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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.
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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. Adams is simply a master of twisting words that can make the reader laugh out loud.
Unless the director chooses to use lots of narration, which could ruin a film.
What about the other 4 books in the trilogy???
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
He'll probably be quite pleased. Marvin, on the all.
Cheers,
Ian
I hope they'll spend some serious CGI money on Zaphod- I was always somewhat disappointed that on the TV series, the 2nd head mostly looked asleep or simply turned from side-to-side. I've always thought there are sections of dialogue in the books that make much less sense or are less funny if you can't imagine each head speaking its own mind.
...but don't expect laugh-a-minute jokes. It's incorrectly called a comedy, when it is really a satire. If you understand the type of humor in "Six Feet Under", you'll understand the type of humor in "The Office". The first season is available on Netflix.
...will be pissed when they find out that the Ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything, is never revealed. ....but hey...screw 'em.
I remember after the end of FOTR I overheard people saying "What happened to the ring?". Were these people living in a cave before going to the theater??
This is going to be great.
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Sean Connery for Slartibartfast!
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I think it's safe to say that a film simply cannot pick up on the wordplay of Douglas Adams. Adams is simply a master of twisting words that can make the reader laugh out loud.
I wouldn't say that's safe to say at all. The BBC radioplay version of "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" precedes the novels - and is (at least in my worthless anonymous opinion) easily on par with the novels as far as humor goes.
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.
The Office puts a more realistic spin on Dilbert. It really is one of the more original and best shows out there. They're still showing episodes on BBC America or you can pick up the first season on DVD. David Brent is truly a classic character.
here's a pic of him.3 8281639_office300.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38281000/jpg/_
looks like he could pull it off. never seen that movie though.
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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.
--Larry
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To see how well this does here in the States. ;)
It might gain a crossover audience for special effects (they do go to many weird places, after all), but I don't think it'll get good critical reviews. The Hitchiker's Guide doesn't have a three-act movie structure, it bounces around from episode to episode. It's really more suited to be a TV series.
It's also peculiarly British. Think about it: Arthur Dent's home is destroyed (twice) by bureaucrats. (Here it would have to be corporations.) They spend time looking for a cup of tea. The end of the universe comes, *and it's no big deal*: people go to a restaurant to watch it happen. (As they say, in England, death is imminent, in Canada, death is inevitable, and in California, death is optional.) The frat-boy Zaphod is a figure of fun and the hero is the mild-mannered Arthur Dent.
I'm also disappointed that they're probably going to make Trillian into a bimbo again; she was supposed to be an astrophysicist. Nobody seems to like nerd women, except for Slashdot, Harvey Pekar, and Howard Dean
And I wonder how well the nerd community is going to rally around it: THHGTTG has been out for a while, and some younger nerds have never heard of it. Hey, I never knew about the Goon Show until I read they were part of the inspiration for Python (I'm 24).
Oh well, I hope it's good...
Maybe the Deep Thought supercomputer will be played by Virginia Tech's Power Mac G5 cluster! I'm sure Apple would state that if any computer can tell us the meaning of life, it's the G5. How's 'bout it, guys?
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I hope they don't, to be honest. Specifically, I would like to consign the fifth book to the dustbin of history. The humour seemed to have gone, and the overall impression was one of bitterness rather than anything else. Fenchurch dismissed with a not especially good joke too, although to be fair that also happened to Trillian in the original radio series (The joke was funnier there though. Actually, damn near anything Peter Jones said could have been funny).
Cheers,
Ian
Vogon ??? :)
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
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.
It's an absolutely ridiculous comparison to draw. Dilbert takes a sledgehammer approach to a load of heartbreakingly unfunny material about the minutiae of office life, and in my book it's usually rubbish. The Office has absolutely nothing in common with it other than that it's set in a boring office. It's about people, not procedures, and as a result it's touching as well as hilarious, and like so many other great comic characters (Fawlty, Rigsby, just about everybody in Porridge), David Brent is essentially a tragic figure.
This may help.
