. After all, what other show dispenses with all but three forms of dialogue altogether (Those being "exposition", "banter" and "attempts at wisdom that sadly fail," in case you're wondering), because it's so safe in the knowledge that no-one watching cares about what anyone is saying? It's that certainty in their audience's expectations - and their desire to meet those expectations - that leads to such scenes as Lead Hot Female Character (Let's face it, no-one really cares about her name) wandering around the show's faux-Playboy Mansion complaining about the objectification of women while Mike uses KITT's surveillance camera feed to zoom in on cleavage and drool (Don't worry too much about that objectification of women thing, though, audience - because not only is said LHFC happy to show off her body just as much as any of the faux-Playmates, she'll also happily tell everyone that she wants to make love on a tropical beach while listening to classical music two minutes later as a thank you to Mike for... something that I'm not entirely sure about). Or the camera's love of women's legs as they walk past, which is almost as prevalent as its love of meaningless shots of KITT speeding about.

It's easy - and probably safer for your sanity - to ignore the plot of the show (Which was, basically, Mike is trying to hunt down bad guys, finds them at the world's first The Fast And The Furious-theme bar which also just happens to employ his Iraq vet buddy, who turns out to be working with the bad guys, but the good guys win in the end when the bad guy accidentally drives off a cliff and blows up), and definitely ignore the surreal subplot (Mike's tattoo makes KITT accidentally reveal hidden files about him and the shadowy Government Agency that he works for - all of whose employees who seem to have gone to Shadowy Agency school with Bionic Woman's Berkut Group - act all shadowy and dismissive about the whole thing: What Could It Mean?), and just focus on the dodgy life lessons, instead. This is what I learned from watching last night's episode:

Being A Man Means Learning To Take A Punch Of More Than One Kind
Women Sure Look Good In Bikinis
Cowboys Are Cool

I guess I could add "When trying to escape from the authorities, look where you're going so that you don't drive over a cliff or something," but I kind of thought that that might just be common sense. Maybe not.

In the end, I'm not sure what the point of Knight Rider is - guilt-free carporn with added bikinis and ass for nervous NASCAR fans, perhaps? - but I find myself hypnotized by its shamelessness and cluelessness in equal quantities. It may be the worst show on television, but in such a way that I kind of want to keep watching, to see just where the hell it's going to go next.

(Well, apart from swift cancellation, that is.)

Judging from the clip everyone who works at Knight Industries is a bit of a prostitute. We've got half naked ladies, shirtless heroes, and boob tattoo flashes (probably the strangest thing I've ever seen. From what I could tell KITT is an evolving form of AI that can transform into a pick-up from its original Mustang model.

Two characters even jump into the back of the truck's bed while it transforms. KITT also chides (like the old KITT) but it's hard to tell what he's saying, especially when Kitt asks Michael if he's a homosexual, or as Kilmer says a homothethual. Either way this show looks like a disaster. But let me fill you in on a few spoilery details.

First this Michael was in the Iraq war, which the producer, Gary Scott Thompson revealed. No promise of post trauma freak outs but there will be old war buddies, Personally I'd like to see a stressed out Vet take the helm of Kitt and bring down big government.

There will be an evil Kitt or bad car. No word on what color.

Besides the pick up there will also be attack Kitt.

The cast will hang out in their own Bat Cave, eh.

And there may be another cameo by the original Knight, David Hasselhoff. He could possibly be in a one-part or a two-part episode. The producer explained that,"There is no reason to being him back unless it's to extend the new mythology. There is a possibility of him coming back. We just have to make sure the schedule is right."

There may be a cameo by the original Kitt which according to the new Michael Knight lives in Joey Fatone's garage.

This KITT is one of the many original KITTS that was put up for ebay today from the Kissel Estate. Poor KITT has been up for sale before but was taken him down for a additional verification of authenticity and for a cameo in the movie The Benchwarmers.

