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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?
Probably not what you expect..
Multiple Hitchiker toys at (McDonalds|Burger King) so people have to make several visits to buy them all.
Perhaps a Hitchiker Ride at Disney World if the movie proves very successful.
A DVD release followed soon after by a "collectors edition" release.
A re-release of the books all spiffied up for the new consumers.
A movie where quality will be second to the marketting of junk collectibles.
/. needs a "+1, Cynical Bastard" mod.
bah..
Trolling is a art,
But it's Disney, so what do you expect?
Umm... a happy ending?
You probably shouldn't click this.
After his death, Karey Kirkpatrick came aboard for a rewrite.
Written in hell. No doubt...
Would he have one head with makeup, and the other without? - Cake or Death, Little Red Cookbook!
Zooey Deschanel (Big Trouble, Elf)
;)
Wow, I didn't know that the elves started to do movies for Hollywood
The IT section color scheme sucks.
For those who don't know ...
HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
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."
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
What was it that drew everyone to Hitchhiker's? Or did some people gain interest just from all of the different forms?
Disney did The Pirates of the Caribbean". If they do HHG with the same degree of style (and don't screw with it too much) it might be quite good.
I admit that I'm not a fanatic like some, but I have never heard that particular string used as a short way to refer to the Hitchiker's Guide series. I've seen HHGttG once or twice, but usually I just see the whole thing written out.
It took me a moment to figure out the meaning of the headline. I had to actually read some of the additional commentary. If I had to actually read some of the commentary before posting on all articles, how could I shoot off an ill-informed comment that so blatantly exposes my ignorance?
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
....what company will be supplying the towel???
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
When I read the story, Arthur was black and Ford was chinese. How dare they change the characters all around!
(And what's with them removing the Dutch accent that all the Orcs had in LotR? Everyone knows that's how they talked!)
It always seems like they spend less time poking fun at things like how major motion picture studios do product placement and regurgitate the same old shit and spend more time doing product placement and regurgitating the same old shit.
But I don't know. Maybe I'm just being cynical. After all, it's Disney! The people who brought us Brother Bear and, uh...yeah, Brother Bear!
I prefer:
1 sp ace1t1h1e1space1G1a1l1a1x1y1
H1i1t1c1h1h1i1k1e1r1s1space1G1u1i1d1e1space1t1o
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
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
Don't Panic.
E.
I think my head shall explode. Have loved the books for longer than I can remember. I even adapted part of one book for a play in college - went over well. Have also been boycotting Disney for longer than I can remember. Refuse to give them any money since long before their whole DRM, MPAA etc behavior. Head going to explode! Have I been sent to hell, with this as my punishment?
That's gonna be a tough one to pull off..
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.
really, really ought to be Tim Curry.
"Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
The last thing Hollywood needs is another crappy adaptation of cool Sci-Fi media by Will Smith. Wild, Wild, Wild West and MIB were enough.
Dolemite
_________________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
Throughout the history of H2G2, Douglas Adams adapted and re-adapted his works to multiple media. Starting with a radio show, moving to books and TV, even a computer game -- with every adaptation, he fearlessly changed it around as he saw fit, to embrace the strengths of the medium. The computer game is not the same material as the book, which is totally different from the radio series, etc. etc.
In other words, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series is all about change. If the movie is 100% faithful to the books, I'll be very disappointed. I want them to switch it around a little bit, give us some of the stuff we love, but also some new stuff too.
I want to see the wonderful spirit of H2G2 and the sense of humor of Douglas Adams accurately reflected in these movies. If that's done, I don't care if Ford is black, if Arthur Dent is Latino, if Trillian is played by Queen Latifah or if Fenchurch is played by Harvey Fierstein.
So after the Lord of the Rings, comes another well-regarded piece of literature in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hollywood did well by LOTR, let's hope "they" learned their lesson and will let a piece of classic writing stand on it's own and not try to stuff the story into a 2-hour formula.
My great fear of this is that the wit, sarcasm and anti-religious rage will be written out and instead, we'll get...Spy Kids in Space. The anti-religious part will be the first to go, otherwise Pat Robertson will be ranting and railing on Fox News about a horrible, blasephemous film coming from that esteemed home of children's entertainment, Disney. But it's a part of 'The Guide' and should stay in. Otherwise, it becomes...something else.
On the other hand, I suppose Disney should be given a little benefit of the doubt, after all, Pirates of the Caribbean was a highly entertaining film.
It will interesting to see what happens with this. I was hoping secretly Peter Jackson would handle the director's chair, given the respect he gave LOTR as literature. To me, Hitchhiker's Guide is a classic and should not be "messed with."
Yes, he's tremendous
100% Insightful
Whoa. The book doesn't say what colour he is, but he's from another goddamn galaxy. Be glad the actor isn't teal or something, or with a second head sewn onto his shoulder like the LAST H2G2...
