Hitchhiker's Guide Film Reports

wakaranai writes "The BBC reports that the new "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" movie will star Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) as Arthur Dent. According to the Internet Movie Database filming starts early 2004, and Marvin's voice will be Stephen Moore, reviving his role from the classic 1981 BBC TV version." If you haven't seen The Office, it takes the subject matter Dilbert has bored us with, and makes it utterly hysterical. This is a good bit of casting. I'm still available to play Zaphod.

Comments

Re:Word twisting

[Threni]

> A film version of Hitchhiker's may be interesting, but I think it's safe to say > that a film simply cannot pick up on the wordplay of Douglas Adams.

Given that the original was a radio show, which contained one or two words....

The Office

[grandmofftarkin]

For those of you who have never seen 'The Office' it is a BBC comedy filmed in a semi documentary format (though it is all fictional). On the BBC website linked above there is a clips section to give you a taste of what it is like. Though to really 'get it' you have to watch a couple of episodes. You can buy the complete first series online from PlayUSA.

Re:Word twisting

[ikoleverhate]

The "voice of the guide" narration in the bbc TV series worked pretty well - when the audience was confused as to what was happening in the main story, a calm voice would start to explain... and leave you even more confused but in fits of laughter.

"after disproving the existance of god, man goes on to prove 1=2, black=white, and gets run over on the next zebra crossing"

It's a joke!

[shadowj]

Trilogy relates to 3. Sorry, just being technical.

I think the word you're looking for is "pedantic", not "technical".

You obviously haven't read the books. The fourth and fifth books both have a blurb on the cover that says something like "fourth in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy". It's a joke, very much in keeping with the late author's sense of humor.

It's the guy in the "high noon" graphic

[c4miles]

If you're getting the same image at the top of the article as I am, the guy in front of all the christmassy ladies is Bill Nighy, the actor lined up for Slartibartfast.

On a related note, Slartibartfast was originally a working name for the character, which Adams chose just because he didn't like the typist the BBC had assigned for him whilst he was writing the scripts.

This has everything to be great

[rcastro0]

I hope they have a good budget and don't spoil it. BTW, I don't know that actor, and haven't seen "The Office", but his puzzled face in the picture someone posted looks perfect. If this works perhaps more people will get to know where the names "DeepThought", "Trillian" and "BabelFish" first appeared.

Anyway, Douglas Adams fans should know that his computer works are now abandonware, and available for free download:

Last Chance to See -- The CD ROM, multimedia version of his book about endangered species

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- the text adventure game adaptation (by Infocom)

Bureaucracy -- the original text adventure game (by Infocom)

Cheers.

Re:Word twisting

[HTH NE1]

Just a few days ago I found a DVD of the 1981 film version in a video store.

That would be the TV series.

There is also at least one comic book series.

And the radio play is the original, though there came a point where multiple versions were being made simultaneously, then more radio episodes to finish out the book adaptions, and only now a movie.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has almost as many adaptions as has "The War of the Worlds". I wonder if they'll come out with an arcade game version next (Cinematronics did TWotW as an arcade game). Or pinball?

Re:6 * 9 = "42" (base 13)

[HTH NE1]

Except the real Ultimate Question wasn't in that form at all. Marvin knew it. Eddie knew it. And both said it in the third book:

"I gave a speech once," he said suddenly, and apparently unconnectedly. "You may not instantly see why I bring the subject up, but that is because my mind works so phenomenally fast, and I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number."

"Er, five," said the mattress.

"Wrong," said Marvin. "You see?"

And again here, more blatently:

"That's a pity," said Arthur. "I'd like to hear what he [Prak] had to say. Presumably he would know what the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer is. It's always bothered me that we never found out."

"Think of a number," said [Eddie] the computer, "any number."

Now that's bloody Informative!