title: KITT

text: KITT's Voice (Anharmonic) Synthesizer (for speech) and Etymotic Equalizer (audio input) allow his logic module to speak and communicate. With it, KITT can also simulate other sounds. KITT's primary spoken language was English; however, by accessing his language module, he can speak fluently in Spanish, French and much more. The module can be adjusted, giving KITT different accents such as in Episode 82, "Out of the Woods", where KITT uses a "New York City" accent and called Michael "Micky". During the first season, KITT's "mouth" in the interior of the vehicle was indicated by a flashing red square. In episode 14 "Heart of Stone", this was changed to three sectioned vertical bars, as this design proved popular with fans as part of KARR. KITT can also project his voice as a loudspeaker or as a form of ventriloquism (First used in Episode 48, "Knight of the Drones, Pt. 2").


title: KITT

text: KITT is in constant contact with Michael via a comlink through a two-way communication wristwatch (a modified '80s LCD AM radio watch) Michael wore. The watch also has a micro camera and scanner that KITT can access to gather information. In an emergency, Michael can activate a secret homing beacon hidden inside a gold pendant he wears around his neck. The beacon sends a priority signal that can remotely activate KITT, even if KITT were deactivated, and override his programming so that he rushes to Michael's aid. Used in Episode 42, "A Good Knight's Work" and in "Knights of the Fast Lane".


title: KITT

text: KITT has two CRT video display monitors on his dash. KITT later only has one when his dash was redesigned by Bonnie for the show's third season. Michael can contact home base and communicate with Devon and others by way of a telephone comlink using KITT's video display. The video display is also used for the Graphic Translator system (which sketches likenesses from verbal input to create a Facial composite), as well as for scanning or analysis results. KITT can also print hard copies of data on a dashboard-mounted printer (First used in Episode 15, "The Topaz Connection").


title: KITT

text: KITT has a front-mounted scanner bar called the Anamorphic Equalizer. The device is a fibre-optic array of electronic eyes. The scanner can see in all visual wavelengths, as well as X-ray and infrared. Its infrared Tracking Scope can monitor the position of specific vehicles in the area within 10 miles. The scanner is also KITT's most vulnerable area. Occasionally, the bar can pulse in different patterns and sweep rapidly or very slowly. Glen A. Larson, the creator of both "Knight Rider" and "Battlestar Galactica" has stated that the scanner is a nod to the "Battlestar Galactica" characters, the Cylons, and even used the iconic Cylon eye scanner audio to that effect. He stated that the two shows have nothing else in common and to remove any fan speculation, stated in the Season One "Knight Rider" DVD audio-comments, that he simply reused the scanning light for KITT because he liked the effect.


title: KITT

text: KITT is armored with "Tri-Helical Plasteel 1000 MBS" (Molecular Bonded Shell) plating which protects him from almost all forms of conventional firearms and explosive devices. He can only be harmed by heavy artillery and rockets, and even then, the blast usually left most of his body intact and only damaged internal components. This makes KITT's body durable enough to act as a shield for explosives, ram through rigid barriers of strong material without suffering damage himself and sustain frequent long jumps on turbo boost. The shell also protected him from fire. However, it was vulnerable to electricity, as seen in the episode "Lost Knight" (season 3 episode 10), when a surge of electricity shorted out his memory. The shell was also vulnerable to some potent acids and, in episode 70 "Knight Of The Juggernaut", a formula was made (with knowledge of the shell's chemical base) to neutralize it completely. The shell offers little to almost no protection from lasers in certain episodes. The shell is a combination of three secret substances together referred to as the Knight Compound, developed by Wilton Knight, who entrusted parts of the formula to three separate people, who each know only two pieces of the formula. The shell provided a frame tolerance of 223,000 lb (111.5 tons) and a front and rear axle suspension load of 57,000 lb (28.5 tons). In the pilot, "Knight of the Phoenix", the shell is described as the panels of the car itself; in later episodes, especially from season two onward, the idea of the shell being applied to a base vehicle chemically is used.


title: KITT

text: From under the rear bumper, KITT can spray a jet of oil, creating an oil slick; or emit a plume of smoke, creating a smoke screen (both were first used in Episode 1, "Knight of the Phoenix"). KITT can also dispense a cloud of tear gas along with his smoke screen (First used in Episode 13, "Hearts of Stone").


title: KITT

text: KITT is powered by the Knight Industries turbojet engine, with modified afterburners. and a computer controlled 8-speed turbodrive transmission. This helps him do 0–60 mph in 2 seconds (1.37g), standing to quarter mile 4.286 seconds. Electromagnetic hyper-vacuum disc brakes: 14 foot (4.25 m) braking distance (70–0 mph – 112–0 km/h – 11.7g).


title: KITT

text: During the first episode of the fourth season, "Knight of the Juggernaut, Part I". KITT's Molecular Bonded Shell is intentionally neutralized by a sprayed combination of chemicals, and KITT is nearly destroyed by the Juggernaut. a custom-designed armored vehicle. KITT is redesigned, and is repaired and rebuilt in "Knight of the Juggernaut, Part II".


title: KITT

text: A total of 23 KITT cars were made for use in filming the series. All except one of these cars survived until the show was axed; all except 5 of the remaining 22 cars were destroyed at the end of filming. Of the 5 that escaped that fate: 1 stunt car (originally at the universal theme park) was shipped to a theme park in Australia, for World Expo '88, in Brisbane, Queensland, but is now believed to be back in the US. Universal kept one 'hero' and one stunt car for use in the Entertainment Center display – the two originals have since been sold to a private collector in the US; another, a convertible, disappeared for a while before being sold to the former Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Keswick, Cumbria, England This convertible was sold to the Dezer Collection, Orlando, Florida when Cars of the Stars closed. The fifth car is believed to be in private hands in the UK.


title: KITT

text: Press releases regularly appear claiming 'original screen-used' cars are being sold. For example: on April 4, 2007, "one of the four KITT cars used in production of the television series" was reputedly being put up for sale for $149,995 by Johnny Verhoek of Kassabian Motors, Dublin, California. And a story in "USA Today" from December 2007 states that slain real estate developer and car aficionado, Andrew Kissel, was in possession of one of the surviving cars. Some reports say that Michael Jackson bought an original KITT and former NSYNC band member Joey Fatone also claims to have purchased one of these authentic original KITTs at auction. There have been more 'original' cars auctioned than were built in total for the show.


title: KITT

text: The September 25, 2014, fifth episode of the Dutch TV programme "Syndroom", featuring people with Down syndrome who wish to fulfill a dream, features Twan Vermeulen, a "Knight Rider" fan who wishes to meet David Hasselhoff and KITT. Together with the show's presenter they fly to L.A. and go searching for Hasselhoff's house. They "find" Hasselhoff on the driveway in front of his house, dusting off KITT. After KITT speaks a personal message to Twan, Hasselhoff offers to go with him to take KITT for a spin, "Freak out some people on the freeway", which they did with great pleasure for everyone involved.


title: KITT

text: The right-hand drive KITT, known as the "Official Right Hand Drive KITT" as used in the video "Jump In My Car" by David Hasselhoff, is owned by a company called Wilderness Studios Australia.


title: KITT

text: The 2008 update to "Knight Rider" includes a new KITT – the acronym now standing for Knight Industries Three Thousand. The KITT platform is patterned on a Shelby GT500KR and differs from the original Two Thousand unit in several ways. For example, the 2008 KITT utilizes nano-technology, allowing the car's outer shell to change colors and morph itself into similar forms temporarily. The nanotech platform is written as needing the AI active in order to produce any of these effects, unlike the original car's gadgets and "molecular bonded shell" which allowed it to endure extreme impacts. These extreme down-sides to the use of nanotech have been demonstrated when villains are able to cause significant damage, such as shooting out windows, when the AI is deactivated. It can also turn into two different types of a Ford F-150 4x4 truck (one completely stock and the other with some modifications), a Ford E-150 van, a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a special edition Warriors In Pink Mustang (in support of breast cancer awareness month), a Ford Flex, and a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 for disguise or to use the alternate modes' capabilities (such as off-road handling). The car can engage an "Attack Mode", featuring scissor/conventional hybrid doors, which allows it to increase speed and use most of its gadgets (including turbo boost). It had a different looking attack mode in the pilot which was used whenever the car needed to increase speed. Its downside however is that it only seats two. KITT is also capable of functioning submerged, maintaining life support and system integrity while underwater.


title: KITT

text: While the original series stated the original KITT was designed by Wilton Knight, the 2008 TV movie implies Charles Graiman may have co-designed the car and the AI for Wilton Knight, was subsequently relocated to protect him and his family, and later designed the Knight Industries Three Thousand. KITT's weapons include a grappling hook located in the front bumper, usable in normal and attack modes, two gatling-style guns that are retracted from the hood, a laser, and missile launchers usable only in attack mode, which were first used in "Knight of the Hunter". In the Halloween episode "Knight of the Living Dead", KITT demonstrates the ability to cosmetically alter his appearance, becoming a black Mustang convertible with a pink trim as a Halloween costume. This configuration had the scanner bar relocated to behind the grille. Dr. Graiman also reveals in this episode that a backup neural network exists when he suggests downloading KITT's files and reuploading them to the backup, to which replies "The Backup is not me." In the pilot, KITT had shown himself capable of similarly altering his external appearance—changing his color and licence plate. In "Knight of the Zodiac", KITT uses a dispenser located in his undercarriage to spread black ice, and a fingerprint generator in the glovebox to overlay the fingerprints of a captured thief over Mike's.


