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We are back with part 2 of our exclusive interview with Deanna Russo - who plays Sarah Graiman, daughter of Charles Graiman - creator of the Knight Industries Three Thousand and childhood friend of Mike Traceur.
Continue to read our exclusive interview with her. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Kevin Dunigan.
Familiar to faces as Logan Armstrong in the Young and the Restless, Deanna Russo comes to Knight Rider very eager for action. In the NBC Knight Rider movie airing February 17th, Deanna plays Sarah Graiman, daughter of Charles Graiman - creator of the Knight Industries Three Thousand and childhood friend of Mike Traceur. We speak to her about her characters pivotal role.
Continue to read our exclusive interview with her. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Kevin Dunigan.
After a successful career in security in the entertainment industry protecting people like Arsenio Hall, En Vouge and Toni Braxton; he decided he wanted to give acting a chance, and fulfill a life long dream. On Sunday February 17th you can see him in the character of "Smoke" as part of an elite force trying to capture KITT
Continue to read our exclusive interview with him. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis and Sydney Tamiia Poitier.
In a story we exclusively broke to you yesterday: Will Arnett had to drop from the Knight Rider project - Val Kilmer has stepped into his place. And now - proper media channels are reporting it too:
From Variety:
Val Kilmer voices 'Knight Rider' Actor replaces Will Arnett as NBC's KITT By JOSEF ADALIANA carmaker conflict has caused NBC to hire Val Kilmer to replace Will Arnett as the voice of KITT on its "Knight Rider" revival.
Arnett ("Arrested Development") had already completed his part for the pic, which is slated to debut on NBC in less than two weeks. Producers Doug Liman, Dave Bartis and Dave Andron -- along with the network and studio -- were all fine with his performance.
Problem is, Arnett had a contractual conflict of interest.
For the better part of a decade, Arnett has done voice-over work for General Motors -- as the voice of GMC Trucks. NBC's new "Knight," however, is "played" by a Ford Mustang.
What's more, Ford isn't simply providing cars for "Knight Rider." It's taking an active role in the marketing and branding of the pic, a backdoor pilot for a possible series. Ford's logo even appears all over NBC's on-air promos for the pic.
Not surprisingly, when GM found out about the Ford connection, it asked Arnett to pull out.
"I was very excited at the prospect of playing the part of KITT in the new 'Knight Rider' movie," Arnett said. "However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project."
While NBC and Universal Media Studios will have to scramble to replace Arnett's dialogue with Kilmer's work, the upside is landing a well-known name for the part. In addition to his roles in pics such as "Batman Forever," "Heat" and "Top Gun," Kilmer has done plenty of voice-over work, including the voice of Moses in 1998's "The Prince of Egypt."
From BBC:
Kilmer 'will voice' Knight RiderVal Kilmer is to provide the voice of talking car Kitt in the TV movie remake of the 1980s series Knight Rider, trade magazine Variety says.
He replaces Will Arnett, star of comedy Arrested Development, who pulled out after a row over motor company Ford's sponsorship of the film, Variety adds.
It said Ford's rival, General Motors, asked him to step down because he had voiced adverts for the firm.
The film is due to air on the NBC network in the US on 17 February.
Guest appearance
Arnett told Variety he had been "very excited" about voicing the part of Kitt, which he had already recorded.
"However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project," he added.
Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is executive producer of the pilot, which will lead to a TV series if successful.
Soap actor Justin Bruening, 28, stars as the son of David Hasselhoff's original character, Michael Knight.
Hasselhoff will also make a guest appearance, reprising his career-making role.
According to what we have heard, Will Arnett has an established career in voice over work, in particular with GMC Trucks. This would be a conflict for him, as Ford is the primary sponsor of the new Knight Rider movie, and he had to drop out.
So this sent the crew of Knight Rider searching for a replacement. And that came yesterday with Val Kilmer. Val Kilmer, star of such films as Top Gun, The Doors, Batman Forever, Heat, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, will be stepping in to voice the Knight Industries Three Thousand. He met with the producers last night, tried it out, and everyone was pleased.
The original announcement:
I mentioned last week there would be an announcement, well here it is, and only on KRO.While we are a fan of Will Arnetts, and very sad to hear that he had a conflict, we are very excited to have someone with such caliber as Val Kilmer on board, and look forward to hearing him as KITT very soon.Will Arnett has had to back out of voicing KITT because of a contractual conflict. This happened a few weeks ago.
I was asked not to release this information until they figured out what they were going to do. Finally, as of last night, contracts with the replacement have been signed.
The new voice of KITT will be...Val Kilmer. He's a bona-fide movie star who has not done a lot of television, a very smart guy with and great voice and a lot of range, and the producers are very happy with the choice. They start today to re-voice the movie.
Sydney Tamiia Poitier plays Carrie Rivai, an FBI agent with connections to Charles Graiman, who in this version created the original KITT and the new Knight Industries Three Thousand. We were fortunate to speak to her about her character via telephone on January 17th.
