New KITT Is a Ford Mustang, NBC sets date for premiere

By Stone Martindale Dec 13, 2007, 20:57 GMT

Will Arnett - © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos

NBC will debut "Knight Rider" on February 17 - the two-hour "Knight Rider" will have Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") provide the voice of the new KITT car.

Variety reports that NBC also has released official images of the crime-fighting super-vehicle (thankfully, NBC's latest product-placement-mobile is a Ford Mustang, not a Nissan Rogue).

The movie stars Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison.

David Hasselhoff will make a cameo in his original role of Michael Knight. He's billed in the press release as a "special guest star."

The new KITT car will have some "Transformers"-like shape-shifting abilities.  Three cars will be used: The "KITT Hero" (a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR playing the "everyday Hero car"), the "KITT Attack" (a high-speed version of the Hero car) and a "KITT Remote" (a driverless version). Dave Bartis and Doug Liman serve as executive producers.

NBC has ordered "Rider" as a stand-alone movie.

The network will gauge viewer reaction to the event and decide whether to order a full "Rider" series.

Here's the "Rider" movie's plot summary from the release: "Sarah Graiman (Russo) is a 24-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, following in her genius father Charles' (Davison) footsteps. But when men attempt to abduct her, Sarah receives a mysterious call from KITT warning her that he's a creation of Charles, who also invented the first KITT 25 years ago -- and that her father is in serious danger. Sarah and KITT track down her best friend from childhood, Mike Tracer (Bruening), a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, whom Sarah hasn't seen since he left home at 18. Having served in Iraq, Mike is now jaded and lost and initially resistant. Eventually he agrees to help Sarah and the two set out to discover who's behind the attempt to procure KITT and find Charles."