title: KITT

text: KITT has numerous other features: an olfactory sensor that allows KITT to "smell" via an atmospheric sampling device mounted in his front bumper, turbo boost, a voice stress analyzer that's used to process spoken voices and determine if someone may be lying, a computer printout that could print hard copies of data on a dashboard-mounted printer, a backup mainframe processor, a windshield projection used in place of the center console screen in the pilot for displaying extra information as well as the video communication link with the SSC, a bio matrix scanner used to detect the health status of persons in the immediate area, a hood surface screen, an electromagnetic pulse projector that can disable any electronic circuit or device within the given area, the ability to fire disk-like objects that produce an intense heat source to deter heat-seeking projectiles, the ability to fill the cabin with tear gas to incapacitate thieves, a 3D object printer that allows for the creation of small 3D objects (such as keys) based on available electronic data, a standard printer used for documents and incoming faxes that's located in the passenger side dash, a small arms cache accessible via the glove box area that usually contains two 9MM handguns with extra clips for occupant's protection outside KITT, a first aid inside the glove box that allows for field mending of physical wounds such as lost appendages, and a software program secretly built into KITT that, when activated, by the SSC, turns KITT into a bomb using his fuel as the charge and his computer as the detonator.


title: KITT

text: A 1991 made-for-TV movie sequel to the 1982 series, "Knight Rider 2000", saw KITT's original microprocessor unit transferred into the body of the vehicle intended to be his successor, the Knight 4000 (referred to as "KIFT" by fans). The vehicle had numerous 21st-century technological improvements over the 1980s Pontiac Trans-Am version of KITT, such as an amphibious mode (which allows the car to travel across water like a speedboat), a virtual reality heads-up display (or VR-HUD, which utilized the entire windshield as a video display), a microwave stun device that could remotely incapacitate a human target, a remote target assist that helps the pilot to aim and fire with a complete and perfect accuracy, voice activated controls, a fax machine, an infrared scanner that could scan on an infrared level to identify laser scope rifles as well as hidden objects giving off heat, a more complex olfactory scan, a voice sampler that could simulate any voice which has been recorded into the Knight 4000's memory, a microwave projector that could cause the temperatures of targeted objects to quickly rise and either ignite or explode, and a thermal sensor that allows the Knight 4000 to watch and record what is happening in a particular place. However, no acknowledgement is made to this spin-off in the 2008–2009 series revival.


title: KITT

text: The studio was unable to use the real Pontiac Banshee IV concept car for the movie, so instead it hired Jay Ohrberg Star Cars Inc. to customize a 1991 Dodge Stealth for the Knight 4000. After filming wrapped, the custom car was used on other TV productions of the time and can also be seen, albeit briefly, as a stolen supercar in "CHiPs '99", as repainted future police vehicles in "Power Rangers Time Force", in an episode of the television series "Black Scorpion" in March 2001, and in a hidden camera TV series called "Scare Tactics". After being abandoned and unmaintained for 10 years, one of the screen-used cars was offered for sale in January 2021 by Bob's Prop Shop in Las Vegas.


title: KITT

text: KARR (Knight Automated Roving Robot) is the name of a fictional, automated, prototype vehicle featured as a major antagonist of KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), in two episodes of the 1982 original series, and was part of a multi-episode story arc in the 2008 revived series.


title: KITT

text: KARR (voiced by Peter Cullen) first appeared in "Trust Doesn't Rust" aired on NBC on November 19, 1982, where he seemingly met his demise at the end. However, he was so popular with viewers that he was brought back again in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.", for a second time (voiced by voice actor Paul Frees) which aired on NBC on November 4, 1984.


title: KITT

text: "Trust Doesn't Rust" was also printed in book form, written by Roger Hill and Glen A. Larson, following the story and general script of the original television episode, expanding some areas of the plot and adding several extra secondary characters.


title: KITT

text: KARR was brought back in 2009 for "Knight to King's Pawn" of the new "Knight Rider" series of 2008–2009 for a third time (marking it as one of the very few villains in the original series and the new series to make a return appearance).


title: KITT

text: KARR was originally designed by Wilton Knight and built by Knight Industries for military purposes for the Department of Defense. After the completion of the vehicle, the KARR processor was installed and activated. However, a programming error caused the computer to be unstable and potentially dangerous. KARR was programmed for self-preservation, but this proved to be dangerous to the Foundation's humanitarian interests. The project was suspended and KARR was stored until a solution could be found. Once KITT was constructed, it was presumed that his prototype KARR had been deactivated and dismantled. However, the latter did not occur and KARR was placed in storage and forgotten following the death of Wilton Knight. KARR was later unwittingly reactivated by thieves in the original episode "Trust Doesn't Rust", and was thought destroyed, but then reappeared in the episode "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R" and was seen to be finally destroyed by Michael and KITT.


title: KITT

text: Originally KARR was identical to KITT – all black with a red scan bar. Upon KARR's return in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.", his scan bar is now amber/yellow but is otherwise still the same as KITT. KARR later gets a brand new two-tone paint job incorporating a silver lower body into the familiar black finish. KARR's scanner originally made a low droning noise, and the sound of KARR's engine originally sounded rough, but in the return episode the scanner and the engine both sounds similar to KITT's albeit with a slight reverb effect added. In "Trust Doesn't Rust" KARR had no license plates, but a California license plate that read "KARR" from his second appearance onwards. KARR's voice modulator showed as greenish-yellow on his dash display, a different color and design than the various incarnations of KITT's red display.


title: KITT

text: Unlike KITT, whose primary directive is to protect human life, KARR was programmed for self-preservation, making him a ruthless and unpredictable threat. He does not appear as streetwise as KITT, being very naïve and inexperienced and having a childlike perception of the world. This has occasionally allowed people to take advantage of his remarkable capabilities for their own gain; however, due to his ruthless nature, he sometimes uses people's weaknesses and greed as a way to manipulate them for his own goals. Despite this, he does ultimately consider itself superior (always referring to KITT as "the inferior production line model") as well as unstoppable, and due to his programming, the villains don't usually get very far. KARR demonstrates a complete lack of respect or loyalty – on one occasion ejecting his passenger to reduce weight and increase his chances of escape.


title: KITT

text: KARR's evil personality is also somewhat different in the comeback episode. His childlike perceptions are diminished into a more devious personality, completely cold and bent on revenge. His self-preservation directive is no longer in play. When KARR is close to exploding after receiving severe damage; he willingly turbo-jumps into a mid-air collision with KITT, hoping that his own destruction would also spell his counterpart's. Even KARR's modus operandi is different; servicing enough in the first episode, he aims to actually make use of other people to serve his own needs. One explanation of this change could be as a result of the damage he received after falling over the cliff at the end of "Trust Doesn't Rust", causing further malfunctions in his programming. Indeed, KITT himself is seen to malfunction and suffer change of personality as a result of damage in several other episodes.


title: KITT

text: To mirror the original series, the nemesis and prototype of the second KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) is also designated KARR in the new series. KARR 2.0 (Peter Cullen) is mentioned in the new "Knight Rider" series episode "Knight of the Living Dead", and is said to be a prototype of KITT (Knight Industries "Three" Thousand). The new KARR acronym was changed to "Knight Auto-cybernetic Roving Robotic-exoskeleton".


title: KITT

text: KARR's visual identity has also had similar changes for the new series. Instead of an automobile, a schematic display shows a heavily armed humanoid-looking robot with wheeled legs that converts into an ambiguous off-road vehicle. KARR has the ability to transform from vehicle mode into a large wheeled robotic exoskeleton, instead of KITT's "Attack Mode". The vehicle mode of KARR is a 2008–2009 Shelby GT500KR with the license plate initials K.R. KARR is once again voiced by Peter Cullen, who also voiced the first appearance of KARR in "Trust Doesn't Rust".


title: KITT

text: KARR was originally designed for military combat. Armed with twin machine guns on each shoulder and missiles, the exoskeleton combines with a human being for easier control. KARR is visually identical to KITT in this iteration, lacking the two-tone black and silver paint job of the 1980s version of KARR. The only difference is the scanner and voice box, which are yellow compared to KITT's red. Once again, similar to the original character, this entirely different "KARR" project (2.0) had an A.I. that was programmed for self-preservation, and he was deactivated and placed in storage after he reprogrammed itself and killed seven people.


title: KITT

text: When KARR finally appears again in the episode "Knight to King's Pawn", he takes a form once again similar to KITT as a 2008 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500KR, and is once again 100% black like KITT 3000, the only difference is that he has a yellow scan light bar and 100% yellow color voice module. In the original series, it was more amber/yellow, and KARR's voice module originally yellow-green in the original series. KARR's scanner sounds much lower with much more of an echo. The sound is especially noticeable when KARR is chasing down KITT while he is still in Ford Mustang mode.


title: KITT

text: Once KITT was constructed, it was presumed that his prototype KARR had been deactivated and dismantled. However, the latter did not occur and KARR was placed in storage and forgotten following the death of Wilton Knight. In the episode "Trust Doesn't Rust", two thieves named Tony and the Rev break into the warehouse where KARR is "sleeping" where they unwittingly reactivated him, and he escapes with them. When the thieves realize how useful the vehicle could be, they use KARR to go on a crime spree. Michael and KITT are sent to recover KARR before anyone becomes hurt. Fearful of being taken back to storage and certain deactivation, KARR was unwilling to go back to the Foundation, and he flees when Michael and KITT come looking for him. They later kidnap Bonnie and force her to repair KARR, although she unsuccessfully tries to sabotage KARR. The Rev eventually refuses to help Tony and KARR any further, as he is concerned for Tony's safety, leading Tony to knock him out and abandon him. Michael rescues Bonnie, but KARR and Tony escape. KARR later abandons Tony so he'll have a better chance to escape from the police. When KARR threatens to destroy KITT in a head-on collision, Michael (remembering KARR's weakness) plays chicken with him, knowing KARR will veer out of KITT's path in order to protect himself. Unable to stop in time, KARR drives off a cliff and seemingly explodes in the ocean.