The beauty of The Office is in the fact that the people are barely acting at all. The humour is in the fact that these characters are only very slight exaggerations of the reality of office life. We all know somebody who's a bit like David Brent, or Gareth, or Finchy, or Keith. Especially Keith. Every office has a Keith. The humour's in a glance, or a facial expression, or a moment of dead silence, rather than some familiar character running onto the set and uttering their catchphrase for the three thousandth time like you get in most sitcoms.
I'd like to see some of the Monty Python crew in this. I think John Cleese is a shoe-in for the role of the starship captain always in a bath tub that crashes into pre-historic Earth in RATEOTU.
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Blade Runner-style, g.
Instead of a narrator, you just have the Guide chip in with an internal monologue every once and awhile. That's what Fight Club did to keep all their clever wordplay in. Admittedly, they had it easier since FC's first-person to start with, but most of the good stuff in H2G2 is cleverly-worded exposition, so it's no problem to just have the Guide say most of it.
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.
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It's the part Bruce Campbell was born to play!!!
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WHY!? For the love of god. I've never heard of Garth Jennings. Its not like this guy's even worked his way up to director. IMDB does not have him listed as crew or writer for any major motion pictures. I hate to be negative but I'm truly anticipating disappointment from this film.
Anyway, I hope the movie is good.
Zaphod should go to Bruce Campbell, and Jeff Goldblum would be great for Ford. And if Disaster Area makes it into the movies, they should do whatever it takes to get the Rolling Stones to play them.
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Probably because he is one of those MTV generation who get their directing knowledge from music videos.
He works for Hammer and Tongs, who produce very innovating videos espically "Coffee and TV" for Blur and "Demons" for Fatboy Slim. The company as a whole does Badly Drawn Boy's videos, all of which are the right style and humour for a HHGTTG film.
The company Hammer and Tongs
All the film's creators should keep Oscar Wilde's words in mind: In an absurd play, no character can acknowledge the absurdity, or it all breaks down. Thus, the new screenplay should omit lines like the "these guys are ridiculous!" parts in the Shooty and Bang-Bang scene (where the heroes are trapped behind a computer bank on Magrathea).
As for the bit parts, there are dozens of chances for cameos. For example, Bill Murray and Steve Martin should play Magikthies and Vroomfondel.
Back in the day when the radio series was first broadcast the most exciting aspect of the experience was the groundbreaking music and sound from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
(I have it all on hissing cassette tape recorded off air, complete with fake links at the end of the show announcing availability of the guide from the Megadodo Corporation of Sirius Minor... )
As a story with the premise that nothing is what it seems and that the unexpected should be expected the sound was correspondingly imaginative for the time.
For example the noises used to show that the Hitch Hikers Guide book was being accessed have become part of our world - predating windows startup sound by a decade. Marvin the Paranoid Androids voice is a classic along with the squeaky mouse voices and the mournfull bleeps in the background when all seems lost.
I expect a good sound track for the movie. In fact I now expect that pressing the lift buttons makes a windows startup sound before the talking Sirius Cybernetics corporation lift suggests the basement of the Hitch Hikers office as a good destination before the Frogstar fighter blasts them all into oblivion.
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Read the books again and look beyond the humor. It's probably only the humor which will appear on the screen, which could be a bit of a let down. Include some of that cynicism from the books and it could be better than just another light british comedy.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Bloody hell, I remember when that series was first shown on the Beeb, we were gobsmacked at the quality of the computer graphics!
Of course it turned out that the computer graphics weren't computer generated at all 'cos the kit to do them didn't exist then (or if it did was way out of the Beeb's pricerange).
Ah, those were the days.
That is so inconsiderate! You've gone and ruined the whole of creation for me.
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And again here, more blatently: Now that's bloody Informative!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I think he would make a much better Arthur....
This young lady would be ideal for trillian...
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I think how funny it is strongly depends on your point of view; personally, I can't stand it. The actor will probably make a good Arthur, though.
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...is a Christopher Guest phony documentary -- "Waiting for Guffman", "Mighty Wind", etc. They work on the Excruciating Awkwardness principle of comedy: Put your characters into situations so embarrassing, pathetic, and all-around squirmy your audience wants to scream. Then any joke gets a big relief laugh. Fortunately the jokes in the Office are pretty good, but what's really strong is it's minute observation of characters and cubicle life.
