Ask 'Hitchhiker's Guide' Exec. Producer Robbie Stamp

After nearly three years of waiting, the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is almost upon us. I've been impressed with the casting, and with the trailers I've seen of the film -- enough that I'm taking the rather unhappy early review posted the other day with a large grain of salt. Now's your chance to ask whatever you'd like of Robbie Stamp, the film's executive producer; we'll pass on to Robbie some of the best questions and publish his answers as soon as he gets them back to us. (As usual, please -- confine yourself to one question per post.)

Comments

Great Timing!

[Relic of the Future]

How about doing another interview after we've seen the movie?

Re:Great Timing!

[GoodbyeBlueSky1]

Why? Everybody here is clearly already an expert on the movie which they have never seen and yet are so sure it will suck.

The movie could turn out brilliant and the trolls here will still complain about the towel reference from page 140 that, unforgivably, is not in the movie.

I disagree..

[zippthorne]

Assuming that it's not there (I haven't seen the film that's not out yet), the additional dialogue about the leopard did enhance the humor (though in a typical wordy brittish way), but is unnecessary for the overall gag: namely that the notice was on "public display" in a very unpublic place. The leopard bit just dresses it up a bit by pointing out how rediculously un-public the public display was.

The cheapest resource in a book is its words: you can have as many of them as you want really, no matter how long it takes to read.

By contrast, the most valuable resource in a film is, arguably, the time. If you want to fit the film into one sitting, you need take advantage of films strengths: it is a visual medium.. drop some dialogue and tell the rest of the joke with the visual portion. Which no doubt will be stunning if the trailer is typical of the film.

Re:I disagree..

[Golias]

but is unnecessary for the overall gag: namely that the notice was on "public display" in a very unpublic place.

No, the joke is 100% that it's a comedy of excess.

There's nothing funny about a "public display" document being inconvenient to get at. That's what most of us call "everyday life."

However, a "public display" document in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in the back of a disused lavatory with a sign on the door which says "beware of the leopard" is fucking hilarious.

Taking it out would be like re-editing the last reel of The Blues Brothers so they would only be chased for five miles by two or three cop cars. The scene would be shorter, cheaper, still contain everything "needed" to tell the story, but it would not funny.

Re:HHGG

[biglig2]

Yes, but there was one thing consistant across the radio, book, and TV. They were full of DNA's jokes. Our fear of the new movie is that it is full of broken DNA jokes.