title: KITT

text: KARR was only believed to have been destroyed, but in the episode "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.", it is revealed he was only damaged and ended up buried in the sand on the beach below the cliffs. When the tide goes out, a young couple stumbles upon the partially buried KARR, digs it out and reactivates it. This time, KARR is furious and had only one clear motive: revenge against Michael Knight and KITT. KARR forces the young couple to disguise him and then drive him around to carry out his plans. In a ravine, KARR challenges Michael and KITT to a final showdown. After releasing the young couple, KARR fires a stolen laser and damages KITT. However, Michael and KITT destroy KARR's laser by reflecting the beam back to the emitter. Damaged, KARR prepares for another attack. KITT and KARR both turbo boost and collide in mid-air. KARR is blown to pieces. Michael and KITT survive the impact; however, at the end of the episode, amongst the wreckage, KARR's CPU module is lying undamaged on the ground, with its LED still flickering. This implies that KARR may still be "alive". Despite this, he doesn't return in later episodes.


title: KITT

text: A different version of KARR appears in 2008 Knight Rider series. It is revealed that KARR was put to development by Charles Graiman in the past. KITT searched for files pertaining KARR and mentions that KARR had the ability to evolve its own programming and alter its own form. KARR is shown in the form of a Transformer-like robot with far more destructive capabilities than KITT. KARR's development lead to the deaths of 7 men and eventually the development was shut down and put away for storage. Charles dreads that someone may have reactivated KARR for his destructive power, and also developed an auto-destruct "backdoor" program into KITT as a final option should KITT have shown destructive tendencies. A pre-recorded message from Dr. Graiman reveals that Mike was KARR's driver and his memories were erased after KARR became uncontrollable.


title: KITT

text: In the episode "Knight to King's Pawn", the NSA has decided to dismantle the S.S.C. after Dr. Graiman has died so they can then move forward with KARR. With Alex' permission, they remove the chip that contains KITT's personality and memories and place it in KARR, as they wrongfully believed it would overwrite the flaws in KARR's programming. Upset by what has happened, Mike vows to end this once and for all, and infiltrates Area 51 to rescue KITT, using another chip built by Billy to revive KITT. KARR activates himself, viewing the re-activated KITT as a threat that must be terminated as he would allow the possibility of being shut down again. Alex states that he is now in charge and KARR must take his orders; KARR agrees, but then merges Alex with him as a driver to seek out Mike. KARR seems to believe that it is his destiny to merge with Mike as before, and comes after KITT to destroy him and get Mike back. Despite KITT lacking his transformation protocols and weapons, Mike takes him into battle anyway. Using a grappling hook, Mike and KITT pull out KARR's chest plate, freeing Alex but also killing him, and Turbo Boost through his body, destroying him. Mike is later told that the KARR project has been permanently abandoned.


title: KITT

text: KITT has access to a mobile "garage" called the F.L.A.G. Mobile Command Center, which was a semi-trailer truck owned by the Foundation. In most episodes, it is a GMC General. The trailer has an extendable ramp that dropped down and allows KITT to drive inside even when the truck is in motion. The trailer was loaded with spare parts and equipment for KITT. It also had a computer lab where technicians Bonnie or April would work and conduct repairs and maintenance while in transit. In "KITTnap", KITT is kidnapped and Michael and RC3 use the tractor (which has been disconnected from the trailer) to go and find him.


title: KITT

text: KITT, despite being just an AI without a body and with only a rudimentary personality, has proven to be a popular character. One of the reasons for KITT's attractivness was in the fact that "domesticated" then-powerful technology (computers), making it "accessible, flexible and portable" in a way that was also "reliable and secure". Nickianne Moody has argued that through KITT, "Knight Rider" became one of "the first popular texts to visualize and narrativize the potential of [computer] technologies to transform daily life". On the other hand, scholars have also looked at the relationship between KITT and its driver, Knight, in the context of the relationship between "man" and "technology", criticizing it for being a metaphor for "masculinity", and even a "classic example of penis-extension". Nonetheless, Moody argues that the relationship between Knight and KITT was more complex and nuanced than many "buddy-ship" relationships of other "Cold War warriors" in the Hollywood works of its era. KITT has also been discussed in the context of the human-robot (or human-AI) interaction.


title: KITT

text: KITT has also proven to be influential for the design of real-world computers for vehicles, with a number of studies noting that the science-fiction vision of the 1980s, portrayed in the show, is coming to be realized in the real life as of the early 21st century. Shaked and Winter noted that it was "one of the most appealing multimodal mobile interfaces of the 1980s", although talking to computers in a way similar to humans is still in its early stages of maturing as a technology as of 2019.


title: KITT

text: Various toy versions of KITT have been released. Among the best-known "Knight Rider" memorabilia is the remote controlled KITT, the "Knight Rider" lunch box, and the deluxe version of KITT. The deluxe model of KITT, sold by Kenner Toys and dubbed the "Knight 2000 Voice Car", spoke electronically (actual voice of William Daniels), featured a detailed interior and a Michael Knight action figure. ERTL released die-cast toys of KITT in three different sizes—the common miniature sized model, a 'medium' sized model, and a large sized model. These toys featured red reflective holograms on the nose to represent the scanner. Also in late 2004, die-cast models of KITT and KARR were produced from ERTL complete with detailed interior and light up moving scanner just like in the series. In September 2006, Hitari, a UK based company that produces remote control toy cars, released the "Knight Rider" KITT remote control car in 1/15 scale complete with the working red scanner lights, KITT's voice from the TV show and the car's turbine engine sound with the "cylon" scanner sound effect. In December 2012, Diamond Select Toys released a talking electronic 1/15 scale KITT which features a light up dashboard, scanner, foglights and tail lights along with the original voice of KITT, William Daniels, all at a push of a button.


title: KITT

text: Mattel has released two die-cast metal models of KARR. A 1:18 scale model as part of the Hot Wheels Elite collection and a 1:64 scale model as part of the Hot Wheels Retro Nostalgia Entertainment collection. They both resemble KARR's appearance from "KITT vs. KARR" with silver paint around the bottom half of the vehicle. The small one however lacks the amber scanner light and instead retains the red scanner from KARR's appearance in "Trust Doesn't Rust" and there is also a KITT which is completely identical to KARR in its first episode in "Trust Doesn't Rust".


title: KITT

text: KITT and KARR are both in "" and its sequel. They also appear in the "Knight Rider" World in "Lego Dimensions".


title: KITT

text: Featuring the iconic voice of William Daniels, the "Knight Rider" GPS was a fully working GPS using Mio navigational technology. The GPS featured custom recorded voices so that the unit could "speak to" its owner using their own name if it was one of the ones in the recorded set of names.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race UK (series 2)

text: The second series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" began airing on 14 January 2021 on the BBC Three section of BBC iPlayer and WOW Presents Plus streaming service. The series was confirmed and casting was closed on 15 November 2019. Production was suspended mid 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed late 2020. The cast of 12 new queens was announced on 16 December 2020 and the series premiered on 14 January 2021. It was also announced a special episode "RuPaul's Drag Race UK: Queens on Lockdown" would air, following the queens during the first lockdown. This special episode was released on 12 February.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race UK (series 2)

text: The winner of the second series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" was Lawrence Chaney, with Bimini Bon-Boulash and Tayce as the runners-up.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race UK (series 2)

text: The "United Kingdolls" version of "UK Hun", which featured in the fifth episode of the series, reached number 27 in the Official UK Charts.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race UK (series 2)

text: Cherry Valentine died on 18 September 2022 at the age of 28, of unknown causes and is the first contestant from "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" to pass away.


title: Desmond Bane

text: Desmond Michael Bane (born June 25, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the TCU Horned Frogs.


title: Desmond Bane

text: After he was born, Bane, his mother Marissa, and his sister often moved around. When he was two years old, he started living with his great-grandparents, who raised him in Richmond, Indiana, for the rest of his childhood. At age 13, Bane discovered that his father, Etieno Ekiko, lived in Nigeria. Growing up, he found more success in baseball than in basketball but preferred the latter sport. Bane focused on baseball until eighth grade, with his great-grandfather coaching at the youth level, and also played football and soccer.


title: Desmond Bane

text: Bane played basketball for Seton Catholic High School, a small private school in Richmond, Indiana. He was drawn to the school because it appointed Josh Jurgens, who coached him in third grade, as head basketball coach during his eighth-grade season. As a senior, Bane averaged a state-high 30 points, 11.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 3.2 blocks per game. He scored a school-record 62 points and nine three-pointers in a win over Lincoln Senior High School. He was named MVP of the Wettig Memorial Holiday Tournament. Bane scored 1,991 points over his four-year career, surpassing 1988 Indiana Mr. Basketball winner Woody Austin for the most in Wayne County history. He did not receive an NCAA Division I offer until his senior season, when Furman offered him at the end of November early signing period. On May 12, 2016, Bane committed to play college basketball for TCU. He was not rated by major recruiting services 247Sports, ESPN, or Rivals.