[Courant]

If you don't remember the original Knight Rider pilot, Michael Knight started out as Michael Long. He was a cop who was double crossed, and got shot in the face. The Foundation for Law and Government (hi folks, we handle both law and government, but we're a private foundation owned by a billionaire) takes over his care, surgically alters his face, dubs him Michael Knight, and sends him off to fight crime with their superintelligent, superexpensive car, the Knight Industries Two Thousand, or K.I.T.T.

So, after four seasons in the 80s, Knight Rider got mothballed and put into storage. But that didn't stop NBC from making Knight Rider 2000, Knight Rider 2010, and Team Knight Rider from 1991 to 1997. Last year, the success of Transformers made the network want to try one more time, and here's what we got. Yet another reason to hate the Transformers movie.

So why was last night's Knight Rider reboot so bad? Allow me to sum up: terrible writing and bad acting, and that's being generous.

The show started out with promise, with unnamed thugs breaking into original K.I.T.T. inventor Charles Graiman's home. After giving the man (actually, his decoy) a heart attack and shooting his Roomba, we see a few shots of our favorite A.I. car in the background as the thugs check out his workshop. Then, the nerdy thug (you know, because he wears glasses) says "I've never seen algorithms like these!" while looking at a screenshot from Tronon a monitor, and the whole thing goes downhill from there.

New and improved K.I.T.T. (now the Knight Industries Three Thousand) drives off on his own after deflecting some thug gunfire, and calls Graiman's daughter Sarah. She hasn't seen her dad in a long time, but K.I.T.T. uses the code word "Knight" (subtle), so she knows she can trust him, even though he turns out to be a talking car. He picks her up at her campus in Palo Alto (where she's a nanotech expert) and drives across the strangely soaking wet walkways on the quad, while the sun blazes down. Maybe they needed the water for all the dramatic skids.

Then, we're introduced to Mike Traceur. We know he's a cool playboy party dude because he's in post-threesome bliss. His nerdy sidekick wakes him up because he has thugs of his own at the door, wanting the money they loaned him. Ostensibly, this was for auto racing, although his car is a piece of junk and has the superpower of sucking. The thugs insult Mike. Cue the obligatory fight scene showing off what a badass Mike is.

Then, we're introduced to Carrie. A tough, young FBI agent who likes to surf in the morning after bedding other female hotties. Don't all FBI agents lead lives like this? She also happens to know Charles and Sarah, and gets called in when Charles is reported as dead. Meanwhile, Sarah and K.I.T.T. have now picked up Mike, who is trying to gamble his winnings back at the same NBC casino used by Las Vegas and Heroes. K.I.T.T. changes color to Deep Purple, which causes Mike to quip, "I didn't know it came in cholo." At least the weird 1980s racism of the original show hasn't changed.

The rest of the two hours unfold predictably. The kids hook back up with Sarah's dad, Michael's mom gets killed (boo hoo emotional moment), K.I.T.T. gets hacked, and there's a showdown between the talking car and an approaching thug-filled Yukon. Mike steers the car in front of them and whammo: it crumples like an accordion into K.I.T.T.'s indestructible nanotech hide. Of course, this leaves the passengers in the Yukon dead and/or bloodied up, including Sarah's dad who survived with just a cut on his forehead. Michael stares down the guy who shot his mom, and the bad guy gasps "This... changes... nothing." Probably the lamest last line from a bad guy ever.

Then we have what's meant to be a touching scene with The Hoff showing up at Traceur's mom's funeral as Mike's dad, Michael Knight. It's one of the worst father/son reunions ever, although it did actually make us miss The Hoff, and I never thought that would be possible. As Michael walks back to the koi pond he apparently lives in now, Mike decides to be the new driver of K.I.T.T. In the final scene, he backs the car down a ramp which looks like it might be from the old Knight Industries 18-wheeler, but it turns out to be a huge black C-130 plane. Looks like they've increased the budget. K.I.T.T.'s superspoilers morph out, the supporting cast (including Mike's lame goofy sidekick buddy) give a thumbs-up, and they drive off into the distance hopefully never to be seen again.

