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Hitchhiker's Guide Film Reports

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the it's-coming-people dept.

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.

17 of 518 comments (clear)

  1. Word twisting by andyrut · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Word twisting by Threni · · Score: 5, Informative

      > 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....

    2. Re:Word twisting by ikoleverhate · · Score: 5, Informative

      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"

    3. Re:Word twisting by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You know, when I first read the book, when I was quite young, I came to the part about the zebra crossing and became very confused.

      As would most Americans, when we call them "crosswalks". "Zebra" is an essential part of the humor there. Also, the "I'm in the car park" joke just doesn't have the same punch with "parking lot".

      But then we got the bit about the word Belgium inserted in our edition of the books to offset the sanitizing of the Rory for The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Fuck" in a Serious Screenplay. (Also "arsehole" was replaced with "kneebiter".)

      Still, everyone got revisions about probability of rescues and the name of the writer of the worst poetry in the Universe due to problems of people calling phone numbers and the writer actually being a former classmate of Adams who wasn't amused (though in exchange for changing the name, we did get the actual poetry about dead swans).

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  2. Stephen Moore by mccalli · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Stephen Moore's TV version was already a revival. Stephen Moore is the original voice from the radio series, which predates the books, TV series...anything. To my mind remains the best incarnation, though I'll accept an argument in favour of the books.

    He'll probably be quite pleased. Marvin, on the all.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  3. Poor Synopsis by Afty0r · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If you haven't seen The Office, it takes the subject matter Dilbert has bored us with, and makes it utterly hysterical.
    That's an utterly terrible synopsis. Dilbert and The Office share only their setting (an office) and very little else. In contrast to Dilberts "engineers banging heads against the system" the office chooses to explore primarily the relationships and personalities of people in a small office and the lack of authority or system which allows an incompetent boss to reign supreme.
  4. The Office by grandmofftarkin · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. Anyone who liked Marvin the paranoid android.... by mgpeter · · Score: 5, Funny

    Check out Marvin the Web Server.

  6. Re:Hopes for Zaphod by fruey · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They don't have to spend serious CGI. He just has to play the part twice, and then stitch them together, rather like in "Death Becomes Her" where the body and head parts were filmed separately, and the results were far more realistic than a completely CGI head like TPM or AotC. The plot of the film wasn't great, but it won the 1993 Oscar, BAFTA and Saturn awards for special effects.

    The key part is how to get a decent neck on him so that the two heads work. You could get twins or a pair of similar looking actors to play each part separately, then CGI them into one. Kinda like by tying them together before shooting and stuff. Way too many cool ways to do it, but don't make him 100% CGI!

    --
    Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
  7. It's a joke! by shadowj · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.

    --

    --Larry

    Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence

  8. It would be interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

  9. It's the guy in the "high noon" graphic by c4miles · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  10. Re:Dilbert is funny, witty. by CaptainBaz · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Office is pretentious and boring. Is one of those things that only Brits get I guess.
    American huh?

    This may help.
  11. Re:So, Taco . . . by blowdart · · Score: 5, Funny

    No no, the second head is a dupe head, which appeared 3 days after the first head was posted.

  12. Re:I'd pick... by Baby_with_a_nailgun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sean Connery for Slartibartfast!

    Would that make him Shlartibartfasht?

  13. Noir it up, beeyatch. by fenix+down · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  14. Fitting, actually... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It would be fitting to noir it up a bit, as it really is a very cynical work. When I read H2G2 back in the early 80's I thought it was a stitch. The last time I read it, about 1995, I realized it was cynical and very biting, though appears humorous and whimsical on the surface. What DNA was saying about things though his characters and story line is unfortunately true enough about Britain if not other parts of the world, the USA prominently included. Sirius Cybernetics == Microsoft? That would have been some foresight, but that SC would be some company or companies was inspired by something.

    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