title: Desmond Bane

text: Bane earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors after scoring 18 points and pulling down seven rebounds against Bradley. He had 16 points including three free throws with two seconds remaining to help TCU defeat number one-ranked Kansas, 85–82, in the quarterfinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. Bane helped TCU win the NIT as a freshman, contributing nine points in the title game against Georgia Tech. He averaged 7.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game and making 13 starts. In an 89–83 victory over Iowa State, Bane scored a season-high 27 points. As a sophomore, Bane averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and his 47.2% 3-point percentage led the Big 12. In the NCAA Tournament, Bane had five points, four rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block in the first-round loss to Syracuse. As a junior, Bane was named to the Second Team All-Big 12. He had a career-high 34 points in the team's regular-season finale against Texas and scored 30 points versus Nebraska in the second round of the NIT. Bane averaged 15.2 points per game to lead the team, 5.7 rebounds per game and shot 42.5% from behind the arc. After the season, he "tested the waters" of the NBA draft but returned to TCU. As a senior, Bane was named to the First Team All-Big 12. Bane averaged 16.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and his 44.2% three-point percentage led the Big 12. On March 2, 2020, Bane was named Big 12 player of the week after scoring 23 points in a 75–72 upset over second-ranked Baylor.


title: Desmond Bane

text: Bane was selected with the 30th pick in the 2020 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. He became the first TCU player to be picked in the first round since 1995. Bane was subsequently traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for a future pick. On November 25, 2020, the Memphis Grizzlies announced that they had signed Bane. Bane was selected to the All-Rookie Second Team after his rookie season. He had the highest three point field goal percentage in a rookie season since Stephen Curry (minimum 150 attempts).


title: Desmond Bane

text: On December 5, 2021, Bane scored a then career-high 29 points and had nine rebounds in a 97–90 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Bane and Tyrese Haliburton were the winners of the Clorox Clutch Challenge at the 2022 NBA All Star Weekend. On March 23, 2022, Bane set the Grizzlies' franchise record for three-pointers made in a season, surpassing Mike Miller's record set in 2007 (202).


title: Desmond Bane

text: In the first round of the 2022 NBA playoffs while facing the Minnesota Timberwolves, on April 22, Bane led Memphis in scoring with 34 points during a 119–118 Game 4 loss. On April 30, Bane scored 23 points to help Memphis Grizzlies eliminate Minnesota Timberwolves and reach the second round of the postseason. Bane made 27 3-pointers in the series and created a new record for most 3-pointers in team history for a single postseason.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a Japanese anime television series produced by Production I.G and based on Masamune Shirow's manga "Ghost in the Shell". It was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, with original character design by Hajime Shimomura and a soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. The first season aired from October 2002 to October 2003 and was positively received by critics. A second season, titled Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, aired from January 2004 to January 2005.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The series centers on the members of an elite law enforcement unit known as Public Security Section 9 as they investigate cybercrime and terrorism cases; the cases in the first season often are connected to their pursuit of an elite "Super Class A" hacker and corporate terrorist known only as "The Laughing Man", whose actions end up creating the series' titular "Stand Alone Complex". A series of associated short comic animations, titled "Tachikomatic Days", aired after each episode. These shorts star the Tachikoma "think-tanks" from the main series, and they typically relate directly to the story of the preceding "Stand Alone Complex" episode.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The first season was adapted into a feature-length OVA titled "The Laughing Man", which was released in 2005. The series also received video game spin-offs for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. "2nd GIG" was also later adapted into a feature-length OVA entitled "Individual Eleven", which was released in 2006. "", a TV-film sequel to the "Stand Alone Complex" series, was also released in that year. A new ONA anime series installment titled "" was formally announced in December 2018 and the first season was released on Netflix on 23 April 2020. The second season was released on 23 May 2022. Both seasons consist of 12 episodes each, with Kenji Kamiyama directing one season, and Shinji Aramaki directing the other season.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The series takes place in the year 2030, where many people have become cyborgs with prosthetic bodies. Primarily set in the fictional Japanese city of , the series follows the members of Public Security Section 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. While the group investigates various crimes, both seasons feature ongoing investigations into two incidents that embroil the group in corruption within other branches of the Japanese government.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The first season of "Stand Alone Complex" focuses on the Laughing Man incident, wherein a hacktivist ultimately reveals to the Major that he had discovered that several micromachine manufacturing corporations, in association with the Japanese government, suppressed information on an inexpensive cure to a debilitating cyberization disease in order to profit from the more expensive micromachine treatment. Following this, he abducted one of the owners of the company and attempted to force him to reveal the truth on live television, resulting in the hacker live-hacking everyone's vision and cameras at the event to cover his face with the stylized laughing face logo that became synonymous with his image.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: His popularity spawned several genuine imitators, resulting in the series' titular Stand Alone Complex. After an investigation by the authorities causes him to resurface in the present, Section 9 discovers these companies and several Japanese politicians later used the Laughing Man's image to garner public support and profit, and they begin a campaign, spearheaded by Togusa and the Major, to disseminate the truth. This ultimately leads to the Cabinet labeling them as domestic terrorists and forcibly disbanding them, resulting in the capture of several members and the apparent death of Motoko Kusanagi. However, it is all a ruse to deceive the government, and the very alive and well members of Section 9 regroup to bring the micromachine corporations and corrupt politicians to justice, resulting in the dissolution of the current Japanese government.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: In the film "", set two years following the resolution of the Individual Eleven incident, the Major has left Section 9, and Togusa is now field commander, leading an investigation into several deaths of refugees from the Siak Republic, which results in the discovery of a government computer system coordinating the kidnappings of 20 thousand abused children who have had their cyberbrains replaced and placing them under the care of several senior citizens made comatose by another government program that takes care of all of their bodily needs.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Their investigation, which brings the Major out of hiding, reveals an entity known as the Puppeteer behind the kidnappings. The Puppeteer is a rhizome formed by the collective will of the senior citizens, and the Siak Republic's intent to use the kidnapped children in their plans leads to their downfall. However, the investigation further reveals that a member of the House of Representatives is also using the children for his nationalistic purposes. Section 9 and the Major infiltrate a welfare center where the MP brainwashes the children, resulting in the Puppeteer revealing that the senior citizens wished to give the children free will in their future, with the politician interfering in that new plan.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" was animated by Production I.G, and produced by Bandai Visual, Bandai Entertainment, Dentsu, Nippon Television Network, Tokuma Shoten, Victor Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment. The series was directed and written by Kenji Kamiyama, with additional screenwriters including Junichi Fujisaku, Yoshiki Sakurai, Shōtarō Suga, Dai Satō, Nobutoshi Terado, Yutaka Ōmatsu, and Yūichirō Matsuka. Masamune Shirow, author of the original "Ghost in the Shell" manga, provided plot for several episodes, sketches of characters and mechanical designs (including the Tachikoma), and gave his approval to the scripts before production. The series was produced with an 800 million yen investment. Kenji Kamiyama decided to make the anime television series as a "relative" to the manga and film, serving as a separate parallel world from both.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The soundtrack for the series was composed by Yoko Kanno and produced by Victor Entertainment. The first season's opening theme is "Inner Universe" performed by Origa (written by Origa and Shanti Snyder). The lyrics are in Russian, English, and Latin. The first season's ending theme is "Lithium Flower" performed by Scott Matthew (written by Tim Jensen). When the series was later re-broadcast on terrestrial television in Japan, "Inner Universe" was replaced with "GET9", performed by jillmax (written by Tim Jensen), while "Lithium Flower" was replaced with "I Do", written and performed by Ilaria Graziano.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The pay-per-view distribution of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" started on SKY PerfecTV!'s Animax channel on 1 October 2002. It ran for 26 episodes until 1 October 2003. The series was later aired on the terrestrial Nippon TV from January to June 2004. A series of associated short comic animations, titled , aired immediately after each episode of the series. These shorts star the Tachikoma "think-tanks" from the main series, and typically relate directly to the story of the preceding "Stand Alone Complex" episode.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The production of a second season was immediately decided after the first season's TV airing. The second season was initially hinted when Bandai has extended the episode list to 52 episodes at Otakon of 2003. In October 2003, Production I.G officially announced a second season of 26 for the series, which would air at a rate of 2 episodes per month. The second season of "Stand Alone Complex", titled "Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG", aired on Animax from 1 January 2004 to 8 January 2005. It later aired on Nippon TV from April to September 2005.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" was subsequently licensed by Bandai Visual and Manga Entertainment in North America, and Madman Entertainment in Australia. It was broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, in Canada by YTV and in the United Kingdom by AnimeCentral.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: On 18 March 2015 it was announced that "Stand Alone Complex" would receive a full weekly rebroadcasting in Japan on BS11, starting on 1 April 2015. On 25 April 2017, Starz announced that they would be offering episodes of the series for their Video on Demand service starting 1 May 2017.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: A feature-length OVA titled "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man" was released in Japan on 23 September 2005, and in North America on 2 October 2007. The OVA retells the first season of the anime television series with minor alterations to the storyline to accommodate an abbreviated take on the Laughing Man affair. Some additional animation and voice work was also added. Although the Japanese-language version retained the voice cast from the anime series, the English version has a new cast of voice actors. The dialogue recording for the English version was produced by Ocean Productions. A Blu-ray version was released on 22 December 2010.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: "Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG – Individual Eleven" is a feature-length OVA which retells the events of "S.A.C. 2nd GIG", altered to focus on both the Individual Eleven investigation and the relationship between Hideo Kuze and Motoko Kusanagi. Newly animated scenes and a remixed soundtrack are also included.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" has received two console game spinoffs. The first is "" for the PlayStation 2, and was developed by Cavia. It was released on 4 March 2004 in Japan and 8 November 2004 in North America. The second—a sequel to the first—is a PSP title, developed by G-Artist, and is also titled "". It was released in Japan on 15 September 2005 and in North America on 25 October 2005.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Several mobile phone games have been released exclusively to Japan. The first is titled and was developed by GREE and released on 14 February 2011. The second shares the name of the anime and PlayStation 2 video game, was developed by Mobage and released on 16 November 2011. The game focuses on an unnamed new detective who works for Section 9. The third is a social game also developed by Mobage, titled , and released on 29 March 2012.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: On 13 December 2012, Nexon stated it had obtained the rights of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" for the purpose of the creation of a massively multiplayer online game. The game was formally announced on 17 September 2015, under the title of "". The game was a squad-based first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows, developed by Neople and featuring voice performances by the original anime cast. "First Assault Online" entered early access on Steam on 14 December 2015, but was discontinued in all territories by the end of 2017, due to low player uptake, poor reception, lack of differentation from other games in the genre, and the developers' own dissatisfaction with the quality of the game.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: A three-volume novel series based on the anime television series and collecting self-contained stories was written by staff writer Junichi Fujisaku and illustrated by Kazuto Nakazawa. The novels were published by Tokuma Shoten and distributed by Dark Horse Comics in the United States. The first volume, titled "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Lost Memory", was released on 21 January 2004 in Japan and on 24 May 2006 in the US. The second volume, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Revenge of the Cold Machines", was released on 8 July 2004 in Japan and on 26 September 2006 in the US. The third volume, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - White Maze" was released on 4 February 2005 in Japan and on 2 January 2007 in the US.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Two short prose stories were released in the Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories prose anthology released in 2017. The first was called Shadow.Net written by Toh Enjoe which references the Puppeteer's actions from the Solid State Society film but could also conceivably be referring to the events in the manga. The second story (which appears as the third story in the collection) was called Soft and White by Kafka Asagiri which revolves around the Laughing Man's actions in the time period between Standalone Complex and 2nd GIG.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Two manga series based on "Stand Alone Complex" have been published by Kodansha. The first series, , is based on the associated "Tachikomatic Days" shorts. The manga was drawn by Mayasuki Yamamoto and was launched on 9 December 2009 in "Monthly Young Magazine". Eight tankōbon volumes were released.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: The second manga series, sharing its name with the television series, was illustrated by Yu Kinutani and launched on 14 December 2009 in "Weekly Young Magazine", and later transferred to "Monthly Young Magazine" on 14 April 2010. The manga is an adaptation of the first season of the anime series. Five tankōbon volumes were released. The first volume subtitled "Episode 1: Section9" was released on 6 April 2010 in Japan and on 24 May 2011 in North America. The second volume subtitiled "Episode 2: Testation" was released on 5 November 2010 in Japan and on 29 November 2011 in North America. The third volume subtitled "Episode 3: Idolater" was released on 5 August 2011 in Japan. The fourth volume subtitled "Episode 4: ¥€$" was released on 6 March 2012 in Japan. The fifth volume subtitled "Episode 5: Not Equal" was released on 6 March 2013 in Japan.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: An official guidebook and DVD to the first 19 episodes of the TV series titled "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Official Log 1" was released by Bandai and Manga Entertainment on 25 October 2005. The guidebook and DVD contains several interviews from several staff members, reports on several animation techniques and other reports on several concepts of the series. A second guidebook/DVD titled " Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Official Log 2" was released on 24 January 2006 featuring background, commentary and examination of the remaining 7 episodes. Another guidebook titled was published by Tokuma Shoten and released on 31 March 2007. Another guidebook titled "Tachikoma's All Memory".