What's really sad about the whole thing is that K.I.T.T. is supposed to be a cool artificial intelligence, but he spends much of the show asking Mike twelve-year-old kid questions like "Are you a homosexual?" and chastising him with photos of Iron Eyes Cody and his single tear when Mike almost litters. He also tries to comfort Sarah about the news that her father might be dead by saying "That does... suck." Mind you, K.I.T.T. says that, not Mike. Made all the more creepy by Val Kilmer's monotonal K.I.T.T. that lacks all the charm and wit of William Daniels snotty car voice.

Just when you thought that it couldn't get much worse, though, there were a lame series of Ford Focus commercials featuring Mike Traceur out on a date being followed by a jealous K.I.T.T. These little vignettes put together told a story that was meant to pimp out the Ford Sync system that can voice-activate your songs and read your incoming text messages. We just want to see the look on a parent's face when their teenager's car radio system pumps out "WTF LOLZ OMG!" using one of these things. Needless to say, the Knight Rider-inspired commercials were craptastic.

So what was cool about the show? Well, very little. The solar hybrid gas system was a neat idea, but we want K.I.T.T. to run on plutonium or something. Not regular unleaded. The nanotechnology was fairly fun, and the bullet-deflecting animations were the best CGI in the show. K.I.T.T.'s morphing spoilers were interesting, but why not just grow wings and fly instead of rocketing down the streets at 191 mph? If a car happens to pull out of a driveway or a dog runs into the road, we have a feeling even K.I.T.T. would be fucked. But, give us a car that can change color over and over and it's all OK.

There was also a lot of sucky technology in the show. Why did K.I.T.T.'s computer have to be active in order for the nanotechnology to work? Wouldn't the outer shell of the car go all gray goo every time it powered down? Plus, did you catch the brief glimpse inside K.I.T.T.'s accessory drawer? He not only had an earpiece for Sarah, but it looks like he also comes stocked with Morpheus' red and blue pills, a jar of skin lotion, and who knows what else. Not very A.I. And what the hell with the manual mode? The pedals drop down and the shift-lever pops up. So why does he have a steering wheel when not in manual mode? Beats us.

There's no telling if this thing will actually go to series, but given the fact that there hasn't been much of anything new lately... this might have pulled in decent numbers. If it does, be sure to look for another weekly opportunity for us to bitch about it. You know, we probably wouldn't have hated it so much if K.I.T.T. would have turbo-jumped at least once. That's all we're asking for. We tried to tell you not to do it, Hollywood. But if you just had to, you could have at least thrown us a bone. If you're eager to relive the pain, you can check out Jalopnik's high-larious liveblog of the show after you track down a copy online. Just don't say we never warned you.

Weirdly, both properties involve Doug Liman, who directed Jumper and executive-produced Knight Rider. We just hope that in some parallel universe there's a kickass version of Knight Rider featuring Jamie Bell as the new driver, with Sam Jackson as the voice of KITT. So where do you stand?

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

We've excised the two new clips that show a) Mike bluffing in a game of poker against a Phil Hellmuth type, and b) Mike getting into a fight in a casino and kicking a guy in the balls. We figured you could probably direct those scenes better in your head. What you're left with is a scene of KITT just after he's picked up Mike's love interest, Sarah (he called her on the phone!). KITT tells her that her dad is in danger while narrowly missing some college students strolling through a park.
In the third clip, KITT tries to evade capture while wisecracking with Mike and Sarah. Mike threatens to pour sugar in KITT's gas tank, and he robotically says "Don't even think about it, Mike." Somehow he manages to keep his "I really might get an important phone call at any minute, so I have this thing jammed in my ear" headset in while vamping.
Does Val Kilmer have some massive IRS debt that we didn't know about, or perhaps a secret drug habit that he's been hiding from the world? After watching these clips it's hard to imagine why he took this gig except for the paycheck. Hearing him deadpan these lines it makes us wonder why they didn't just go from Will Arnett to This American Life's Ira Glass, who can really dial it in, monotone-style. We just wish we could have been a fly on the wall when Kilmer's agent called him with this role:

"Val? It's Morty. Yeah, the folks at NBC have called me about a billion times about this thing, so I have to mention it to you. They want you to do the voice of a..."

