New Knight Rider Has Transformers Vibe

Justin Bruening, who stars in NBC's upcoming Knight Rider movie and backdoor pilot, told SCI FI Wire that the show will have some Transformers-like elements.

"The Transformers aspect is that the car actually morphs into different colors and actually morphs into an attack mode," Bruening said in an interview on the show's set on Jan. 14, adding: "It grows a spoiler and becomes more aerodynamic than a stock Shelby Cobra."

The "car" is the new K.I.T.T., or Knight Industries Three Thousand, a computer-enhanced, 540-horsepower black Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR. SCI FI Wire got a look at the armored version of the vehicle during shooting in the remote Castaic area of Los Angeles County on Monday, where producers were filming the aftermath of a climactic crash between K.I.T.T. and a minivan. The "attack mode" K.I.T.T. had "armored" louvers over the grill, a large spoiler on the back deck, black rims on the wheels and other enhancements.

Adding a morphing capability to the car is only one of the ways producers are updating the 1980s series for a new generation, former soap star Bruening said. "It's got a lot of Bourne Identity kind of stuff," he added, referring to the 2002 Matt Damon thriller movie that freshened up the action-spy genre.

The show is a sequel to the 1980s TV classic that made a star of David Hasselhoff and featured a souped-up Pontiac Trans Am. Bruening plays Mike Tracer, a former Army Ranger and Iraq War vet who has fallen on hard times when he's called to help out Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo), the daughter of Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison), inventor of K.I.T.T., who has gone missing. Sydney Tamiia Poitier stars as an FBI agent. Hasselhoff has a cameo as Michael Knight, the original Knight Rider

Sharing a scene with "The Hoff" was "amazing, actually," Bruening said. He added: "I watched the original show, and I was a huge fan when I was a kid. And that was the first day of filming, and standing there, you know, I was already nervous just filming in general, and here comes this 6-foot-4 giant that I used to idolize as a kid. And ... it was just surreal, and getting to work with him was just so much fun. It's one of those moments that you get to tell your grandkids, I guess." Knight Rider airs as a two-hour movie on Feb. 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Patrick Lee, News Editor