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Numerous figurines have been released for "Stand Alone Complex" versions of the characters with Motoko and Tachikoma being a central focus. Various figures have been produced from CM Corporation, and Kaitendo. Tachikoma figures have been produced by various companies, including one by the Good Smile Company in cooperation with Nendoron. A 1/24-scale plastic model kit of the Tachikoma was produced by Wave in December 2005. Other merchandise includes clothing, key chains, notebooks, patches, bags, posters and body pillows.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the series' high quality of animation and the musical score by Yoko Kanno. In particular, reviewers reacted positively to the world of high-technology that "Stand Alone Complex" presents, described as "believably futuristic". Lawrence Person from "Locus Online" wrote that "the world of [Stand Alone Complex] is recognizably our own, or rather, one recognizably extrapolated from modern Japan. While parts of the technology seem unlikely in the time-frame allotted, none seems impossible."


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: In addition, several reviews mentioned what they perceived to be overarching themes explored in the series as a result of the setting; specifically, the meaning of humanity in a world where the lines between man and machine were becoming increasingly blurred, as well as various societal issues that might emerge as a result of advances in technology.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Reviewers agreed that the main "Laughing Man" storyline was satisfying, characterizing it variously as "interesting", "complex", and "engaging". Reaction to the series' "Stand Alone" episodes, however, was mixed: some reviewers considered these episodes to be boring and, in some cases, the worst episodes of the series, while others contended that they allowed further development of the characters and the futuristic setting.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Certain commentators specifically focused on the series' success or failure in achieving the high standards set by the critically acclaimed 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell". Opinion in this regard was divided: although these reviewers took an overall favorable view, some reviews criticized the quality of animation, while others felt that the series' story lacked the depth of the original film. This "lack of depth", however, was attributed to the fact that "Stand Alone Complex" is an action-oriented series with a limited episode length in which to explore deeper themes.


title: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

text: Bolstering the generally positive reviews of the series, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" won an Excellence Prize (Animation Division) at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, a Notable Entry Award at the 2003 Tokyo International Anime Fair, and was featured in June 2004 by Newtype USA, with a "double scoop" cover story. The Japan Media Arts Festival provided a brief summary of "Stand Alone Complex", calling it a "completely original television series...entertaining and easy to understand".


title: Outback

text: The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions.


title: Outback

text: Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably a low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment. The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore. In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "natural attraction".


title: Outback

text: Aboriginal peoples have lived in the Outback for at least 50,000 years and occupied all Outback regions, including the driest deserts, when Europeans first entered central Australia in the 1800s. Many Aboriginal Australians retain strong physical and cultural links to their traditional country and are legally recognised as the Traditional Owners of large parts of the Outback under Commonwealth Native Title legislation.


title: Outback

text: Early European exploration of inland Australia was sporadic. More focus was on the more accessible and fertile coastal areas. The first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813, 25 years after the colony was established. People, starting with John Oxley in 1817, 1818 and 1821, followed by Charles Sturt in 1829–1830, attempted to follow the westward-flowing rivers to find an "inland sea", but these were found to all flow into the Murray River and Darling River, which turn south.


title: Outback

text: From 1858 onwards, the so-called "Afghan" cameleers and their beasts played an instrumental role in opening up the Outback and helping to build infrastructure.


title: Outback

text: Over the period 1858 to 1861, John McDouall Stuart led six expeditions north from Adelaide, South Australia into the Outback, culminating in successfully reaching the north coast of Australia and returning without the loss of any of the party's members' lives. This contrasts with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860–61 which was much better funded, but resulted in the deaths of three of the members of the transcontinental party.


title: Outback

text: In 1865, the surveyor George Goyder, using changes in vegetation patterns, mapped a line in South Australia, north of which he considered rainfall to be too unreliable to support agriculture.


title: Outback

text: Exploration of the Outback continued in the 1950s when Len Beadell explored, surveyed and built many roads in support of the nuclear weapons tests at Emu Field and Maralinga and rocket testing on the Woomera Prohibited Area. Mineral exploration continues as new mineral deposits are identified and developed.


title: Outback

text: 2002 was declared the Year of the Outback. While the early explorers used horses to cross the Outback, the first woman to make the journey riding a horse was Anna Hingley, who rode from Broome to Cairns in 2006.


title: Outback

text: The paucity of industrial land use has led to the Outback being recognised globally as one of the largest remaining intact natural areas on Earth. Global "Human Footprint" and wilderness reviews highlight the importance of Outback Australia as one of the world's large natural areas, along with the Boreal forests and Tundra regions in North America, the Sahara and Gobi deserts and the tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins.


title: Outback

text: The savanna (or grassy woodlands) of northern Australia are the largest, intact savanna regions in the world. In the south, the Great Western Woodlands, which occupy , an area larger than all of England and Wales, are the largest remaining temperate woodland left on Earth.


title: Outback

text: Reflecting the wide climatic and geological variation, the Outback contains a wealth of distinctive and ecologically rich ecosystems. Major land types include:


title: Outback

text: The Outback is full of very important well-adapted wildlife, although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual observer. Many animals, such as red kangaroos and dingoes, hide in bushes to rest and keep cool during the heat of the day.


title: Outback

text: Birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars, cockatoos, corellas and galahs are often sighted. On bare ground or roads during the winter, various species of snakes and lizards bask in the sun, but they are rarely seen during the summer months.


title: Outback

text: Feral animals such as camels thrive in central Australia, brought to Australia by pastoralists and explorers, along with the early Afghan drivers. Feral horses known as 'brumbies' are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs, foxes, cats, goats and rabbits and other imported animals are also degrading the environment, so time and money is spent eradicating them in an attempt to help protect fragile rangelands.


title: Outback

text: The Outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict movements of dingoes and wild dogs into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent. The marginally fertile parts are primarily utilised as rangelands and have been traditionally used for sheep or cattle grazing, on cattle stations which are leased from the Federal Government. While small areas of the outback consist of clay soils the majority has exceedingly infertile palaeosols.


title: Outback

text: Riversleigh, in Queensland, is one of Australia's most renowned fossil sites and was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1994. The 100 km (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age.


title: Outback

text: The largest industry across the Outback, in terms of the area occupied, is pastoralism, in which cattle, sheep, and sometimes goats are grazed in mostly intact, natural ecosystems. Widespread use of bore water, obtained from underground aquifers, including the Great Artesian Basin, has enabled livestock to be grazed across vast areas in which no permanent surface water exists naturally.