The Hollwyood Reporter reported today that David Hasselhoff is in talks to reprise his role as Michael Knight for the NBC TV Movie. There had been some debate about whether or not he would, but we now believe that this was just confusion with the two Knight Rider projects going in tandem, and his non involvement dealt solely with the Knight Rider Film.
THR also reported that Deanna Russo from The Young and the Restless has landed the roll as the childhood friend/girlfriend of the new Michael Knight.
Burned by his love for childhood best friend and one-time girlfriend Sarah Kamen (Russo), Mike is wasting away in Las Vegas when Sarah reappears and is willing to pay off Mike's gambling debt in exchange for help.Sarah is the brilliant estranged daughter of KITT inventor Charles Kamen, who works as an assistant professor in the engineering department at Stanford. When she receives word from talking-car KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) that her father is missing, she and KITT set out to find and recruit Mike.
You know him as the voice of KARR and possibly the voice of Optimus Prime. UGO.com spoke with Peter Cullen about his life as a voice actor. They briefly mention Knight Rider & the possibility of him working on the new movie.
UGO: You also did voice work on Knight Rider as the evil K.A.R.R.. Would you be interested in doing the voice if the opportunity ever came up for a Knight Rider movie?PETER: I haven't heard of that either. I actually did K.A.R.R. before I did Optimus Prime. I'm not really up on all of that, so that's news to me.
Peter Cullen was the voice of KARR in Trust Doesn't Rust.
David Hasselhoff's auto biography "Don't Hassel the Hoff" was released this week state side. Buy it here on Amazon!
In this book he talks about many things, including Knight Rider. Below is a short excerpt:
When people stop me in the street today, nine times out of ten it's because of Knight Rider. It was a show about heroes, about a man who could change things, about a man who helped others. The Knight Rider slogan was 'One man can make a difference'. I truly believe that I got the role of Michael Knight for a reason. I was given a power that could be used in a positive way, far greater than anyone could imagine, to help sick and terminally ill people, mainly children who watched the Knight Rider programme and believed in its hero.The person who made me realise that helping others was my purpose in life was Randy Armstrong, a fifteen-year-old leukaemia patient who visited the Knight Rider set at Universal Studios in 1983. After his death, I received a letter from him begging me to help other sick children forget their pain. The letter came with a photograph of Randy in his casket dressed in the Knight Rider hat and jacket that I had given him as mementos of his visit. From that moment on, I felt it was a spiritual calling and maybe it explained why I had been chosen as the Knight Rider. It was a much bigger responsibility than playing the hero in a TV show; I actually had to be a hero. My quest, my calling, had begun. From then on, we opened the doors of the Knight Rider set to any suffering child.
On my travels I visited the children's wards of hospitals in forty countries: I rarely left a country without visiting sick children. It became a mission. The children had absolute faith in the Knight Rider; he was their hero and he could make them smile and forget their pain, if only for a few moments. I've held little children as they faced death with a courage that had to be seen to be believed.
There have been many disconcerting and humbling experiences. One Christmas Eve my mother called me. 'David, a boy was knocked down on a crosswalk,' she said. 'Somehow his parents got my phone number - will you go and see him?'
The hospital was right around the corner from my home in Los Angeles. The child was in a coma, oblivious to his surroundings. I asked the parents what they would like me to do. They said: 'Maybe you could hold his hand and the darkness won't seem so dark.' After being with the boy for half an hour, I turned to the parents and said: 'Can I ask you a question? How do you retain your faith in God when something like this happens to your son?'
They said: 'Because you came.'
'What?'
'David, we know there is no hope for our child but we prayed that his hero would come and, David, you came.'
I fought back the tears and stayed with that boy for another hour. He came out of his coma, looked up and said: 'Michael Knight' and gave me a hug. Twelve hours later he passed away.
It has always been the children who are the true heroes and to this day they are still my most loyal fans.
We're Hofficially on vacation this week - we will have a review for you then!
David appeared on the Australian show "Rove Live" this week. We are getting reports that he spoke briefly about the status of the movie.
Daemonicus666 reports:
As im speaking Hassellhoff is on Rove LIve (which for you overseas ppl is a talk show here in Australia). I just had to rush online to let you know the movie is definitly in develpoment. He hints at a possible father and son team for the movie (Michael & Son). Also, he mentions that the producers or what not (in earlier drafts I assume) did not actually what KITT to talk in the movie and wanted to make it like a satire like how the Starksy and Hutch movie was. But luckily they got the rights back and the movie will be faithful to the series and us fans will enjoy it. Knight Rider also still remains the favourite show he has done.
More info as we receive it.
Also, MrPayner informed us that Knight Rider Online was listed on Australian Yahoo New's HOFFice Attachments page! Welcome to all that are visiting from Australia and I hope you enjoy our site.
