2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR Lands Starring Role on Knight Rider

The 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR is due for launching this spring and the KR on its name now changes for what it stands for. If it formerly meant “King of the Road” for racing fanatics, it will now mean Knight Rider for movie geeks as this super car lands a starring role with David Hasselhoff.

"It's purely a coincidence and a nice one at that,"" said Al Uzielli a senior advisor, to Ford Global Brand Entertainment the Ford office in Beverly Hills which works to place Ford branded vehicles in movies, TV and other media. "Auto enthusiasts will know what KR stands for. But most viewers will probably think it means Knight Rider; at least at first."

Knight Rider was formerly a TV series with hero Michael Knight playing the modern Knight as suggested by his name upon the series’ airing for four years from 1982 to 1986. Then, his duo was a special Pontiac Trans Am that can talk, can morph, can go 300 mph and can drive itself.

The coming Knight Rider movie still stars Hasselhoff but makes way for Justin Bruenig playing the role of Michael Tracer, Knight’s long lost son. In the same way, the Pontiac Trans Am will be replaced by the Mustang GT 500KR to be the new partner of the new Knight Rider.

The movie will give way for Ford to further showcase its SYNC voice activated information and entertainment technology that is also standard in various Ford models. It is in Ford and NBC’s partnership that both can promote the movie as well as the state of art Ford vehicles and products.

"This is a completely car-centric show and my understanding is that NBC was heavily pursued by both GM and Chrysler," Uzielli said. "We landed it because not only did we have the perfect car, we had the right logistics. Our advertising agency Teamdetroit had strong contacts on the business side and our team at Ford Global Brand Entertainment had a close relationship with the creative side including the new head of NBC Entertainment Ben Silverman."

On the movie showing, the publicities that the Ford Shelby GT500 will gain will only be additional to what it gets with the movie I am Legend starring Will Smith due on December 17.

"I don't think we've ever seen anything like this," said Cindy Stacy, senior vice president and director of national broadcast for Teamdetroit. "The important thing is that while the Mustang has a starring role in both projects, other Ford vehicles are integrated throughout the films. In fact, in Knight Rider I think just about every Ford vehicle is accounted for."

Ford vehicles are really making it to the movies and while I was looking for a new Acura Integra window switch, I’ve seen lots of them including the stars like David Hasselhoff and Will Smith.