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Hitchhikers Movie Update
DaViking writes "Over at Yahoo Movies there are a few more pictures, including one of the Heart of Gold, and an updated trailer for up coming Hitchhikers movie." I'm hoping this film will inspire some sequels, too!
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how bout burt reynolds in smokey and the restaurant at the end of the universe?
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
They're going to make Heart of Gold into a spaceball.
Just too bad that Mr. Adams died too early! He had a lot of satiric writing left to do! Or as a friend of mine that I lent a book of Adams to stated; "I wonder what he smoked..."
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I like that!!
Sorry, but that rendering of the Heart of Gold looks wrong. It's supposed to be shaped like a running shoe. Hmm, perhaps it is supposed to be a running shoe shaped for the foot of a superintelligent shade of the color blue.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
RUNNING SHOE SHIP...It's supposed to look like a running shoe...it looks like....not a shoe.
Am I the only one who gets an image of Charlie Brown when looking at art of Marving looking down at a barren landscape? Weird :)
Whatever happened to a "space age running shoe sleekness"?
:D
However, on a positive note, that spacecraft does look like it's from a Douglas Adams novel
-- n
It seems that spheres are going to be a very common shape in this movie, With Planets, The Hart of Gold that looks like a big sphere, and Marvins head which is a huge sphere on a little body. I don't know about everyone else all those sphears seem more of a nineties thing. The 2000 seem to prefer more edges in the style.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"Marvin the depressed robot"? WTF? He's Marvin the Paranoid Android. I know he is a robot who is depressed, but sheesh he is, was, and always will be the paranoid android.
If they can't even get that right... let's hope its just the phone sanitizers at Yahoo who made the mistake and not the movie's writer(s).
Sailing over the event horizon
Burt Reynolds in " So Long and Thanks for the Deliverance "
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Because we all know that if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.
Besides, sequels are usually just as good if not better than the original.
Sorry. I'll shut up now.
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Now seems as good a time as any - my opinion is that this film shouldn't be made. HHGTTG is a radio series and a book, it was never designed to be a film. It can ruin things when you try to make a book into a movie, especially when said book just isn't ameneable for the conversion. I'm sure this film is going to be a HUGE disappointment, but then, perhaps I'm just being pessimistic.
there's very little to be said for artistic license. I, for one, am just happy that this is making its way into the visual realm, and relish the thought of getting to see what the disney artists concepts of adams' work end up looking like. perhaps holding one's tongue and putting judgement by the wayside until it's been released would be a pragmatic thing to do?
;)
nevermind...that's not a shoe!
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
We're calling for a sequel because H2G2 is the first in a series of five books. It's natural for fans of the books to want the whole series to be made.
...that's a space station!
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
> I remember it being described as "sleek."
Quite -- there is no way Zaphod Beeblebrox would be seen dead in *that*. Let alone bother to steal it...
And as for "Marvin: the depressed robot", he doesn't look capable of sounding depressed. Hey, maybe they'll give him a voice like a bored 12 year-old, that'd be *really* clever...
*sigh*
I think it's cause for concern when the release is 7 months away and all they have so far is CONCEPT ART!!!
Or is it possible to produce a film of this proportion in that span of time???
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
For those who don't want to scroll through countless popups: wget http://mp3content01.bcst.yahoo.com/bus01root6/Bus0 1Share24/yahoomovies/6/8768235.mov
Mos Def is going to play ford prefect!! awesome. haha
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I love HHGTTG and probably will go see it just for that, but it looks like Disney is tring to make it into a kids movie. Just look at Marvin. (Mod me down if you want) but it saddens me that Disney is making this movie. I fear that they might try to "clean" up the movie.
... that this movie is better than the first one they made. Im very interested to see how they create an infinite amount of monkeys and then the missile that turns into a sperm whale!
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
This is Disney, of course they didn't ready the book.
They're the borg, assimilating any piece of culture and turning it into their warped homogenous mcdonalds vision and then suing anyone else who tries to use that piece of of culture they've stolen.
