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DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2002 1:55 am
by knightvision
Hey if i had 35,000 I would buy myself a KITT.

Hey wait if I had 35,000 i am not so sure I would spend it on a car instead of a trip to Jamaica.

Richie

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2002 11:50 pm
by KOSI
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kossuth:
<STRONG> Now what I would love to see is a Firehark because that is really a one of a kind car, and they are really hard to distinguish from a regular TA unless you know what you are really looking at. The hawk hood does differ from the regular TA hood but it takes a trained eye and from a distance few can really tell. Yes, the Firehawk also has Ramair if some of you guys didn't know.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

True, Firehawks are nice cars, and have a much nicer looking hood than the WS6. I can tell from a distance, and yes I knew that the Firehawk had Ram Air.

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2002 7:21 am
by mikeedwards
Firehawk/Trans-am.......who cares just as long as its a Pontiac and in the Firebird family! Are you with me on this one guys and gals!!!!!! I vote newer model Trans-am, and it's not because I own one. I know that Pontiac backed down but I still think that it would be pretty wild. I think with some skills they could make this car into a Kitt that could closely compare to the older model. I personally think that nothing else but a Pontiac will do the trick no matter how much CGI crap they unload on this film. I don't know about everyone else in here but I definitley did not watch Knight Rider for all the acting abilities! The car is the show and the car will be the movie! Hope I did not step on anyones toes here. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Mike

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2002 7:28 am
by mikeedwards
Image

Here is an animation of a newer kitt in a newer f-body. It is close enought to get an idea what it would look like!

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2002 7:29 am
by mikeedwards

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2002 4:31 pm
by Chuckysan
Wow, alot of good points made.

Now I don't mean to step on anyone's toes or to instigate a flaming debate, just to throw another opion into this furnice.

When I think of movie/tv car props, one company always seems to jump out beyond all others. Chrysler and its offilates. Hands down you see more products by that one company "featured" in more shows for a simple reason, they give their products to the producers of said shows for added publicity of their products (in other words, the vehicles are free as long as they get alot of airtime). When I hear word from around the industry that Pontiac said "no thanks", its almost incredulous to think that the Mopar boys would jump at the chance for some free PR.

So what would they choose to really push, becuase lets face it, even if the movie is a disaster, the amount of attention it will recieve will be more than any tv commercial they could come up with. Chrysler does a have a few vehicles that could fit, 300m, (4 doors? not likely) Prowler, (not enough testosterone) Citadel, (too small) Ram (a truck?) or Viper (expensive).

When you look at it, the Viper makes a pretty logical choice. 1st of all, it has a brand new body style coming out very shortly (the same was true about the T/A when KR first showed up). 2nd, its a very performance driven car. And 3rd, it has an appearance that molds nicely to the demographic that it seems the movie is shooting for (people everywhere like the look of the Viper).

Also note that it wouldn't be the first time a Chrysler product (Dodge to be specific) had replaced the infamous T/A. The early 90's tv movies "Bandit" replaced the T/A with, of all things a Dodge Stealth (which arguably wasn't even a real american sports car being a sister car to the Mitsubishi 3000GT). Now that series of movies, in my opinion was rather scary in its blandness and hoakiness, but I still watched them to see an American car kick some smokey a$$ as I bet alot of other fans of that series or of that car did.

Seeing the genre that the movie is gearing for, I believe that the viper is on the short list for donor car acceptability. Others would include the Vette, (however its body style has been around for 3 years already and not really new) or Mustang (still a performer but not realy a "wow" car) or maybe something new from Panoz. In reality I can't see them using a car from a foreign company (Civics and Accords and the like) as they don't really do justice to this franchise they wish to launch, but I do believe you will seee many of those cars abound in the movie, maybe even being driven by the villian.

That was just a few points I wanted to make. I agree though, KITT will seem a bit out of place on anything other than a T/A. But if they do it right and aww you, that feeling will go away after the first few minutes of the movie and it will seem that the new KITT fits in chronologically perfectly. When it comes down to it, The story and a cool car is what will make this work.