The Office is hilarious but you'll need some time to get through it on DVD -- it's hard to watch more than one episode at a single sitting.
I'm excited -- Martin Freeman's beleagured Tim bodes well for a great Arthur Dent.
My comment meant in the main any of the people whose directing range is limited to 180 seconds of eye candy.
Short films have always been a good starting point for young filmmakers, and music videos are easily the most popular kind of short film. Besides, there are several ways of thinking about music vids; either, as you say, meaningless eye candy, or as a chance to squeeze some brilliantly original film-making into a meagre three minutes while managing often-pitiful budgets, release schedules and pop star divas. (To me, much of H&T's work falls in the latter category)
I trust Garth Jennings, but that's mainly because <EGO ALERT>I was privileged to meet him (and Nick Goldsmith, his partner in H&T shortly after he got the HHG job and chat to him about it. He's a big fan from way back and he's not going to mindlessly Hollywoodise it. (If it helps reassure you, he's English) Sure, some of the casting decisions are going to raise eyebrows but you cannot please all of the fans at once, especially if you want to keep the studio (who are the ones writing the cheques, remember) happy as well.</EGO>
A whole load of work has gone into this film project for many years now, much of it by Douglas himself (who turned out several new scripts just before he died), much of it by people who love his work, Garth and Nick among them. They're not just going to throw it all away.
Some studio exec had the balls hand the Lord of the Rings to Peter Jackson on the strength of what exactly?
A 30-second fantasy sequence in Heavenly Creatures?
The flop that was The Frighteners? Bad Taste and Meet The Feebles?
And it turned out great. I'd be more angry to see a Cultural Treasure such as Hitchhiker's in the hands of some big-name Hollywood chump. Maybe the newbie will turn the trick.
The radio show *WAS* the Hitch Hiker's Guide. The books, TV series, LPs on Megadodo Records, superlarge towels, stage play, computer game and so forth were mere spin-offs.
And there's no trouble incorporating the expositions, after all, it was always announced as "The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, By Douglas Adams, starring Peter Jones as The Book" (cue 'Journey Of The Sorcerer' by The Eagles).
Never 'starring Simon Jones as Arthur Dent' or 'starring Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect' or 'starring Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox'.
Or, to quote Adams: "This is the story of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy, perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor".
Exposition's not an issue.
Of course, in the radio series, it's entirely possible that the entire scrabble scene with the cavemen takes place in the artificial electronic universe in the Hitchhiker's offices.
Consider: Arthur and Ford are trapped on prehistoric Earth. Zaphod finds himself at the Hitchhiker's offices, which proceed to get bombed by Frogstar Fighters, and Zaphod gets hauled off to the Frogstar to be plugged into the Total Perspective Vortex, supposedly lethal to all sentient life. He survives, but it is later revealed that he only did so by being inside the artificial universe at the Hitchhiker's offices, which isn't dismantled until much later in the series.
Before the artificial universe is deactivated, Zaphod picks up Ford and Arthur from prehistoric Earth. They are quite definitely inside the artificial universe when it is deactivated, too. So, either Zaphod jumped out of the fake universe to get Ford and Arthur, and then back in to find Zarniwoop, or the whole business with the Gulgafrinchams happened in the artificial universe, in which case it could have been one of the minor differences between the fake and real universes.
Now that's offtopic!
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Yeah, but "think of a number" isn't a question - so that obviously isn't the right one.
We're talking Douglas Adams here, not Alex Trebek. It would be perfect for him to have the Ultimate Question not even be in the form of a question.
And it explains the answer: the answer itself is meaningless, a number pulled out to provide the initial seed value for the Universe.
It also matches what he did in "Mostly Harmless" wrt Stavromula Beta: at the end of chapter 4, there's mention that Alpha was Stavro's original club in New York, now run by his brother Karl, and there being little love lost between Stavro and Karl Mueller, and if you were quick enough to figure it out on the first read, you thus knew then about Stavro Mueller's Beta.
You notice more on the rereadings of the 5-book trilogy than on the first.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?