"I'll do it."

This Knight Rider promo just started airing on NBC, and gives a good look at KITT's "voice modulator. [KnightRiderOnline]

• Separately (if this counts as a spoiler) Val Kilmer is re-recording all of KITT's dialogue, taking over from Will Arnett. [IESB]
• Is Rick Gervais' This Side Of The Truth science fiction? It's about a world where nobody ever lies, and Gervais' chracter invents lying. Anyway, he also has a depressed next-door-neighbor (Jonah Hill) and a loser friend (Louis C.K.). [Hollywood Reporter]
• If you really can't wait until Thursday, here are two incredibly blurry videos of mobile-phone clips from the next Smallville. Chloe's snooping gets her into trouble, and Clark has a tense moment on a boat. Or maybe it just looked seasick because of the camera shaking around. [Superman Homepage]
• Also, Black Canary's cry makes Clark's ears bleed and breaks Green Arrow's arrow. By the end of the episode, Green Arrow can't wait to introduce Black Canary to the Justice League. [SpoilerTV]
• And here are four new pics of Brian Austin Green as an amnesiac visitor from the future, in next week's Sarah Connor Chronicles. [TVAddict]

With oil costing $100 a barrel, you might be scratching your head over a talking supercar who probably eats up more gasoline than a Hummer going up a hill. However, according to executive producer David Bartis, he'll be using solar power, and "going green in some new ways." While he wasn't clear on what that means, we doubt K.I.T.T. is upholstered in organic cotton and running on repurposed french fry grease. You think a biodiesel car could turbo boost?

Plus, this new car can morph, change colors, defend itself, hack into computers and has a pretty robust artificial intelligence voiced by comedian Will Arnett. Probably not the sort of thing a normal car battery and a tank of unleaded could handle. In the words of Marty McFly, "Are you telling me that this sucker is nuclear?" Well, we're not... but we're starting to wonder.

The Batmobile from Batman Begins. This was the first on-screen version of Batman's muscle car that didn't just look like a cheesy toy car. Instead of the stretched-out roadster of previous movies, director Christopher Nolan opted for a compact, tank-like design. In "attack mode" the driver shifts to the middle of the car, in a more secure prone position. This car doesn't look like it's only designed to impress Kim Basinger.
Top speed: 110 mph, plus jet engine and adjustable control surfaces let it jump 30 feet without a ramp.

The DeLorean from the Back To The Future movies. This car's main superpower is making those movies look incredibly dated. But it also travels in time if you feed it enough plutonium. And after a visit to the year 2015, it also gains the ability to fly, with wheels that turn sideways and become thrusters.
Top speed: A regular DeLorean could reach 124 mph. It needs to reach 88 mph to time-travel.

The flying taxi from The Fifth Element. It looks just like a regular cab, but it can fly. It handles amazingly well, judging from some of the teeny openings Bruce Willis manages to steer it through during the high-speed cop chase. And it can stop on a dime to hide behind billboards.
Top speed: Unclear, but it's fast. The original movie script says: "Korben and his flying taxi are absolute masters of the air. The cops have trouble following him."

The self-folding car from that SciFi Channel ad. Long after people have forgotten Flash Gordon and Tin Man, they'll still be passing around this ad. It looks like a regular pick-up truck, until the driver presses a button. Then it folds up to the size (and weight) of a golf ball.
Top speed: no clue.

The Whomobile on Doctor Who. Stranded on Earth in the early 1970s, the Doctor started dressing like Prince. Except instead of driving a little red Corvette, he pimped out an antique roadster named Bessie to go super fast. Then he built his own spaceship-looking car. With huge honking fins! Because, of course, an alien trapped on Earth has to stay incognito at all costs.
Top speed: 150 mph (in real life), plus the Whomobile can fly (using dodgy greenscreen.)