DID PONTIAC TURN DOWN NEW KR

Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2002 4:50 pm
by knightimmortal
There is only one problem with the Viper. A certain show/infomercial by that same name, which in itself was a bit of a rip off KR, but definitely had a place in the sci-fi market with a copyright to its name.

knightimmortal

Why don't Pontiac let the movie use Trans-Ams?

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2003 6:31 pm
by CB2001
I have just tuned out of an episode of "Roswell" (not sure what episode), and they have a 1999/2000 Pontiac Trans-Am used (though you can barely tell because it's dark, but you CAN tell for the fact the way the car is shaped, and it is most definately not a Camero, I can guarantee). Now, they'd let "Roswell" to use Trans-Ams... Why not the "Knight Rider" movie?

Yes, Pontiac had some trouble for the fact that "Knight Rider" made the Trans-Am popular. And they continued to let the production of the TV series use Trans-Ams as long as they didn't refer to the car as a Trans-Am. Sure, there is the fact that they were afraid of the same thing happening with "Knight Rider 2000" and their Banshee prototype, but the fact was that there was only one car.

If the movie production agrees to not refer to the car as a Trans-Am, why don't Pontiac let the movie use Trans-Ams? If they would allow Revolution Studios to use 1967/68 Pontiac GTOs (which are classics), they could let the production use several 2000/01/02 model Trans-Ams. Hell, it wouldn't really count as promotion for Trans-Am for the fact that the line isn't even being made anymore (like how they used 1967/68 Ford Mustang Fastbacks to make it look like a Shelby Mustang for "Gone in 60 Seconds". There aren't any Fastbacks or Shelby Mustangs anymore).

Of course, I could be wrong, that's just my opinion. The worst thing we could do is petition Pontiac and the film company to use Trans-Ams (1982-84 for flashback sequences, if they choose to, to the early 2000 models). Just a series of thoughts...

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2003 10:39 pm
by katz112
I agree with you!

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2003 10:53 pm
by Army_F_Body
Might be cool to take a 3rd gen Trans Am and "further its evolution" by making it into something more wicked than GM imagined in 1982. Like was mentioned about the "Gone in 60 seconds" Mustang. It's obvious that the movies producers took a 1st gen Mustang Fastback and totally modified it beyond Carol Shelbys or Henry Fords wildest imagination. If anyone remebers that ram-air equiped Kitt-X that someone found on CarDomain.com. Something that is obviously a 1982-92 Firebird, but definately something that never rolled off GM's production lines. That way the fans would recognize the car without creating a run on the local Pontiac delearship like the original Kitt did. Like KIFT, not many people know that he came into life as a Dodge!

Re: Why don't Pontiac let the movie use Trans-Ams?

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:34 pm
by David Whiteheart
The words Pontiac and Trans Am were mentioned in the series, but I'm not sure which episodes though.

Dave

Re: Why don't Pontiac let the movie use Trans-Ams?

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 12:17 am
by Dave Knight
David Whiteheart wrote:The words Pontiac and Trans Am were mentioned in the series, but I'm not sure which episodes though.

Dave
Trans Am was mentioned many times but i remember KITT saying "That car will give TransAms a nasty reputation" in Trust Doesnt Rust
and Pontiac was mentioned in i think Inside Out where Michael and Dugan are struggling inside KITT and he jumps over a cop car and one of the stunned cops asks "what was that?" and the other replys, "A Pontiac" in fact i use that quote as my sig on http://www.knightregistries.com s forum

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 8:28 am
by CB2001
David Whiteheart- That was before they had problems with people coming down to their dealerships asking for the "Knight Rider" car. After that, they requested the show no longer make reference to the car as a Trans-Am (which is why during the later seasons of the series, KITT is refered to as a T-Top).

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 10:21 pm
by pdennis93
in part 1 of "knight of the phoenix" tanya walker calls kit "a new black trans-am with california lettering KNIGHT"

and i vaguely remember another episode in season 1 where michaeal and a girl are running from somoene or chasing someone and the girl keeps saying how the whole thing reminded her of smokey and the bandit because of the car, and him and her.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 10:24 pm
by knightimmortal
And once again, that was before Pontiac put their foot down. It was about season two that we started to see less if no mentions of Pontiac.

