Knight Rider holds a special place in the heart of those of us who grew up in the 1980s. It may not exactly have dated well, but we still love it. Now director Justin Lin, a man who has apparently not met a car-centric franchise he doesn't want to turbo boost, is on board to produce a digital revival for the Warner Bros. owned Machinma channel.
Nothing has been announced about the series yet, so we don't know if it'll be a new live-action take or an animated version that could potentially allow original star David Hasselhoff to return to the role that helped kickstart his career, Michael Knight. But it'll be a new take on the story of a former cop left for dead who is recruited by a wealthy man looking to fight crime on his own terms. Given a new face and a fancy, dry-witted talking car, Knight becomes a smooth-talking do-gooder with a penchant for leather jackets and perms.
A movie version has been rumoured for years and NBC – parent company NBCUniversal is also involved here – tried to launch a reboot on TV in 2008, but that version stalled after one season. "Knight Rider is an iconic franchise whose concepts of AI and autonomous vehicles were science fiction in the 1980s and are now science fact,” Machinma boss Chad Gutstein tells Deadline. "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."
Warm the nostalgia centres of your brain (or get schooled if you've never seen the series) below.