Gary Scott Thompson Explains Attack KITT

Gary Scott Thompson took some time to walk us through the finer details of the Attack KITT, which was revealed yesterday at San Diego Comic Con. Check out what cool things this car can do, and get a sneak peak of what Turbo Boost is going to be like. We really thank him for going this in depth for everyone!

This was filmed exclusively for Knight Rider Online at the San Diego Comic Con 2008!

Read the complete transcript after the jump.

[Interview with Gary at Panel Junket]
[more coverage]

Gary Scott Thompson: So what do you think?

KRO: It's pretty sweet. Did you know we had a leak on the site?

GST: Yea, I knew. I knew. I didn't know which one you got though, or what it looked like, because the spoiler actually comes up and down. It's actually an air brake based on the Bugatti airbrake. So it actually flips up, you'll see it in the first episode 'flip up' to slow it down at a high rate of speed.

KRO: Can you explain the features on the car a little bit? Alot of people online were comparing this to Super Pursuit Mode, but I heard you say that it's not.

GST: No no, it's not. This is actually the Attack KITT. This is the Attack KITT and it's not the 'pursuit mode', if you remember in the original the pursuit mode was basically pushing a button. And so for us, we have the other mode that will do that and on our heads up display we'll be able to say 'pursuit' or whatever it is. This is for going into battle almost, that is how we look at this. It's the Attack Mode. On the heads up display, all the weapons that it has, I'm not going to tell all of them.

KRO: So there are weapons?

GST: Oh absolutely, we have lasers and a few other things. And in the clip yesterday you saw deploy flares, and you'll see the flares coming out of the back.

So it has alot of stuff. What is great about having the KITTCave, as well call it, is that we get to retrofit per mission; 'this is what we need this week' 'this is what we need this week'. So we will be able to change it depending on where we are going.

The blowers on the front, I heard were a big controversy, and we actually need those to go superfast.

KRO: Are those turbines?

GST: Yea, you'll actually see when we do the Turbo Boost, we actually go inside the engine. So this is a big; I'm giving it all away here! We actually go right through the blower and into the engine and shoot out the side pipes.

So you will see what happens on the inside of the car when we Turbo Boost. Yea, it's pretty cool!

We have the doors obviously. At night if you see this car, all the nights underneath are blue as well. That is because underneath, there is actually this symbol (points to the KR logo on his hat), this one doesn't have the cobra on it, but there is actually a cobra which you see.

KRO: Can you talk a bit about the Cobra? The original was about the Knight logo.

GST: Well the KR is not only 'Knight Rider' but 'Knight Research'

KRO: Cause 'Knight Rider' was never mentioned in the original.

GST: Yes, so that's our little ode to the original which is: 'How do we actually get it in there?' So it's 'Knight Research and Development,' so that is what the KR is for. And these hats are actually from the set, for the guys that are in the KITTCave mechanics and people walking around. Wardrobe set them up and they are the original hats.

KRO: Does the 'Knight Foundation' still exist?

GST: The 'Knight Foundation' yes they still use that, but we find out through the mythology what sort of happened to the Knight Foundation, it's been 25 years and where thats gone.

Knight Industries is actually a bigger corporation than it was before, and they do alot of things which you'll actually find out about. This is actually one portion of that, of what they do.

At night this thing is frightening looking! Coming at you with the lights on, it's pretty awesome. The idea too was to make something that is scary. So when it goes to Attack mode, half of the threat is like "Apocolypse Now putting on Wagner," which is scare the hell out of them. That was sort of the idea going into it too. The other one we can get and sneak around in, it's totally undercover. This one is when we want to be seen, when we want to go after someone, this is what we do.

KRO: Is KITT always going to Turbo Boost in this mode?

GST: No, actually at this point we've only used that mode and for purposes - i'm trying to run through all the scripts in my head to say what we do. Right now, I think we have only done Turbo Boost in this mode.

KRO: In theory the car could Turbo Boost in other modes?

GST: In theory the car can do anything! That is the greatest thing. What is great is because of the way we set it up, the retrofit of the vehicle for whatever is needed. Wherever we are going that week.

KRO: So why did you feel the need to redesign?

GST: The other one just looked too much like the regular KITT. if we are going to transform I need it to transform into something. It just screamed to me to do a transformation, as you saw yesterday the audience went nuts for. So I needed to be able to transform something, when you see 'regular' KITT in that first episode transform into this thing and take off, it's actually pretty cool.

KRO: It's not performance, so does it need to transform into this to go super speed? Is it like fast and the furious?

It can go alot faster. Well it's also based upon any dragster. We went out to dragstrips, we looked to check to see what cars go fast; Bugatti's being one of the fastest production cars in the world. But that's when we brought in the car designers, it wasn't just a bunch of guys saying 'Hey this will look cool.' We actually brought in car designers who sat down and figured it out. Some of the things we wanted to do we couldn't because it would slow it down. So those got nixed.

KRO: What kind of things?

Originally the slope of the car wasn't the way it was. The front end was alot higher, jacked up the rear end. The roof line has actually been lowered from the Shelby. So that is what it is!

  • Gary Scott Thompson is one of the most talented people in the business. I look forward to seeing more of his work in the near future.

  • B

    I will like to know would KARR make a comeback in any future episode???

  • peter

    I was a huge supporter of the new show, even after the announcement of the car being a mustang. but this is too far in the wrong direction. what are they thinking? sure kitt is sci fi... but this is wack. i liked the pilot episode and the attack kitt in was decent there (minus the double decker spoiler) but again i say, this is wack.

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