The Spinner from Blade Runner. Deckard's cop car flies, but also has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). It uses regular internal combustion, plus antigrav and a jet engine. It also directs air downwards to create lift. And it has a pretty sweet glass cockpit.
Top speed: Deckard mentions a fellow cop was going 150 mph when he went off a cliff.

KITT, from the Knight Rider TV show and TV movies. KITT was a Pontiac Trans AM with a super-computer that could talk to Michael (its driver) and even drive itself. (Plus KITT prints money in one episode, which could be handy.) The new Knight Rider, airing in February, will feature a new KITT that can launch a mini-car drone and fire a rocket launcher
Top speed: 300 mph, plus a "turbo boost" lets you jump over obstacles.

The Lexus from Minority Report. Lexus designed a special flying car for Tom Cruise to zip around the city of 2054 in. The car includes an electric engine, body panels that change color at a voice command, doors and ignition that require a DNA match, and "auto valet."
Top speed: According to Lexus, this car can get up to about 350 mph. We have a winner!

Is it super-lame once you see it in motion, or did that sentient A.I core in the heart of the car accidentally activate a suck circuit? If you want people to get excited about an upcoming show about a supercar, you'd better damn well show us the car. Now, we could understand the secrecy if no one had any idea what this baby looked like, but c'mon. Is anyone out there going to be surprised when they see this show on TV? "Wha?! A talking Ford Mustang? I had no idea! I thought it was about a jousting competition!"

Plus, that "Hello, Mike" is pretty cringe-inducing. K.I.T.T. would never use a shortened version of a name! Sure, it's Will Arnett voicing the new sleek black car, but that just means we'll never be able to take him seriously. If he ever chimed in on our wrist communicator to tell us that two thugs were sneaking up behind us, we'd keep waiting for the punchline. Even after our brains were bashed in. Believe us, we want this thing to rock, but all signs are pointing to "Turbo Suck." [KnightRiderOnline]

• Is Sarah Michelle Gellar's new movie Possession science fiction? Her character's husband and brother-in-law both wind up in comas, then the brother-in-law wakes up thinking he's the husband. Telepathy or mysticism? We'll find out in February. [Shocktillyoudrop]
• The Russian trailer for Cloverfield showcases some previously unseen sequences of soldiers fighting the monster, plus women with fake sweat on their chests. [BloodyDisgusting]
• Similarly, new clips from Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem show battle scenes in a sewer, a hospital and a pool party, plus a soldier doing the whole "you go on without me" martyr dance. [IESB]
• Coming (eventually) in Heroes: more of "badass" future Hiro, Hiro's dad's secret powers, the long-promised Jessica Collins super-spy, and a cop and crimelord in New Orleans. Oh, and Monica will dress up as Saint Joan, that cheesy comic book character, more often. [Ohnotheydidnt]
• Screencaps from the Torchwood season two trailer reveal Martha Jones in bondage! [FreemaAgyeman]
• The new KITT from the Knight Rider relaunch has all-wheel drive, laser weapons, a "mini-KITT drone" and other features that the original lacked. But no grappling hook. [Popular Mechanics, via SFSignal]
• Chuck has two more episodes in the can, which reveal more backstory on Adam Baldwin's character. [SpoilerTV]

First of all, why does every sci-fi-ish action show have to have a private foundation that saves the world now? And why does the Knight Foundation decide to recruit the son Hasselhoff never knew he had (Jason Bruening) to drive its new super-car? Did he inherit a yappy-car gene?

Then there's the collection of worn stereotypes. The Knight Foundation is run by eccentric (ugh) scientist Charles Graiman (played by Close To Home's Bruce Davison) and his daughter Sarah. A "shady millionaire" (ugh) and his thugs want their own super-car, but Graiman refuses to build one. So the bad guys decide to kill Graiman and take KITT, the super-car, for themselves. So basically it's Grand Theft Auto, except that the car comments on the action. You can stop calling this a back-door pilot. That door is krazy-glued shut.