I for one am PUMPED to see what the mighty Mos Def can do for this film. He's an incredibly talented rhymer with a very distinct vocal style. His flow will match well with Davis' dialog. I'm already imagining him dropping great lines like "Muscle relaxant. You'll need it for hyperspace, it's unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's wrong with being drunk" "Ask a glass of water."
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Additionally, the first three books are the best (Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Resturant at the end of the Universe; and Life, the Universe, and Everything -- I may have mixed up the order of the last two). So Long and Thanks For All the Fish and Mostly Harmless are ok, but get worse and worse. The trilogy probably would have been best if it had remained thus.
The draw, at least to me, is the sci fi humor and use of language that Adams used, "Huge yellow spaceships that hung in the air exactly the way bricks don't," and "'Hyperspace travel is rather unpleasantly like being drunk,' said Ford. 'What's wrong with being drunk?' asked Arthur. 'Ask a glass of water,' responded Ford."
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Mickey says, "I didn't say she was odd, I said she was FUCKING GOOFY."
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
- Read the first three books a few times over.
- Play the infocom game
- Read the first three books again
- Buy "The more than complete hitchhiker's guide", read it
- Read the radio scripts
- Read the whole series over again (repeat yearly)
- Read So Long and thanks for all the fish
- Yup, the whole series again
- Download from napster the radio show and listen to it
- Read Mostly Harmless
- Watch some chapters of the TV show
- Series
- Salmon of doubt
Somewhere in there you should read The meaning of liff, the expanded meaning of liff, and of course the Dirk Gently books.we're not going to boycott disney anytime soon, eh?
What?
...why not, it worked in blazing saddles...
Sorry, but they don't have the mentality to capture the subtle hilarity of the Hitchikers guide. It's like a industrial drill operator trying to do a brain microsurgery...
I'd like to be surprised though.
"Argue with idiots, and you become an idiot." -- Paul Graham
H2G2 is just a different way of saying HHGG, which in turn is an abbreviation of HHGttG. The 2s are used to state the amounts of the different letters, not in place of 'to'.
You know you're lazy when an acronym is too much effort to type.
...that Tux will make an appearance as Ford Prefect turns into a penguin (the first movie) since he didn't even make the slashdot poll for favorite mascot!
Seppuku: Your solution to my problems!
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.
"No word on who's playing Zaphod (but wouldn't Eddie Izzard be great?"
I nominate Darl McBride, he's already two-faced!
"Derp de derp."
Well, by-passes are out.. the American 13-18 male demographic don't know what they are.
You can't have drinking to excess (even if it is with peanuts to help offset matter transfer and hyperspace) in a teenager film, so that's out.. It'll have to be Coca-Cola/Pepsi and Doritos instead.
The mid-western 13-18 male demographic wont understand probability, so the infinite improbability drive is out. It must be the particle of the month, just like Star Trek.
Satire isn't funny enough. Eddie the ship board computer will have to be smutty and/or throw custard pies. Marvin will be the cheery, slapstic C3PO look-alike.
I'll just go and drink a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster (tm) (c)Zaphod Beeblebrox, (available at a seedy space ranger's bar near you) and drown my sorrows. (Oh, and that'll be canned as well!)
Agrajag: "Oh no, not again!"
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
Everyone seems to be saying read the book first. I disagree - get the radio series (a very nice CD box set came out last year). This is the start of the whole thing - the books were written afterwards. The radio series is where all the original ideas were born. Sometimes they didn't quite work, and the book sorted out some of that and a few inconsistencies... but that's part of the radio series' charm. In addition the sound effects are wonderful (even ground-breaking, for their time), and only enhance the imaginative experience. In other words, the radio series is the "one true source", and everything else is basically a rehash (not that it means they're bad, just best read/seen in the oredr in which they were published).
Let's face it, the way Douglas Adams wrote that character, I pictured a white english guy.
I didn't. I pictured Arthur as a white English guy, and Ford as a really irritating Southern California hipster, race unimportant. Like some obnoxious American tourist who barges into an English pub thinking he's the shit and talking too loud. (I'm an American, by the way.) I think body language and style are far more important here than race.
I thought everyone knew that Fords could be any colour you like, as long as they're black...
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Yes, everyone says that your own imagination is better than anything you'll see at the movies.
Bah.
Look at the credits for LotR. We're talking about 100s of professional dreamers, all channeling their combined skills into one magnificent creative act.
They beat me. Their world was more brilliantly imagined, more consistently detailed than my lone brain could come up with reading those books as a kid.
I think this is lazy-speak for another phenomemon. When you read a book, you are triggering fundamentally different feelings than you get watching a movie. There is a pleasure in reading that you don't get from film (and, I think, the converse is true).
But, yes, I admit it. the combined talents of all the creative folk on LotR bested my imagination.
Kudos to them. And good luck to the H2G2 crew, they have a big job ahead of them.
What were you expecting?
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.
