H2G2 Film Website

tplayford writes "On the third anniversary of Douglas Adams death, the makers of the 'Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' film have released their website, with a photo of the whole crew and a blog. I'm trying not to panic, but I just can't wait for the film to come out."

Comments

Weird..

[Anonymous Coward]

The new movie starts with "Click here to download the Flash Plug-In". I've seen that a lot, is that a new film studio?

Skip flash

[jfengel]

To skip the rather unnecessary Flash intro, go here

Re:Skip flash

[noelmarkham]

mostly.

Re:Skip flash

[warrax_666]

NO! You must always Duck and Cover(TM) when you see the flash!

Re:Skip flash

[hords]

Mostly Harmless

Re:Skip flash

[linicks]

You might be interested in checking out the FlashBlock extension for Mozilla's Firefox browser. Instead of playing the Flash file, it puts a flash logo there. If you want to view the Flash file, click on the logo. Now you've got the best of both worlds, and it looks much nicer than "Missing plugin..." :-)

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#flashblo ck

Lets see if we can /.

[Throtex]

Deep Thought.

Re:Lets see if we can /.

[JosKarith]

That's for amateurs.
/. The Earth!

Re:Lets see if we can /.

[caldroun]

Do people on this message board reproduce? *shutter*

Uhm?

[Xilo]

I watched the Guide several years ago, and was really kinda disappointed. It's cool that it's finally .. being remade? What exactly is going on?

Re:Uhm?

[grahams]

What you saw a few years ago was a BBC TV miniseries. It had a budget of approximately 3 dollars (US).

The new film is a hollywood production.

Re:Uhm?

[Throtex]

You gotta give credit where credit is due! That lifelike prosthetic head and third arm Zaphod wore around certainly constituted all three of those dollars by themselves!

Re:Uhm?

[drdink]

Isn't the miniseries more based off the radio version? The radio was the original, then came the book.

Re:Uhm?

[Mark Hood]

Apparently a great deal of money DID go into the arm and head of Zaphod, and they were supposed to do a great number of things that they never really could quite get to work properly.

Actually, they did work, very well.

Unfortunately owing to the budget constraints, there wasn't time to recharge the batteries between rehearsal and takes, so Zaphod's second head spent a lot of time asleep :)

I heartily recommend the DVD of the mini-series, whcih includes a short clip of the head on 'Tomorrow's World' explaining how clever it is...

Mark

Visiting executives from LA

[lordmoose]

That's never a good sign.

Probability.

[bludstone]

While this story has adapted well to radio, book, and even a campy TV mini-series, what is the probability of hollywood trashing this?

Id say higher then turning a nuclear missle into a confused sperm whale.

I hope that this doesnt wind up sucking. But, unfortunatly, I think it will.

Oh well.

Re:Probability.

[Anonymous Coward]

5,233,001 to 1 against... and falling!

Re:Probability.

[AceCaseOR]

From what I've gathered so far about the film, the only thing any Hollywood schmucks have to do with the actual filmmaking (aside from any special effects), would be with distributing it and promoting it in the USA. I've got faith that the film won't suck.

However if it does suck, we may see the nerd riots after all, except they'll be in 2005-6 instead of 2004.

Re:Probability.

[pubjames]

what is the probability of hollywood trashing this?

Quite high, I expect.

I mean, when hollywood can fuck up making a movie of Starsky and Hutch for flipsake, what chance have they got with this?

I do hope they get the point of Arthur Dent in the story and don't try to make him funny. Like Brian in the Life of Brian, the comedy revolves around him and his situation. If they try to make Arthur into a comic character it won't work so well.

Having said that, I think they have chosen the right actor for Arthur.

Call me Marvin, but...

[Doches]

...After what I've heard about Disney having the script re-written after Adams' death, I'm not exactly looking forward to this _travesty_ with his name on it.

Re:Call me Marvin, but...

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> One bad sign, this is the design for Marvin. Ick.

No, no, NOOOOOO!! They got it all *wrong*! Marvin's tall, dammit! I've been listening to the album-length BBC production of Hitch-Hiker's for over *twenty* years now, I *know* what Marvin sounds like, and *HE SOUNDS TALL!*

Oh man, this is just going to mess with my head...

Comfy

[CptSparrow]

I wonder what the three guys in the front of the photo do that allow them to wear blue fuzzy slippers?!

Re:Not very good...

[noelmarkham]

But it says...

Please don't push this button

Re:Not very good...

[grub]

Are you pushing your monitor hard enough with your index finger? Maybe try tapping it with a hammer. The button gets stuck sometimes.

Reload the page

[Tribbles]

The opening page acts in different ways when you press the button - although I had to restart the browser for it to change (refresh didn't seem to cut it).

Whatever... Vaporflick alert!!

[LqqkOut]

Hate to break it to you all, but there isn't anyone in that staff pic with 2 heads. There's no way they can make this flick w/out the coolest guy in the universe!

Re:Just a question...

[urmensch]

HHGG - Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Stock up on untainted books now

[spuke4000]

Better buy a bunch of copies now, before all you can buy are the one's with the picture of the cast on the cover saying "Now a major motion picture."

Re:Stock up on untainted books now

[jea6]

People who buy a book only after it has become a major motion picture are tag-alongers not true-believers. Tag-alongers deserve noting but our ultimate scorn. True-believers have been there since the beginning and are worthy of our undying affection and respect. It is only the power of the true-believer that has allowed this book to become a major motion picture. Everybody else is a free-loader who can bring no insight or value to this proposition.

