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May 26, 2012

Arnett out and Kilmer in as voice of KITT; blame GM

by Jason Hughes, posted Feb 7th 2008 9:38AM

KITTIn the movie Batman Forever, Val Kilmer as Batman said "Chicks love the car." There he was talking about the Batmobile, but maybe he was being prophetic, too. Kilmer has just signed to replace Will Arnett as the voice of KITT in the forthcoming NBC Knight Rider telefilm/back-door pilot. I want you to note that in the original link, they've been very generous in picture selection for Mr. Kilmer, as his waist size and age have apparently been running neck and neck the last several years. This article chose a more recent picture, and right now we're all thankful he's only doing voice work on the film.

Knight Rider premieres in 10 days (02-17-2008) and Arnett had completed all of the voice work already. Apparently, as our own Kristin witnessed first-hand, the new KITT is a Ford Mustang and Arnett had done some GM commercial work before so it would be blasphemy to let him voice a Ford car. BLASPHEMY!!

So he could either get in big trouble with GM or bow out and let someone else re-read all the same lines. Thank god it wasn't one of the live actors they had to yank or we'd be in for some awkward reshoots and camera shifts. Kilmer should be able to hurry up and get those lines recorded, so long as someone picks him up. I don't see him running there to get it done.

Kind of makes me wish William Daniels were still alive to solve this whole problem. He is? Well, why didn't he sign up, then? 80 years old! What's the problem there?

KITT: "Hurry up, Michael."
Mike: "Actually, I go by Mike."
KITT: "That's fine Michael, but we really need to get going. I don't want to miss Matlock."
Mike: "Well could you hurry up, he's going to get away."
KITT: "The posted speed limit is 35, Michael."
Mike: "Yeah, but you're going 20, KITT."
KITT: "Better to be safe than sorry. (mutters) Damned kids always in such a damned hurry all the damned time!"
Mike: "What'd you say, KITT?"
KITT: "Nothing, Michael. When we get home I want you to sit in the garage with me for awhile ... to talk."

Yeah, maybe casting younger isn't such a bad idea.

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couger

Arnett made the knight rider series, iam watching the original series everynight. What would have been good was to have the original pontiac in the new movie and series and see how K.I.T.T can battle against enemy's in a new era, also K.I.T.T came back in knight rider 2000 with the same voice. Now Val kilmer as K.I.T.T!? he sucked as batman, well you have lost big fan of the orginial series.

February 26 2008 at 7:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mldnmn

Another thing that is annoying is that it is not being shown in HD - I've checked various sites as my Tivo does not note as such .... and can't find it anywhere online that is going to be... WTF? You'd think NBC would do all they can to get viewers !

February 07 2008 at 11:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

What I would like to know is how the original Pontiac Firebird KITT (a GM product) now becomes a Ford Mustang KITT (obviously a Ford product!) . I think they should have kept Arnett AND have KITT stay as a GM product (and for those who want to know , YES , I do work for GM) . I think KITT would have looked great as a new Camaro!

February 07 2008 at 11:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GC in CA

Isn't this the sort of thing actors have agents for? Aren't they supposed to negotiate these things BEFORE someone completes all of the work? "No, Will, you do GMC voice overs, so you can't be the voice of a Ford Mustang. Sorry."

Seems like somebody fell down on the job.

But Val Kilmer seems like a good choice as a replacement...for something I don't really want to watch. (I'm sorry, but "Battlestar Galactica" raised my hopes and "Bionic Woman" dashed them. I'm gunshy again about remakes of the crap I watched as a young 'un.)

February 07 2008 at 10:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Karen

This is a particularly glaring example of the pitfalls of product placement. I can't believe the producers are letting the product placement sponsor dictate casting decisions. That is just...egregious abuse.

February 07 2008 at 8:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nathaniel

Well... this is just... stupid.

February 07 2008 at 3:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Argus

This sucks... I already watched the commercial and I loved hearing Arnett go "Hello Michael."

He was the only reason I wanted to watch this. Now I won't.

February 07 2008 at 3:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
StrikerObi

Looks like I'm not watching this anymore. Bummer.

February 07 2008 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sitruc

I had wondered about that and even remembered him talking about the commercials on Conan or something, but this seems really dumb to come up this late in the game. GMC better give him a raise for this extra publicity. Kilmer looks more like Louie Anderson in that picture...

February 07 2008 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Oreo

I wasn't going to watch this trash anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter.

February 07 2008 at 12:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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