Ray Milland and Rosie Greer
I'd be terrified what Disney is going to mangle the story into if I planned to watch it. Me, I have the DVD set from the BBC.
If you were able to stand the cheap-ass BBC tv series, I don't think you'll have anything to complain about from Disney.
Oh, and don't tell me it was good despite/because of the low budget. It wasn't. It was crap; the effects were crap, and replaced any interesting visual images the radio series or novel might have conjured up with some shitty and low-budget (even for the time) special effects.
Trillian was fucking annoying in the TV series too. What a pile of crap.
I'll admit.... the 'book' graphics were great for the time, but they don't come close to excusing the rest of it.
...have some really big balls.
Insensitive clod got my hopes up with that "updated" hoopla. I've never been more angry to see a big book of hitchhikers floating against a starscape.
The Heart of Gold is NOT a SPHERE!
READ THE GOD-DAMN BOOKS!
--
Toby
(Lameness filter failure - proportion of caps is high for a REASON!)
The trailer is updated? Looks exactly like the last one. What a waste of five minutes trolling through links with no new information. Search /. before posting new stuff, and mods need to not approve redundant stuff. Yawn.
I'm sick of these elitist "guardians" of their prized, beloved geekdom.
Guess what? Douglas Adams was working on this movie for YEARS, so clearly the creator and author thought it was "ameneable for conversion." People thought it wouldn't work as a novel since it was a radio series first. Well, it did work as a novel. Now we're seeing the fulfillment of Adams' desire to make a film version.
It'll work as a movie too. If you don't like that, DON'T WATCH THE FILM. You've still got the book and radio series. It won't be a disappointment. I have a feeling it's going to be a hilarious film.
Where is the updated trailer? I've had this trailer for at least a month or two.
From the official website: "If you don't want Flash you can go directly to the blog."
And where does this link take you to? A page with a single full-screen Flash.
Ah well...
Oh, you uh...
OK then.
So there should be plenty of material for 5 or 6 more movies
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
I hope you die, too!
Marvin looks like a small little stormtrooper drone. Yuck! And the Heart of Gold ... like a flying airport. All drawings and photos so far look way to clean and 2001 like.
...
...
And I miss a bit more englishness so far
Very different to the first pictures and stuff Peter Jackson released about Lord of the Rings (which had just the right 'feeling'about them).
I am afraid Hitchhikers will be a flop
Well, I tried to view the trailer, but Yahoo! wont let me. They saw I have to upgrade my Firefox browser to MSIE or Netscape and install Windows Media. Anyone have an alternate link?
Did anyone else notice the constellation near the end of the trailer? How can they give away the answer without asking the question?
Mr.
but nothing is ever consistant in the hitchhikers universe.
True, but most everything there is funny. This doesn't look remotely funny, it looks more like what would come out of a star wars sequel with absolute priority on special effects and double that in lack of imganitation.
I think Dent Arthur Dent was played really well and the jokes well timed. I still prefer the books (and to my shame, have never heard the radio version).
Of course, Hollywood appears to know about as much about what a blog is as what the Heart of Gold is really supposed to look like. Just because you take your standard production news site run by some faceless intern with no community feedback features and CALL it a blog, doesn't make it a blog...
I wonder how much I'll be scolded for saying this, but I love the concept art for Deep Thought, just seems to make sense.
I can't spell ripburger
What is new in that trailer? Seems like the same one that was floating around before, but I'm too lazy to look up the old one. And as far as the shape of the Heart of Gold, blame it on a glitch in the Infinite Improbability Drive. That always works.
...in Marvin leading the concept shots? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Am I the only one who's watched the first HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy "movie"?
Here's a link to it, I remember renting it a long while ago.
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, The
of Life the Universe and Everything is 42. Any one else spot it written in stars in the top left corner in the last few seconds of the clip? Go watch it again, its there.
Wasn't the Heart of Gold supposed to be shaped like a giant sneaker?
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Am I the only one who has a problem with this being called a new trailer? There was actually a /. story when this teaser trailer came out about 6 months ago.
