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H2G2 Cast Finalized, Starts Shooting in April
akahige writes "According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin Freeman (The Office, Love Actually), Mos Def (Showtime, The Italian Job), and Zooey Deschanel (Big Trouble, Elf) have signed on to play Arthur, Ford, and Trillian, respectively. Stephen Moore is once again doing the voice of Marvin. No word on who's playing Zaphod (but wouldn't Eddie Izzard be great?). It worries me when they say things like, "Adams adapted his own novel for the screen. After his death, Karey Kirkpatrick came aboard for a rewrite." But it's Disney, so what do you expect? Shooting begins in April."
But it's Disney, so what do you expect?
Adams on this subject in The Salmon of Doubt:
"The Hollywood process is like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it."
What was it that drew everyone to Hitchhiker's? Or did some people gain interest just from all of the different forms?
Once upon a time I read that Micahel Keaton was their choice for Zaphod. I think he'd be great. :) This was years and years ago though.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Nothing. Loved the books. Enjoyed the BBC video, enjoyed the BBC radio play. Will not have it ruined by Disney and their idea of a rewrite. I'm so opposed to seeing this that I wouldn't even download it from the web.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Does the casting for Ford Prefect seem odd to anyone else? At least when I read the books, I NEVER pictured Ford Prefect to look like this.
It makes me wonder though:
- Do movies that leave little room for imagination affect the watcher's ability to visualise? (movies can leave room for imagination)
- If so, should we actually worry about this, since it could simply be regarded as a form of evolution?
Come on, the company that made Lilo & Stitch can't be all that bad.
Yes, but the company that made Lilo & Stitch and then proceeded to fire everyone who'd worked on it just might be that bad.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
I think Tim Curry would make a better Ford Prefect. Imagine Time Curry's smile for a moment, then read this text from H2G2 that describes Ford:
"Perhaps it was that he smiled slightly too broadly and gave people the unnerving impression that he was about to go for their neck."
Well?!?
Throughout the history of H2G2, Douglas Adams adapted and re-adapted his works to multiple media.
And you can beat your ass that no matter what anyone else does, it'll be shot down in flames. Just look at all the things they had to change in LotR - if JRR Tolkien had been there and said "We need to do this to make it work on the screen" noone would have complained. But even the things that were absolutely necessary got flamed from here to the moon.
Besides, I'd love to see a good movie version of it as it is, I have the TV series. I just hope they can keep it just as British as the original, not hollywoodify it (as seems to happen to so many movies, whether they were made there or not). And at the same time give me some dazzling CG graphics, a proper 2nd head and third arm on Zaphod (real ones, just CGI attached).
I really hope they can do it. Like that scene where they approach Magrathea, and the book steps in to tell the audience that noone will get hurt in the impending rocket attack. It's as un-hollywoodish as can be. And I love them for it.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
For the uninitiated, go into any bookstore in America and look for the "Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide" - one volume, five+ books, $15. Cheap!
Schnapple
I was very disappointed in the books because I thought the radio series was sooo amazing. It just didn't seem to capture the atmosphere even though the words were the same ... like the wry voice of the book which said a lot by the way it was said. I read the books but it just wasn't the same, and the tv series was another couple of notches further down the scale.
Bitter and proud of it.
Just remember that this is actually being developed by Spy Glass Entertainment which is a subsidiary of Disney. Saying that the movie will suck because of Disney's involvement is like saying that ABC and ESPN are horrible because Disney is involved. Spyglass is the arm of disney responsible for The Insider, Seabiscut, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable among others. Now you may or may not like those movies, but I don't think they were especially Disneyfied. Saying that this is a Disney picture is like saying Kill Bill is a Disney picture simply because disney owns Miramax.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
I believe the hitchhikers radio plays and books from douglas adams are amongst the most creative and funniest work ever. It's interesting to note that jrr tolkien was adamant that Disney would never make a move over his body of work, especially after what they did to the work of the grimm brothers.
Not only is it realistic, it happens to be a true story -- it actually happened to Douglas Adams, who then just had to stick it into his next book.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
The towel story, he said, came from being on an extended vacation in Greece and never having a towel with him when his buddies wanted to go to the beach. The cooler folks always seemed to have theirs along.
I agree with you on the WoMD, though it's off topic. Also, I think that those whose vision more or less agreed with what was shown in the movie probably liked it better than those who were envisioning something completely different.
Things on the page sound less stupid than said
I know. Once I started actually 'listening' to Robert Jordan books (envisioning what the dialog would actually sound like, etc) I immediately stopped reading them. Actually I had other, bigger problems with them and it was just the last straw. I still read Gibson and consider him a great author, even though his dialog routinely sucks.
However, that is part of my point in a way. When you're reading the books, your own mind can put a sort of filter on the language. Even though a sentence is corny, by the time you're 200 pages into a book you're no longer reading actual individual sentences, you're just sort of seeing stuff happening in the minds eye. That makes it easier to ignore the occasional cheesyness. Then you get a single scene which may be quite ridiculous, but because the rest of the book is good it somehow turns out OK, after it's run past a few mental filters. With a movie you're always at the mercy of the director, the script writer, and the actors. Personally, I value the experience of reading a good book over the experience of watching a movie based on a good book every single time. But then again that's just me, and this is WAY OFF TOPIC.
By the way, who said I'm judging anybody? I've put out some pretty mediocre stuff, if you look at the sum total of everything I have ever done, but I don't consider myself worthless. I love Peter Jackson, and I watched all three Lord of the Rings flicks. All I was really saying was that the jumping scene was cornier - though I apologize for the non-PC language if it offends anybody - than anything in my minds eye when I was reading the book.
I had a dream that I was dreaming about recursion.