title: Outback

text: Capitalising on the lack of pasture improvement and absence of fertiliser and pesticide use, many Outback pastoral properties are certified as organic livestock producers. In 2014, , most of which is in Outback Australia, was fully certified as organic farm production, making Australia the largest certified organic production area in the world.


title: Outback

text: Tourism is a major industry across the Outback, and commonwealth and state tourism agencies explicitly target Outback Australia as a desirable destination for domestic and international travellers. There is no breakdown of tourism revenues for the "Outback" "per se". However, regional tourism is a major component of national tourism incomes. Tourism Australia explicitly markets nature-based and Indigenous-led experiences to tourists. In the 2015–2016 financial year, 815,000 visitors spent $988 million while on holidays in the Northern Territory alone.


title: Outback

text: There are many popular tourist attractions in the Outback. Some of the well known destinations include Devils Marbles, Kakadu National Park, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru (Ayers Rock).


title: Outback

text: Other than agriculture and tourism, the main economic activity in this vast and sparsely settled area is mining. Owing to the almost complete absence of mountain building and glaciation since the Permian (in many areas since the Cambrian) ages, the outback is extremely rich in iron, aluminium, manganese and uranium ores, and also contains major deposits of gold, nickel, copper, lead and zinc ores. Because of its size, the value of grazing and mining is considerable. Major mines and mining areas in the Outback include opals at Coober Pedy, Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs, metals at Broken Hill, Tennant Creek, Olympic Dam and the remote Challenger Mine. Oil and gas are extracted in the Cooper Basin around Moomba.


title: Outback

text: In Western Australia the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley is the world's biggest producer of natural diamonds and contributes approximately one-third of the world's natural supply. The Pilbara region's economy is dominated by mining and petroleum industries. Most of Australia's iron ore is also mined in the Pilbara and it also has one of the world's major manganese mines.


title: Outback

text: Aboriginal communities in outback regions, such as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in northern South Australia, have not been displaced as they have been in areas of intensive agriculture and large cities, in coastal areas.


title: Outback

text: The total population of the Outback in Australia declined from 700,000 in 1996 to 690,000 in 2006. The largest decline was in the Outback Northern Territory, while the Kimberley and Pilbara showed population increases during the same period. The sex ratio is 1040 males for 1000 females and 17% of the total population is indigenous.


title: Outback

text: The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) started service in 1928 and helps people who live in the outback of Australia. In former times, serious injuries or illnesses often meant death due to the lack of proper medical facilities and trained personnel.


title: Outback

text: In many outback communities, the number of children is too small for a conventional school to operate. Children are educated at home by the School of the Air. Originally the teachers communicated with the children via radio, but now satellite telecommunication is used instead.


title: Outback

text: The term "outback" derives from the adverbial phrase referring to the back yard of a house, and came to be used meiotically in the late 1800s to describe the vast sparsely settled regions of Australia behind the cities and towns. The earliest known use of the term in this context in print was in 1869, when the writer clearly meant the area west of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Over time, the adverbial use of the phrase was replaced with the present day noun form.


title: Outback

text: It is colloquially said that "the outback" is located "beyond the Black Stump". The location of the black stump may be some hypothetical location or may vary depending on local custom and folklore. It has been suggested that the term comes from the Black Stump Wine Saloon that once stood about out of Coolah, New South Wales on the Gunnedah Road. It is claimed that the saloon, named after the nearby Black Stump Run and Black Stump Creek, was an important staging post for traffic to north-west New South Wales and it became a marker by which people gauged their journeys.


title: Outback

text: "The Never-Never" is a term referring to remoter parts of the Outback. The Outback can also be referred to as "back of beyond" or "back o' Bourke", although these terms are more frequently used when referring to something a long way from anywhere, or a long way away. The well-watered north of the continent is often called the "Top End" and the arid interior "The Red Centre", owing to its vast amounts of red soil and sparse greenery amongst its landscape.


title: Outback

text: The outback is criss-crossed by historic tracks. Most of the major highways have an excellent bitumen surface and other major roads are usually well-maintained dirt roads.


title: Outback

text: The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through the centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Adelaide–Darwin railway. There is a proposal to develop some of the roads running from the south-west to the north-east to create an all-weather road named the Outback Highway, crossing the continent diagonally from Laverton, Western Australia (north of Kalgoorlie, through the Northern Territory to Winton, in Queensland.


title: Outback

text: Air transport is relied on for mail delivery in some areas, owing to sparse settlement and wet-season road closures. Most outback mines have an airstrip and many have a fly-in fly-out workforce. Most outback sheep stations and cattle stations have an airstrip and quite a few have their own light plane. Medical and ambulance services are provided by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.


title: Walter Hill

text: Walter Hill (born January 10, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer known for his action films and revival of the Western genre. He has directed such films as "The Driver", "Southern Comfort", "48 Hrs." and its sequel "Another 48 Hrs.", "Streets of Fire" and "Red Heat", and wrote the screenplay for the crime drama "The Getaway". He has also directed several episodes of television series such as "Tales from the Crypt" and "Deadwood" and produced the "Alien" films.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill said in an interview that "every film I've done has been a Western", and elaborated in another that "the Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories".


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill was born in Long Beach, California, the younger of two sons. His paternal grandfather was a wildcat oil driller; his father worked at Douglas Aircraft as a supervisor on the assembly line. Hill has said that his father and grandfather were "smart, physical men who worked with their heads and their hands" and had "great mechanical ability". Hill's family had originally come from Tennessee and Mississippi, "one of those fallen Southern families, shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations". "I got along with both my parents very well," Hill said. "I admired them enormously."


title: Walter Hill

text: Growing up in Southern California, Hill was asthmatic as a child and, as a result, missed several years of school.Despite the discomfort, it made you comfortable being alone with yourself. You weren't as surrounded by your peers as everybody else your age was... In my case it meant tremendous amount of reading at an early age... I read, listened to radio... I became utterly besotted with daytime serials... it enabled me to live in an imaginary world where one is comfortable with abstract ideas, dominated by stories, narrative, and characters.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill became a film fan at an early age, and the first film he remembers seeing was "Song of the South" (1946). He later described his taste as "juvenile", stating: "I liked adventure, westerns, but I liked everything. Musicals. But the general, I remember not liking kid movies... still don't, I think that's hung on." His asthma receded when he was 15 and he began to think about becoming a writer. He worked in the oil fields as a roustabout on Signal Hill, California during high school and several more years while in college. During one summer, he ran an asbestos pipe-cutting machine and worked as a spray painter.


title: Walter Hill

text: As a teenager, Hill contemplated being a comic book illustrator and studied art at the Universidad de las Américas, Mexico City. "Mexico was as far away as I could get without any money," he says.


title: Walter Hill

text: He then transferred and majored in history at Michigan State University. He said that, during this period, he was a particular fan of Ernest Hemingway's writing and came to believe that "the hardest thing to do is write clearly and simply, and make your point in an elegant way". Upon graduation, Hill was called up for the United States Army in 1964, but childhood asthma saw him ruled ineligible. This forced him to think about what he wanted to do for a career. "When you are that age, you think you are going to be in the army two years, it's a huge amount of time. You don't bother worrying about what you are doing. Suddenly, this whole thing was upon me."


title: Walter Hill

text: Through a friend Hill got a job in Los Angeles researching historical documentaries made by a company that was associated with Encyclopædia Britannica. He began seeing more and more scripts, writing scripts and developed the urge to direct. Hill:Seeing so many of the European films, Japanese films, I was part of this isolated community in east Hollywood. I remembered thinking just a little further west they are making the films I want to see. I'm going to do this. Sink or swim... I wanted to be a writer on my way to being a director. Directors were already my heroes. Kurosawa, number of Italian directors... Movies from England, France, Sweden, Italy. Poland... One wanted a chance to tell stories in an open, loose, not constricted Hollywood kind of way. At the same time you wanted to work in Hollywood... I was tremendously interested in genre films. Wanted to work within genre films.


title: Walter Hill

text: After this contract to make historical documentaries finished, Hill worked for a time in the mail room at Universal ("Somebody told me that was a good way to meet people"). He then got into the training program of the Directors Guild of America, which enabled him to work in television as an apprentice. He observed and worked for over a year on such shows as "Gunsmoke", "Wild Wild West", "Bonanza" and "Warning Shot". "I did a lot of shows for a couple of weeks, they would rotate you through," he says.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill wound up as second assistant director on "The Thomas Crown Affair" in 1968. He then went on to work as the uncredited second assistant director on "Bullitt"—"It was my job to set background and also to set it up with the police. We had to organise every shot so people wouldn't wander out into the middle of the street and be hit... Every time we did a shot I was scared to death."


title: Walter Hill

text: In 1969, he was the second assistant director on a Woody Allen film, "Take the Money and Run", but said he remembers doing very little except passing out the call sheets and filling out time cards. He also worked as a first assistant director on some television advertisement. "I didn't have a shred of desire in those areas," says Hill of assistant directing. "I wanted to work and be around films. I certainly took my duties fairly seriously and all that. I didn't see it as a long term kind of commitment."


title: Walter Hill

text: "I began to read screenplays that were being made, and I hesitate to say this, but I guess I read them and said: 'Christ, I could do that.'" It took him "four to five years to write my first screenplay writing at night, while I still had another day job."