In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
If Disney can't even get the Heart of Gold to look like a sneaker, how can we expect them to get the mockery of intergalactic corporations right? If only Douglas Adams is dead only for tax purposes after selling his artistic license to the Mickey Mouse club, we might one day see an H2G2 movie worth all this expensive simulation. Otherwise, the Ursa Minor publishing houses might as well pack it in - we'll be better off reading the longer, but more accurate, Encyclopedia Galactica.
--
make install -not war
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Ok, repeat after me. It is a mass media oriented movie adaptation of a non visual original that appealed only to a niche market.
Changes will have to be made in order to make it marketable and profitable. Kids will want to see it, and they will not understand the humour, so they will need cutesy characters. Many non intelectual types will expect more explosions and COOL effects than required so they will be there. The ships will be of a more recognizable shape so that the average moviegoer doen't say "A sneaker! This is lame". And so on...
If I don't get another Battlefield Earth I will be more than happy with the movie. And only if it makes a profit we will get a sequel.
Cheers, Adolfo
I was hoping they would make one movie per novel, sort of like lord of the rings. There is so much material in the books that there shouldn't be a problem to make several movies, one per novel.
Harald
Marvin looks like a robot 5 year old who needs a hug. What the crap? I always pictured marvin as a tall lanky 29 year old robot dreading turning 30. I mean, jeez, what does a huggable robot have to be depressed about? It's the stand-out tall freak robots that have reason to cry. The interiors for the Heart of Gold look good, but I'm not entirely sure about them.. Too ballroomish for my tastes.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
It doesn't look like what I remember from the series either.
and don't get me started about marvin the cutesy wutesy sad charlie brown robot.
liqbase
It's true that the still image doesn't look like what people would expect, there's a video clip of him walking here and it fits Marvin's decription well.
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The site opens up to an image of the Earth with a big red button under it.
/., pushing the button made the Earth explode.
Last time the movie was mentioned on
Now, pushing the button makes a large bulldozer roll in from the right and pushes the Earth off the screen.
Some bunch of morons must have been disturbed by the animation of the Earth exploding and complained.
i am so worried with douglas adams dead that they are going to screw it up but then again i had the same fears with LOTR. PLEASE BUDDHA DON'T LET THEM F*CK IT UP!
At least Martin Freeman seems to be exited.
Martin Freeman's blog of the movie can be found here. It also includes the stupid game of babelfish!
Cheers
Adolfo
The BBC TV series concept of the Heart of Gold didn't look that bad, IMHO.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I'm containing my hope for sequels until I see that the first one doesn't suck. I fear that the sequels are much more likely.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
Checkout Planet Magrathea for a decent repository of HHGTTG news - its run by MJ Simpson, arguably the best source of Douglas Adams info around (including, obviously, info about the upcoming film). Apparently there is a whole lot more material coming out on Tuesday.
And to think I owned that domain 4 years ago...
... and then I remember it's on my sig :)
"So, once you know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means."
Dear lord, I hope they aren't doing it like that to tie it in with the round guy on the book covers.
Or something.
Arrgh.
And I'm not crazy about Marvin. It's his personality, but they wouldn't have *built* him to look like a very depressed Charlie Brown who's had the football snatched away again.
Not even Sirius Cybernetics would do that.
I'm running Firefox on Gentoo. When I tried to watch the trailer, I got to this URL, which tells me that I need to 'upgrade' to IE or Netscape.
First round running shoes, now upgrading Firefox to IE. It's a world gone topsy-turvy!
As long as Alyx is on the spoke, who cares?
For those who hadn't noticed yet: try reloading the http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com site a few times. (Hm... Would that be considered a Serial-Slashdotting?) There are a number of different fashions in which the earth gets obliterated -- Not sure how many there are total, but I've seen at least 7 different ones.
Was excited about this until I saw Disney is making this movie. Great, another CG movie that would be great for adults, being "dumbed" down for the kiddies.
Blizzard will you PLEASE just make a Warcraft movie and prove that CG movies will make money in the PG-17 realm (adult themed). I don't know why I am the only that is tired of CG movies (Toy Story, Sharks Tale, Incredibles and "insert CG kiddie movie here")!