Other examples of this phenomenon are:

• LOTR (obviously)
• Harry Potter (When did you read Sorcerer's Stone)
• My Slashdot ID is lower than yours (Sub-groups here are 3-digit, 4-5 digit, low 6 digit IDs)
• People who had to watch Soprano's Season 1 after Season 2.
• People who first watched the Matrix on DVD.
• Anyone born after Carter left office.

Apparently, the comic book scene (which I know nothing about), is chock-full of this ninniness too. The list could go on. My lunch break, alas, can not.

Re:Stock up on untainted books now

[Tryfen]

When did you read Sorcerer's Stone

When it was Philosopher's Stone.

Unleash Mr Prosser

[zenmojodaddy]

Radio series, in which Adams was involved: great.

Books, in which Adams was involved: variable, from okay to great.

TV series, in which Adams was involved: pretty cool, all things considered.

Film, with no input from Adams but lots from clueless Hollywood types: worse than Vogon poetry, I betcha. Prepare to gnaw your own legs off.

Re: But it says...

[DaHat]

Nay, it is the fact that you seem to have never been exposed to American cartoons as a youth.

By law, according to the Uniform Cartoon Code (UCC), Chapter 4398274, section 12.432432 as publish by the ACME Corporation. "All persons, animals or other self aware beings (terrestrial or otherwise) who encounter a large red button are required to press it under penalty of anvil" it goes on to say "Should the before mentioned red button carry a notice asking all who see it not to press it, the required pusher of said button is here by required to press it as often and as many times as possible until it's final result is known."

Note: the actual notice of the button in this case is from the Hitchhikers Guide no less, something to the effect of:

Dent: "I wonder what would happen if I pressed this button."
Prefect: "I wouldn't..."
*beep*
Dent: "That's odd... a sign lit up telling me not to press this button again."

Humma Kavula

[vossman77]

At the IMDB site it shows that John Malkovich is playing Humma Kavula. My labmate had no idea who this was so a quick google search gave us this site and we learn:

Joining the cast set to start shooting the movie of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in London next month is the acclaimed actor John Malkovich. In a slight twist to the original concept, engineered by Douglas Adams in creating the initial draft script for the movie, Malkovich will play a crazed missionary, living amongst the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle Six, called Humma Kavula. The script for the film went through at least two other writers hands after Douglas's death in 2001, so only time will tell how much of his original concept will survive the trip to the silver screen.

This character doesn't appear in the books. I was wondering if anyone knows how Humma Kavula works into the story.

Re:Humma Kavula

[Cally]

It should be interesting....

Many races believe [the universe] was created by some sort of god, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI firmly believed that the entire universe was infact sneezed out of the nose of a being called teh "great Green Arkleseizure". The Jatravartids, small blue creatures with more than fifty arms each who were therefore unique in having invented the aerosol deoderant before the wheel, lived in perpetual fear of a time called "the coming of the Great White Hankerchief". However, the Great Green Arkleseizure theory is not widely accepted outside Viltvodle VI...

From the intro to the first book IIRC, and from memory so probably wrong in places.

Shit, how sad is it that I can recite this stuff verbatim? ah well that's what comes of falling asleep listening to the radio shows every night for 20 years. OK I exaggerate a little for comic effect but one grilf did give me plenty of grief over it. (The others just left...;)

Something it didn't say

[dacarr]

The button first said "please do not push this button"; upon pushing it, I expected the word "again" to be appended. Instead, I got "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED".

Ah, well.

Re:Something it didn't say

[Strange Ranger]

I think ^that says the most about the upcoming movie. It will be an Adams-esque movie, wrapped in a Somebody Else's Humor Field so that only those who are looking for the differences can tell.

But the difference really do matter. "again" really tickles the funny bone. "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" is only mildly amusing.

Just like the web site, the movie is sure to be almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Adams.

Three destructions

[dinaui]

The flash intro apparently randomly chooses one of three ways to destroy the Earth:

1. A standard explosion, with chunks of planet flying by
2. A burst of light which vaporizes the planet
3. Getting hit by the cue-ball in a game of galactic billiards

Using IE 6, refreshing did work to see differing intros, but the randomizer does often go on runs of the same intro.

"adult" version of Harry Potter?

[FunWithHeadlines]

"I wouldn't be seen dead reading anything other than the adult version of the Harry Potter books."

Is that the one where Harry and Hermione invite Ron to join them for... No, nope, that's just wrong, must get image out of my head.

here i am

[zarniwhoop]

with a brain the size of a planet and all you want me to do is moderate? Oh, alright I'll moderate but don't ask me to enjoy it becasue I won't.

Hang on - I'm supposed to be designing the fjords...

Wasted

[ackthpt]

The new movie starts with "Click here to download the Flash Plug-In". I've seen that a lot, is that a new film studio?

Yet another wasted effort on a website. Flash is so aggrevating I simply do without and don't visit sites which require it. Poor choice not to offer a non-Flash website.

INTERVIEW

[nigel_thomas]

Here's a very insightful interview with the script writers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A2257599

Re:Wouldn't it be...

[DLWormwood]

HG2G instead of H2G2

The acronym is emphasized as...

the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy

...not...

the Hitchhiker's Guide 2 the Galaxy

There is already a BBC website called H2G2 that competes with Wikipedia and Everything2 as an online, community-edited reference work.