title: Walter Hill

text: He says one of his earlier works "was intensely personal about a love affair I had. It was terrible, I knew it. It was not until he started writing in a more "structured narrative environment" that he "began to find my voice... I had a hard time finishing scripts. My problem was finding certain character narrative concerns. Once I finished scripts, I almost instantly made a living. Not only made a living, but got them made. From the time I finished them to the time they were getting made, making progress on the trail, that all happened pretty quickly.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill later said, "I was very sympathetic and identified with the New Hollywood." But his films "are, or were, rather retro. That is to say, I didn't tackle subjects. I wanted to do genre films."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill's first completed screenplay, a Western called "Lloyd Williams and His Brother", was optioned by Joe Wizan. It was never made but the script was admired at Warner Bros who asked Hill to pitch some projects. He came up with a detective story, "Hickey & Boggs" and the studio agreed to finance a draft. "Detective films were very old hat, not the kind of thing a young screenwriter was going to pitch," recalls Hill. "I think they were intrigued, maybe fresh air could be blown into a venerable genre."


title: Walter Hill

text: Warners liked the "Hickey & Boggs" script and hired Hill to rewrite the script for "The Thief Who Came to Dinner," for which he ended up getting sole credit. "Hickey & Boggs" was later sold to United Artists and rewritten by director Robert Culp. Hill said he felt the film "had some nice moments, but it was cast much differently than it was written. I wasn't too excited about it."


title: Walter Hill

text: Meanwhile, Peter Bogdanovich's ex-wife Polly Platt, a film editor, had read Hill's script for "Hickey & Boggs" and recommended him to co-write "The Getaway", which Bogdanovich was going to make with Steve McQueen. Bogdanovich and Hill worked on the script together in San Francisco while Bogdanovich was directing "What's Up, Doc?" Hill says that Bogdanovich was interested in making the film a more Hitchcock-type film. They had completed 25 pages when they went back to L.A., whereupon McQueen fired Bogdanovich without reading any of their work. Sam Peckinpah came on to direct; Hill started from scratch and wrote his own script in six weeks. The resulting film was a big hit which Hill later described "of the films I wrote, I thought it was far and away the best one, and most interesting." He said the success of the film "was really how I got to be a director; the fact it had done so well put me in line to get a shot."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill and Peckinpah got along well and for a time it seemed Peckinpah might direct "Lloyd Williams" but he decided to make "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" instead. "The Thief Who Came to Dinner" eventually came out. Walter Hill later said "Warren Oates was very good in the movie—better than the movie was. They cut a lot of things out of the movie they shouldn't have."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill went on to write a pair of Paul Newman films, "The Mackintosh Man" and "The Drowning Pool". By Hill's own admission, his work on "The Mackintosh Man" "wasn't much" and he did it to settle a lawsuit with Warner Bros, with whom he was angry for selling "Hickey & Boggs"—Warners offered to settle the suit if Hill wrote them a screenplay, giving him the chance to adapt his choice of several novels that the studio owned the film rights to. He picked "The Freedom Trap", by Desmond Bagley.


title: Walter Hill

text: "I wrote a quick script which I was not particularly enamored with myself," Hill said. However it attracted the interest of Paul Newman and John Huston. "One would like to think you are mistaken about the wonders of your work, but I didn't believe it," he said. "That part turned out to be true. I went over to work on the script with Huston. He wasn't very well, I ended up with sole screen credit, but one of the problems is the screen credit is misleading very often. I wrote 90% of the first half, various people wrote the rest. I didn't think it was a very good film. Hill says he never saw the final product, but was told it was "a real bomb".


title: Walter Hill

text: Producers Larry Turman and David Foster asked Hill to adapt Ross Macdonald's novel "The Drowning Pool" for Robert Mulligan to direct as a sequel to a previous Newman film, "Harper" (1965). The producers did not like the direction Hill took with his script—he later estimated only two scenes in the final film were his—so he left the project to write "Hard Times" for Larry Gordon at Columbia Pictures.


title: Walter Hill

text: In the early years of his career, Hill set up his own production company, Brandywine Productions, to develop and produce films. A script came to him, "Alien", which he optioned and rewrote with his partner, David Giler. Hill and Giler were not credited for their writing work. Hill decided not to direct the film, which became a massive hit.


title: Walter Hill

text: John Hughes later recalled, "I had been writing scripts for quite a while, but I never really knew what screenwriting was about until I read the script Walter wrote for "Alien"."


title: Walter Hill

text: I think in casual conversation I would have told anybody I wanted to direct. At the same time I knew Hollywood was a closed off place... It was much harder to get in. To be an older director was a very positive thing. It meant you had survived, knew your way, could make things and make them meet your economic responsibilities. It was always paramount in studio minds, especially in those days... If I was going to direct I was going to write my way in. No TV, no play, I was simply somebody who said I have a sensibility, I think I can do this, based on nothing other than my scripts basically.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill met producer Lawrence Gordon in 1973. He agreed to let Hill direct a film if he wrote a screenplay for him. Hill made a deal to write and direct for scale and in turn got a shot at directing. The result was Hill's 1975 breakthrough film, "Hard Times", made on location in New Orleans for just $2.7 million in 38 days. James Coburn played a fast-talking promoter of illegal street fights in 1930s New Orleans and Charles Bronson played the boxer protagonist.


title: Walter Hill

text: The film was also a turning point for Hill as a screenwriter. He read Alexander Jacobs' screenplay for the John Boorman film "Point Blank" and considered it a "revelation" in terms of style and format. He decided to tailor his own scripts in that manner, as he described it, "extremely spare, almost Haiku style. Both stage directions and dialogue." He was also influenced by Sam Peckinpah. Hill wrote "Hard Times", "The Driver", "The Warriors", and the uncredited rewrite of "Alien" in this style.


title: Walter Hill

text: Following the movie Hill was approached to direct "The Shootist" with John Wayne but turned it down as he disliked the script.


title: Walter Hill

text: He created the TV series "Dog and Cat" which premiered in 1977 starring a young Kim Basinger as a police officer. It was not a ratings success and was soon cancelled. However Hill's pilot script later influenced Shane Black's original script for "Lethal Weapon".


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill's second film as a director was "The Driver" starring Ryan O'Neal as a laconic getaway driver for hire and Bruce Dern as a driven cop pursuing him. No character in the film has a name; they are merely The Driver, The Detective, and so forth. Hill originally had wanted to cast Steve McQueen, but he turned down the role because he did not want to do another car film. "This Walter Hill is a force to be reckoned with," said O'Neal, "a first rate writer and an even better director. And he's fast. Most young directors today think they are David Lean."


title: Walter Hill

text: "The Driver" was financed by EMI Films who announced they would make a second film with Hill, a Western he wrote with Roger Spottiswoode, "The Last Gun". However "The Driver" was a commercial failure in the United States. "To say it did not do well would be kind," said Hill. "Had I not been shooting "The Warriors" at the time, I don't think my career would have survived. They loved it overseas, but in those days, that didn't matter that much. It made exactly zero dollars in the United States. I remember the studio had this huge sheaf of Xeroxed reviews they'd handed me — you could stop a fucking .45 slug with this stack, it was so thick. And of all the reviews in this six-inch thick pile, there was only one good one." (In 2016 Hill would say that "whenever they show retrospectives of my stuff, it's usually the first thing they show. Sometimes you just have to wait it out.")


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill was going to make "The Last Gun" with Larry Gordon but when the financing on the project failed to materialize, Gordon showed Hill a copy of the novel "The Warriors" by Sol Yurick. They took it to Paramount Pictures because they were interested in youth films at the time and succeeded in getting the project financed. Hill remembers "it came together very quickly. Larry had a special relationship with Paramount and we promised to make the movie very cheaply, which we did. So it came together within a matter of weeks."


title: Walter Hill

text: When "The Warriors" was released there were a series of shootings and killings at screenings involving filmgoers on their way to or from showings. This prompted Paramount to remove advertisements from radio and television completely and display ads in the press were reduced to the film's title. However the film was very popular and received excellent reviews.


title: Walter Hill

text: "Hollywood forgives a lot when you have a hit," said Hill. "I don't know what to say about it, other than the fact that it was just a gift in terms of getting it. The studio hated it, and didn't even want to release it. There was a lot of friction with management at the time. Some of it might have been my fault."


title: Walter Hill

text: James Keach had developed a script about the Jesse James Gang, "The Long Riders", which United Artists were willing to finance if a suitable director were to be found. Hill was approached and eagerly agreed to film his first Western. The film is remembered for casting real-life acting brothers (the Keaches, Carradines, Quaids and Guests) as historical outlaw siblings (the James, Younger, Miller and Ford brothers). Hill later said his "code" for the film was to keep "the jokes funny and the bullets real. It is about moral choices. I think people who object to violence shouldn't go to the movies... The use of all the brothers can be perceived as a gimmick but I wanted a family feeling to the movie."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill's next film was going to be adaptations of "The Last Good Kiss" (by James Crumley) and then "Red Harvest" (by Dashiell Hammett). However neither were made. Instead Hill did "Southern Comfort", originally written in 1976. It was an intense "Deliverance"-style thriller about a group of U.S. Army National Guardsmen (including Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe and Fred Ward) on weekend maneuvers in the Louisiana bayou who find themselves fighting for survival in the swamps after offending some local Cajuns. The film was seen by many as an allegory for America's involvement in the Vietnam War, although Hill denies this is the case.


title: Walter Hill

text: He and David Giler rewrote the script prepared by another writer. According to Hill, "No studio wanted to make it, but an independent guy showed up who had a relationship with Fox. Liked it, said he would finance it."


title: Walter Hill

text: The film was critically acclaimed but, in Hill's words, it "didn't make a... nickel anywhere. Foreign, domestic, anything... I was proud of the film... But I was disappointed in the lack of response. It was a universal audience failure... Usually you can say they loved it in Japan or something. I don't think anybody loved it anywhere."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill tried to make "Lone Star", from the play by James McLure to star Powers Boothe and Sigourney Weaver (1981). Like "Red Harvest" and "The Last Good Kiss" it was not made though the story of "Last Man Standing" (which he made in 1996) was very close to "Red Harvest".


title: Walter Hill

text: He'd had some success, but then he had a series of setbacks. And there was also the scandal around "The Warriors"; any success had been eclipsed by the killings in the theaters. So there was that, as well as the noncommercial success of "Southern Comfort" and "Long Riders" and the fact that there was a writer's strike. All of that meant that Walter hadn't worked in a while. Meaning a year or so. And what happened was the strike ended and the studios didn't have a lot of ready scripts. So this clever colleague, Larry Gordon, dusted off a script that had been shuttling around development and got it greenlit at Paramount with his friend Michael Eisner. And that script was "48 Hrs.".


title: Walter Hill

text: "48 Hrs." was originally meant to star Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor but both dropped out. Nick Nolte became attached as star and Hill's then-girlfriend, a talent agent at ICM, recommended the role of the convict be played by an exciting new comic on "Saturday Night Live", Eddie Murphy. The resulting film was a problematic shoot, with many clashes between Paramount and Hill, but it resulted in a massive box office success.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill's box office success with "48 Hrs." enabled him to raise the money for a stylish "rock 'n' roll fable", "Streets of Fire". He almost set this up at Paramount but they changed their mind; Universal decided to finance instead. While initially a box office failure, it gained a greater following in subsequent years (as many of Hill's films have).