Surely the mice won't all look like Mickey will they? So long and thanks for all the Nemo?
What is the inverse of the Matrix?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Now, please refrain from slashdotting it until I've gone home for the day. I'm trying to listen to Fit the Third.
Read the first three books first, in order (*Hitchiker's Guide*, *Restaurant at the End of the Universe*, and *Life the Universe, and Everything*). Then listen to the radio shows (it is vitally important that you listen to the radio shows and read the books BEFORE you watch the BBC television series). I'd suggest the books first because they are the highest quality, even if the radio series is the fons et origo. Note that there are important differences in the organization of the books and the radio series: but you'll be able to see how DNA reworked the material for the books, and will hear the actors rather than seeing them.
After that, watch the BBC series. The BBC cast used mostly the folks from the radio cast. Thing is, they're radio actors, and they act like radio actors - their movement, blocking, etc. are all a little stiff, even if their voices are superb. Also, the budget was very tight, and the production quality (special effects, sets, wardrobe, and especially the prosthetic head) leaves much to be desired.
Next, read two stories that appear in *The Salmon of Doubt*. The first is "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe* - the version in *Salmon of Doubt* is uncensored in the US, while the on in the *Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide* and the other omnibus editions are censored in the US so that the ending leaves you a little confused (the last line is dropped). The second (though probably the oldest story of all, though I never checked on it) is "The Private Life of Ghenghis Khan".
After you've read those, it's time to read *So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish*. Enjoy. This one is a little more surreal than anything else, but it's still pretty damned funny (the biscuit story, which is absolutely realistic, is funny as hell).
Now, wait until some time when you're in such a good mood that nothing, not enough universal apocalypse, will make you sad. Get your favorite blanky out of the attic, and call up your significant other and ask him/her/shim/sher to remain on standby for a call. You are now prepared to read the last book, *Mostly Harmless*. The whole book is very, very dark, even though it is still quite funny. A lot of people hated it because the ending is rather depressing, and there's some retroactive continuity that's stretched a bit thin, but if you're over 30 you'll get it right away (if not, I've got terrible news for you: this is what life is like).
Then go out and get yourself a nice glass of orange juice and a breakfast sandwich. It will cheer you up.
No, because it's HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or HHGG, which "reduces" to H2G2.
See The BBC Website for a reference.
Insanity is a gradual process; don't rush it.
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.
Here's hoping the creative/adaptive tam here has the same spirit of humorous overload!
Looks like Karey Kirkpatrick might be a pretty good choice for this projct since Adams is, well, unavailable. IMDB shows that Kirkpatrick has writing credits on some good films:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Laws of Attraction (2004) (post-production)
The Little Vampire (2000)
Chicken Run (2000)
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Rescuers Down Under, The (1990)
Especially notable is James and the Giant Peach, a great film which did a great job of capturing the intent of Rohl Dahl, an author with a lot of similarities to Douglas Adams. As for Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, well everybody has to pay the bills.
Plus (you've got to love IMDB), his brother wrote the theme song to the TV series "America's Dumbest Criminals".
Imagine this was LotR. Imagine they'd announced Tim from the Office as Frodo, Mos Def - who IS a great rapper, I only got into him after listening to Scritti Politti's wonder 'Anomie and Bonhomie' alubm but that's a tangent for another time - as Gareth, and that the film was going to be made by Disney.
Ladies and Gentlemen... Disney presents: The Lord of the Rings!
Ah well, what better reason to break out a bottle of Ol' Janx Spirit could you ask for? I may sing a little, it's just been - well, you know how it is.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
Mos Def actually came from the theater community before he was a rapper.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Heavy sigh...
h2g2 (note the lower-casing) is the name of the online guide inspired by The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's considered "official" because it was created by The Digital Village Ltd., the new media company that had Douglas Adams amongst its directors, and he assisted in its creation. It is not the name of the book, the radio series, the game, or anything else. Just the online, fact-based guide.
If you want to reference the fictional story or Guide with an abbreviation, I'd recommend HHGTTG. Or HHGG. Or HHG.
-- Yoz, who was one of the four original developers of h2g2.com, and is also horrifically pedantic
I wish that Terry Gilliam would have been chosen as director.
This movie treatment deserves to be something special/spectacular.
also
DNA narrated all of his books for Dove audio, and added (again) something special.
It would be lovely if they would his voiceover for narration or for the guide itself.
As a victory lap for his Oscar-nominated performance in Pirates of the Carribean, I nominate Johnny Depp.
My father is a blogger.
The subject says casting is finalized.
Yet the Article says that Zaphod is still to be cast!!!!
Hmmmmmmm
The main issue I see with the film is that one of the main appeal of Adams' writing is just that, his writing. There's no way in a film to portray "the ships hung in the sky in exactly the same way bricks don't" (hopefully i got that close enough)
That said, i'm looking forward to seeing the movie provided the producers put their imaginations into it.