Seriouly, am I alone on this?
gotta a light for my Sig?
...there are so many inconsistencies in the Hitchhiker's universe.
Well, things tend to get screwy when you mess with probability.
I'm going to become a theologist and a scientist so I can spend long hours into the night arguing with myself.
I worked in marketing at the studio for a very short time before I was...err...it didn't work out. Anyway, from what I know of the studio, if anyone on earth can totally fuck up decent source material its disney. That's what they do. (see bicentennial man). It could be great, against all odds. But please, do not get your hopes up. Its better to be pleasantly suprised that disappointed.
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
But this is a Disney Movie with hollywood actors. Very expensive to make, so it has to be very mainstream to produce Nemo type profits.
Nevertheless, you make a very good point
While I'm surprised that it doesn't look like a shoe, I think it's too early to make assumptions it is going to be crap.
But the discussion brings me back to something I've been thinking about for a while.
Why does Hollywood pay what is no doubt a huge ammount of money for rights to a book, and then make somethign completely different.
Take I, Robot, for example. I can't imagine the rights were cheap. But they made a film that takes from that work the name of one character and pretty much nothing else; in fact they made a film that is practically an anti-asimov film. Why?
I mean, surely you can divide the world into two classes of people. Asimov fans won't go to see it just because of the name because 5 seconds of the trailer is enough for you to realise it has no relationship to Asimovs ideas and work. And people who aren't azimov fans are people who want to see Will Smith kicking robot butt around, and so they'll go whatever you call the love interest. So why? It doesn't seem to make any sense to me.
And don't get me started on making a John Constantine movie and casting Neo in it. (Although I guess WB do get the license on the cheap in that instance)
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
If I hear the line "Ford, I am your father" in the movie, I swear...
That ship looks like something Lucas would cook up.
--
Alright, I can take a bowling ball instead of a sneaker. I could even take the Olsen twins as Zaphod (just tie them together and dress them in drag), but when you start changing Marvin's entire demeanor, I wonder why you are bothering to make the movie at all.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is why does it have to be dumbed downed for a mass audience? Why can't it be improved upon, or just someone else's take on the whole mythology?
I'm sure Disney wouldn't appreciate others taking liberties with their properties ("Naw, what we need is an edgy, hip-hop version of 'Night on Bald Mountain' to appeal to a larger market share)...
Why do you have to intentionally pursue crap?
I heard there was a play or musical of h2g2 anyone know where I could find the script? And yeh I agree my first thought was that is the heart of gold? I watched the mini seriese or what ever it was and have the epps dled onto my comp and that is the heart of gold that I like and imagine. anyone elese catch the recent radio show? since i dont live in England was the recent radio show like the other ones? the nice thing is this is ment to make no sense at all and be funny and hopefully disney wont change that in this movie
Agreed.
I fear that they might try to "clean" up the movie.
So you're worrying the ads might pitch Marvin as "your plastic pal who's fun to play with?"
Yeah, they'll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Has everyone forgotten the first 2 HHGTTG movies that have already been released
I was told in this movie slartibartfast shoots first!!
btw, I live in "Belgium!" so watch your language.
...and who will author it? Who's publishing it?
Having admired the videos of Hammer & Tongs and see that they were suggested to direct by Spike Jones when Jay "Austin Powers" Roach couldn't commit, I am not too worried. Even if this is under the Disney banner, I don't think it is doomed. Just like Pixar films, don't suck (yet).
[boostventilator]
Before any US /.-ers mod me down for that remark on patriotic grounds (I'm not a Brit, but Aussie, btw), consider this:
The original Arthur Dent was very, very, very English - meaning that, no matter what happened, he approached it with the traditional (and much stereotyped) British "stiff upper lip".
Case in point: refer to the tale he told Fenchurch in "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" about the biscuits in the railway station.
Adams' delightfully dry humour will only translate well if Arthur maintains the original Dent nature.
