According to the new brain trust at NBC, this
plus this
…equals this:
To wit: Variety is reporting that Ben Silverman at NBC has greenlighted a remake of Knight Rider, in the form of a two-hour backdoor pilot to be directed by Doug Liman. But with transformers! Yes, says the trade mag, “The thinking is that smallscreen f/x have advanced to the point where it’d be feasible to have a weekly series in which cars shift shapes.”
Blargh.
I know, it’s not really fair to go judging series on their concepts alone. Maybe the new Knight Rider will be a Battlestar Galactica-style thoughtful reimagining, about, um… the shifting nature of identity, or, uh… the boundary between human and machine in our industrialized era… Or maybe it will be a big dumb action show with a gajillion dollars’ worth of GM product placements. It’s a toss-up!
I understand that Silverman’s got a network to haul out of fourth place. And that there’s probably a romantic attraction for him to the idea of reviving a project of his idol, Brandon Tartikoff. But if we’ve got to go reviving old ideas about action shows starring machinery, why not bring back Heat Vision and Jack?