After so many other failed Knight Rider revamps, why is NBC exhuming the franchise one more time?

Really, what's sad is that this effort is so unambitious. Given that every suburban mom has a GPS on her dashboard now, it's time we had a new fantasy to replace "smart talking car." What if the car's AI could also operate other machines? Or what if instead of having a human driver, the car had an android attachment who could appear human to the casual observer? Why does a super car need a driver anyway? [Image from The Sun]

Threesome Is Knight-ed [Hollywood Reporter]

• David Hasselhoff: While the Hoff hasn't been attached to this planned revamp, his name is associated with it as much as William Shatner's is with Star Trek. He's enjoyed his run of popularity from soap star, to Michael Knight, to his role as Mitch Buchannon on Baywatch. He even managed to turn the lifeguard pseudo-drama into a cash cow for himself by getting it into first-run syndication, but you'd have to hit turbo boost many times to jump over his ego and the potential camp factor.
• Knight Rider 2000: This 1991 TV movie had high hopes to revitalize the series and bring Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. back onto American televisions. Here's a reader's digest version of the movie: A new Knight Industries has been working on a new supercar, this time a fire engine red sporty number. However, the new artificial intelligence is bitchy, and doesn't work well with Michael Knight, who has been brought in as a test driver. Michael finds out that the original K.I.T.T. has been sold for scrap, and they set to work finding the lost pieces of his cybernetic soul. They get everything back together except for one chip, and install the spit and baling wire gizmo into Michael's 1957 Chevy. On their first crime-busting trial run, K.I.T.T. accidentally shoots a tranq dart into James Doohan's neck as he withdraws money from an ATM. Yes, James Doohan plays James Doohan in the movie, and when he gets shot, he hallucinates and thinks he's actually Scotty from Star Trek. No, we aren't making this up. They track down the final chip, which happens to have been implanted in policewoman Shawn McCormick's head after a near-fatal shooting. K.I.T.T. is able to link with the chip wirelessly, and the three of them form a team. Ugh.
• 
  
• Knight Rider 2010: Yes, they went back to the well again in 1994 in yet another TV movie, this time without David Hasselhoff or William Daniels as the erudite voice of the car. It's set in a sort of Mad Max dystopian future, and the car is now a heavily modified armored 1969 Ford Mustang. Driver Jake McQueen finds out that the evil corporation trying to hire him to work on video games has evil ambitions, and partners with employee Hannah Tyree to take them down. She accidentally downloads her personality into a computer device called PRISM, dies, yet lives on as the voice and spirit of Jake's new car. Double ugh.
• 
  
• Team Knight Rider: Just when you thought it was safe, yet another Knight Rider appeared on TV. This 1997 series featured not one, but five talking vehicles with five new leads. Two motorcycles, a truck, an SUV, and a sportscar made up this new cadre of crimefighters. The show actually made it to series, and ran for 22 episodes before getting canceled due to low ratings. It was also a weekly advertisement for Ford, as all of the vehicles (except the motorbikes) were built Ford tough.
• 
  
• This Ain't Transformers: NBC is fast-tracking this project because of the huge numbers that Transformers pulled in over the summer, and the current script has K.I.T.T. able to morph into different types of cars, including an even sportier looking model, and a pink Barbie-mobile. A car that turns into another car? How exciting. Plus NBC has already been down the morphing-car road in 1994 with Viper.
• 
  
• The Stalled Movie Version: Hollywood has been trying since 2002 to get a film version of Knight Rider rolling, and attempts were made to cast both Ben Affleck and Orlando Bloom as the new Michael Knight. Currently the film rights are sitting at Miramax, with David Hasselhoff attached to at least have a cameo appearance in the film. There's a reason people keep turning this role down: to paraphrase Tina Turner, "We Don't Need Another Knight Rider."
•