And let's face it, the dialogue is the best part about HHGTTG, in all it's forms - radio program, book, TV series, LP series, stage show and (hopefully) this movie! I doesn't need to be about great special effects as long as it's funny :)
Adams himself said the TV series was his least favourite adaption, but he was happy enough at the time to keep a heap of the main actors (Jones, Jones, Wing-Davey and Moore) and my guess it was he wanted the TV show (and presumably the movie) to have the same feel.
I know that's not possible right now, but I'm sure he intended it to keep its original look and feel.
I'm really looking forward to seeing if this movie version measures up to the dream :)
I devised my sig. going around Hyde Park corner on a moped
I was expecting the Heart of Gold to be a little less... rotund.
"Screw slashdot." -- Linus Torvalds
Offtopic, but "Am I Evil" is by Diamond Head, not Metallica (Metallica's cover of it first on "Kill 'Em All). -IS
How about: ..from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
Is that the same publishing in which the scrabble set read "What do you get when you multiply 6 by 7"? Yes, I see how that is a reliable source.
Then again, my English version also has a picture of the heart of gold as a running shoe. More specifically, it has 4 fourths of a picture of the Heart of Gold as a running shoe. You need all four books to see the bigger picture.
Shachar
I had some hopes about this movie, but the more I hear about it, the more I worry. I hope they know what they are doing, this is like LOTR! I've always thought the Heart of Gold should look very sleek and sexy. Why? Because of the irony. Because of Zaphod. Zaphod loved making an impression, he only cares about style. The "boat" skimming the surface of the water with some fins? Silly and useless, but oh, so stylish. The sofa inside of a glass sphere? Impractical, but very stylish. Thus, the Heart of Gold should look sexy, because it is the one thing that *doesn't* need to be. Do you see why? It doesn't zip around like any other ship, it stays completely still. That is why it MUST look awesomely sexy. The one in the picture looks like a goddamn deathstar. Marvin looks a bit too cute. He's "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with", and that doesn't look too fun to be with. I like the casting of this movie, except (and I hate and fear to say this part) I don't like Ford Prefect being played by Mos Def.
xyzzy - operation overload.
No.. I believe they wrote that song for me. ;)
(You're the first person who ever commented me about this song)
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
A Spaceball? Oh shit, there goes the movie.
________________________
p.s FTWDGI, the above is a loosely adapted quote from this movie
p.p.s For Those Who Don't Get It (FTWDGI)
I swear, the lead designer for the movie must have a serious star wars death star fetish- look at marvin's head,look at the shape of the Hear of Gold.
Neither looks like anything like what the book said,but boy,do they sure look like the death star...
--- Nothing but Blood and Kosmos
Yeah, I know I'm about to get moderated as redundant.
... personally I think it helps them act like morons. But, hey... look at how fantastic and historically accurate Pocahontas was, or how true to the French tragic spirit Little Mermaid came to be, or Beauty and the Beast?
It's actually a fine Disney tradition NOT to read the book the movie's about. It's supposed to help the artists be more creative. Supposed to help them think "Disney"
True Guide fans will be disappointed by the Disney product... but kids everywhere will love it. Just like they loved "Treasure Planet" which was so very accurate to the classic and the book, right?
[signature]
It looks like a teacup... remember that the infinite improbability drive was 'built' with the aid of a nice hot cup of tea.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Did you mean you're looking for a boyfriend or a girlfriend?
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
Ever since I saw the movie Marvin, I have been bracing myself for the "Disneyness" of this adaptation.
I mean, how is Disney going to be able to make anything remotely as cynical and un-Disney as HHG? Disney is the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, for all intents and purposes. I hope that I'm wrong, but I refuse to get my hopes up. This movie could have been great if it was made by Terry Gilliam.
Our first hint of how wrong this is going to be is that the guys at Disney read that Marvin has a brain the SIZE of a planet, and they went and made him with a head SHAPED like a planet. A big-headed, cuddly, suicidal robot. He's just going to be the next R2D2 or Ewok. That's Disney molding HHG into a bland pre-teen product so the maximum number of dumb Americans will buy it on home video and let their brats sit and watch it a few hundred times.
I hate Disney.
foobar
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]