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill was meant to follow it up with a big screen adaptation of "Dick Tracy", replacing John Landis. Hill worked on "Dick Tracy" for several drafts of the script and screenwriter Jack Epps Jr. says he "played a big role in reducing and focusing the screenplay". Hill intended to make the film directly after "Streets of Fire" but eventually left the project after a dispute over budget with Universal and with star Warren Beatty; the project would be made several years later with Beatty directing.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill's success directing Eddie Murphy in "48 Hrs." saw him receive an offer to work with Richard Pryor in a new version of "Brewster's Millions" (1985). This was Hill's first—and, as of 2016, only—full-fledged comedy. He says he purposefully made the film "to improve his bank account and success quotient", and admitted it was "an aberration in the career line". He added that "whatever [the film's] deficiencies, I think the wistful quality was there. I was happy about that. The picture did well and made money."


title: Walter Hill

text: After making "Brewster's Millions" Hill said he had another comedy in development at Universal. He also wanted to do a new version of "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) which he had written with Lukas Heller, "quite a bit different from the original—it's more Hawksian in flavour." The plot had a female doctor hire seven mercenaries to defend an intellectually disabled boy from a lynching.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill followed "Brewster's Millions" with "Crossroads" (1986), a music-themed drama from an original script by John Fusco inspired by the life and music of Robert Johnson. The score was done by Ry Cooder, who had been Hill's most regular composer since "The Long Riders". The film performed poorly at the box office, despite the presence of Ralph Macchio in the lead.


title: Walter Hill

text: He also co-wrote (with Lukas Heller) and executive produced "Blue City" (1986) from a 1947 novel by Ross Macdonald. Hill developed this project intended to star a leading man in his mid-30s but by the mid-1980s a number of popular young male actors had emerged, so the script was rewritten to accommodate one of them (Judd Nelson). Hill handed over directing duties to Michelle Manning, who made her debut as director. The film was a critical and commercial disaster.


title: Walter Hill

text: However, that year also saw the release of "Aliens" (1986), a sequel to "Alien". Hill says he and Giler decided "the next one should be a straight action thriller -the military takes over- a patrol movie." They hired James Cameron to make the film and worked on his original treatment "a bit". Hill had a story and executive producer credit on the film which was a massive hit.


title: Walter Hill

text: In 1987, he returned to hard-edged action with "Extreme Prejudice", a contemporary Western for Carolco Pictures about the War on Drugs based on a story by John Milius and Fred Rexer, which had been originally written in the mid-1970s. It reunited Hill with Nick Nolte. The film was a financial failure. Hill said he "tipped my hat to Sam [Peckinpah] a couple of times" in the film and "I don't think it was understood how much genre parodying was involved in that picture. It rather mystified a lot of American critics but it has its defenders."


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill returned to the buddy-cop genre with "Red Heat" (1988), a sort of Glasnost-era reworking of "48 Hrs." with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a stoic Soviet cop who travels to Chicago to catch a Russian drug-dealer (Ed O'Ross). Schwarzenegger is partnered with a wisecracking American cop (Jim Belushi), who is as laid-back and mouthy as his Soviet counterpart is taciturn and humorless. Hill directed and rewrote Troy Kennedy Martin's script. The film, whilst profitable, was considered to be a box office disappointment compared to other Schwarzenegger films of the era.


title: Walter Hill

text: Around this time, Hill was mentioned as wanting to make an adaptation of Jim Thompson's "Pop. 1280" but it was never made. A project that was filmed was the horror anthology television series "Tales from the Crypt" (1989–96), on which Hill worked as an executive producer, as well as directing a number of episodes.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill ended the 1980s with "Johnny Handsome" (1989) starring Mickey Rourke. It was based on a 1972 novel by Morton Freedgood, about a criminal who has plastic surgery and seeks revenge on his colleagues who betrayed him. The project had been developed for a number of years—Hill says he turned down the job four times before deciding to do it when Harold Becker dropped out as director. The film was a flop at the box office.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill had a number of projects in the late 1980s that were never made. These included "American Iron" (1989/1990), a film set in the world of bikers written by Hill, Mark Brunet, Daniel Pyne, and John Mankiewicz. He also did a draft (with David Giler) of an adaptation of the Jim Harrison novella, "Revenge"—this was not used when turned into a film in 1990.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill began the 1990s with the only sequel he has directed to date, "Another 48 Hrs.", with Murphy this time top-billed over Nolte. The sequel to his biggest commercial success was thought by many critics to be merely a retread of the original, but became the highest-grossing film that Hill has directed. The film grossed more at the US box office than its predecessor and made $72.7 million from foreign markets for a total of $153.5 million.


title: Walter Hill

text: In 1991 he came close to directing a big screen version of the television series "The Fugitive" (1963-1967) with Alec Baldwin, but Baldwin was not considered a big enough star. The film "The Fugitive" (1993) was released two years later, starring Harrison Ford and without Hill's involvement. The director's credit went instead to Andrew Davis. Hill was also considered to replace John McTiernan as the director of "Patriot Games" (1992), another film in which Baldwin was recast with Ford.


title: Walter Hill

text: In 1992, Hill directed a film originally called "Looters" about two firemen who cross paths with criminals while searching for stolen loot in an abandoned East St. Louis, Illinois tenement building. However, the 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out shortly before the film's release and the studio delayed its opening, eventually changing the title to "Trespass".


title: Walter Hill

text: "Trespass" was co-written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, years before co-writing "Back to the Future".


title: Walter Hill

text: Following this, he and David Giler wrote a remake of "The Killer" and plans were announced to make it with Richard Gere and Denzel Washington. However the film did not proceed. He and Giler also wrote the final script for "Alien 3", as well as co-producing it.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill planned to direct Alec Baldwin in a new version of "The Getaway" based on Hill's original script. Then there was a dispute over the budget and Hill left the project in order to make "". The film received mixed reviews from critics and fared poorly at the box office. This also happened to "The Getaway" (1994), which ended up being directed by Roger Donaldson from Hill's script.


title: Walter Hill

text: In 1994, Hill and his wife, agent Hildy Gottlieb, signed a two-year non-exclusive deal with Paramount. They developed a film, "Sudden Country", an action adventure in the vein of "Treasure Island" set in late-19th century Texas to star Elijah Wood, based on a novel by Loren Estleman. The film was not made. Instead Hill wrote and directed a second biopic, "Wild Bill" (1995). This too had little critical or commercial success. Hill reflected on his career in 1995:I think every director thinks that he hasn't been allowed to make the films he wanted to make. I certainly haven't been able to make as many Westerns as I've wanted. (But) sometimes staying alive in a career sense is very important, and you think, 'Maybe I'll do this, which will do well and allow me to do that.' It's very easy to miscalculate. It's a dangerous game. But I think in the end, none of us have anybody to blame except ourselves. It can be very hard. The kinds of things that directors most want to do are usually not things the studio perceives to be commercially viable. It really is that simple. Is that true of me? Sure. Absolutely. But it's no more true of me than 50 other people I know.


title: Walter Hill

text: I admire a lot of what's going on out there, but the oversize kind of cartoon action movies is not something I'm terribly comfortable with. I think what I do is much more in the tradition that the bullets are real and they'll knock you down. I used to really get criticized for my lack of realism, but now I think my films are perceived to be vastly more realistic than most of the action movies that are happening out there... I think one of the things about being a director is, you should always try to re-create within yourself the kind of emotions you had watching film when you were very young. The kind of action movies that I always liked, the kind of comic books I always liked, were the serious ones. The characters were very realistic within the framework of the drama, and that kind of action movie interests me a lot more than the super-heroes. And so in that sense, maybe I'm slightly out of step, I suppose, but so be it.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill continued as one of the three original producers on "Alien Resurrection", although he has stated in several interviews since, that he has had nothing to do with the franchise since "Alien 3".


title: Walter Hill

text: His 1996 effort "Last Man Standing" with Bruce Willis, a Prohibition-era Western update of "Yojimbo" (and thus reminiscent of that film's inspiration, Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest", and its western incarnation, "A Fistful of Dollars") saw him return to his earlier style to some extent: a gruff antihero and a heavy focus on stylized action.


title: Walter Hill

text: Hill and the team who made "Tales from the Crypt"—Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler—tried to repeat their success with another anthology, "Perversions of Science" (1997). Hill worked as producer and directed an episode. However it was not as popular.