KI

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:53 am
by March2875
After that Kitt was reduced to "That Black Car" or "A Black T-top" the latter being more common.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 3:01 pm
by jediknight69
Hi,

Whatever they use for KITT's new look, it will have to be economical enough (even on a movie budget) to have several of them, so they can have the turbo-boost jumps, invulnerability, etc that wreck the cars afterward. I vote for the new Mazda RX-8 in black.

jediknight69

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 9:04 pm
by jediknight69
An addition to the post above^

KITT had a hydrogen fueled turbine engine, right?

So the Mazda RX-8 has a Wankel Rotary engine; IT'S PERFECT!!!!

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 9:06 pm
by Stargazer
I had heard rummor that Revolution Studio purchased the KITT car at Universal Studios and may have purchased the rights to Knight Rider. I'm not sure how this could be true, but the KITT car that use to be on display was removed. I went to US two years ago just to see that car and it wasn't there. Not to mention it was not a vehicle used in the series. They purchased it from someone that made it. Had the wrong seats and had ground effects.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 9:11 pm
by knightimmortal
KITT had a fictional turbine engine that could run on any combustible fuel.

KITT=Fictional, not reality.

Mazda RX-8 = real, take the fun out of fantasy.

As for Revolution Studios, they have some of the rights for Knight Rider, but they are a sub distribution company. The KR car has been gone from the Universal display for a long time, and parked in the rear area, covered in bird poo.

KI

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 12:26 am
by Chuckysan
FYI, the '68 GTO's that were used in "xXx" had nothing to do with Pontiac at the time. The producer of the movie chose that car on the only basis that it was and still is his favorite muscle car. It was only during post-production that heads from Pontiac saw their brand name being propigated in such a positive manner. They then asked to be involved in the promotion of the movie (hence all the xXx/Pontiac TV adds) and signed a deal to ensure the newly designed GTO coming out next year would be one of the main stars of any sequel.

Sometimes a car in a movie/tv show has nothing to do with the manufacturer, only cash and/or love of it.

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:50 am
by KOSI
Chuckysan wrote:FYI, the '68 GTO's that were used in "xXx" .
FYI, the GTOs used in xXx were 1966-1967 model year, the 1968 model was completely restyled and had the infamous body-coloured 'Endura' bumpers, which rarely allowed paint to adhere. Also, some 1968's had hidden headlights, while others didn't, but they were side-to-side, not stacked. The 1968 was much more rounded and heavy-looking than the lean and mean '66-'67

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 2:18 pm
by CB2001
But still, permission was needed. Plus, I'm sure the script called for the exact kind of car. I know for a fact that for "Gone in 60 Seconds" (the remake), the script called for a nickel colored 1967 Shelby Mustang (which resorted to them using Mustangs to convert over).

Back to as I said before, if the production company promises not to refer to the cars as Trans Ams, Pontiac should allow the use of Trans-Ams in the film.

Re: Why don't Pontiac let the movie use Trans-Ams?

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:45 pm
by Zoom7000
CB2001 wrote:Yes, Pontiac had some trouble for the fact that "Knight Rider" made the Trans-Am popular.
Am I missing something here? Firstly, why would Pontiac have problems that Knight Rider made the Trans-Am popular?

And Secondly, Isn't the mere fact THAT when Knight Rider made the Trans-Am popular, wasn't this a good thing for Pontiac? I mean, didn't many millions of fans of Knight Rider go out and buy Pontiac Trans-Am's just to have a car like K.I.T.T?

I mean, if Knight Rider used my car for the show, I'd think that I'd want them to use my cars name all the time! I mean, it's showing off my product!

I dunno, but I just don't understand Pontiacs thinking here! :?

Zoom7000

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:56 pm
by knightimmortal
But that was the huge problem. (And Trans-Am was already popular before KR) People were going by the masses to Pontiac Dealerships, and demanding to have a car just like kitt and were busy trying to do things in their vehicles that KITT did. Pontiac didn't want to be legally responsible for such things, and couldn't forfill the needs of the fans who wanted KITT, so they supposedly requested that the show take the advertising off.

KI