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Hitchhikers Guide Movie Might Become a Trilogy
Noiser writes "The BBC reports that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie could be turned into a trilogy. I wonder if they mean that it might turn into a trilogy in five parts, just like the book? I wish it did - unlike some people, I liked all of them..."
ok, I think we can start panicking now.
It wasn't exactly true to the book. But it was absolutely hilarious, I REALLY hope they make all five! (ha!)
You can tell I'm an aries because of my ram.
Come on, where's the Dirk Gently movie/TV series? I know, I know, it was a lot like Dr Who (in fact, I can't read DG without picturing Tom Baker in the role) but frankly it was brill and should be done at once.
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (despite having a great title) wasn't so good but the first one (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) was excellent.
I am a leaf on the wind
Yeah. Four more movies in which they could screw around with the plot, WITHOUT Douglas Adams.
Personally, I don't think they could do them justice, or make them interesting enough for the non-geek.
Sure, make 5 and still call it a trilogy, just like the books.
The following statement is true. The preceding statement is false.
I just got done watching the movie a few hours ago. Very good I thought. I would very much like to see this keep going, so long as prodution values do not fall. All will be shown in due time (hopefully soon).
Honesty may be the best policy, but by process of elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.
Of course, one of the redeeming properties of the movie is that Douglas Adams wrote the script himself, before he passed away.
Unless he personally wrote out the additional scripts, or at least laid out an extensive outline (plot/characters, etc), I don't think any more movies would be as successfull as the first, which couldn't really be considered a blockbuster per se.
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
"Mostly Harmelss". I thought it a little strange after sparing Earth and Arthur for four book he finaly decides to knock off the whole crew in one swell foop.
Slightly anti-climatic and all that.
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Well, it ended with the path open for another movie. To say it wasn't true to the book it true, but the book wasn't true to the radio script - which is how it was initialy written. The screenplay was at least co-authored by DA, so it is valid to say it is true to the Author's vision of how a radio series, adapted to a book, adapated to a movie, should be. Well worth the admission price in any event.
ok, I realise I've used a Hollywood-centric filler word in that subject, but Mr Adams was a wordsmith, not me.
The radio play, books, BBC series all used clever humour. Perhaps the scriptwriters can get a grip on that after one piss-poor attempt has seen light of day?
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
I would stop panicing.
I have freaks! I did something right...
I saw the movie a couple days ago and found it to be extremely annoying, starting from the dolphin song, and lasting throughout. There were some good parts but overall it was not that great, even having read the book (and everyone I know how saw it without having read the book hated it).
Why make a sequal? Unless you replace the cast with people who can act...
They should really concentrait on the humor and jokes instead of the action.
Kill the bandwidth!! Click here to help kill it.
I just can't see mostly harmless as making a very good movie. 'Restaurant At the End of the Universe', 'Life the Universe and Everything' and 'So Long and Thanks for All the Fish' could be very easily made into two movies... they have a kind of natural flow.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
While Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" wasn't exactly a classic, it was a tremendously disappointing adaptation of a densely layered and rather subtle work. That "LXG" crap was an abomination.
Oh, and "I, Robot". Couldn't they have made their silly action thriller with SF spray painted on the top without robbing Asimov's grave to do it?
And they're going to fuck up "Watchmen" next. Ugh. Stab stab stabbity...
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I don't see this as being a big money maker like the Lotr or Matrix series.
They can give it a try but I don't think it will happen.
You should check out Ursula K. LeGuin's website about the Earthsea movies. she hates them more than we do!
In 1978 (1977?) wrote the episode of Dr. Who called "The Pirate Planet" staring Tom Baker and that thing on his lip. It includes Polyphase Avitron. Guess what that is. You can see HHGTG bubbling beneath the characters.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
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Hell, I'll be seeing the movie again...
"The bass, the rock, the mic, the treble. I like my coffee black, just like my metal" - Mindless Self Indulgence
Why is it that people keep talking about the books as the authoritative original source which the films must be measured against? The books, while a good read, lack the immediacy and playfulness of the original radio show: by the time Adams came to write the books, he was, to a certain extent, the victim of his own success. The series became a franchise that was undeservedly bigger than its author (his Dirk Gently books were less pacey, but just as entertaining as the Hitch Hiker titles). For instance, Zaphod and Trillian, if my memory serves, were casually killed off in an episode of the radio show. He had full freedom. When translating the riotous, freewheeling romp through space that was the original radio show into book form, that episode was changed and the characters survived. I feel this change was made to preserve the Hitch Hiker franchise. The last three books in the five-part trilogy were, although quite amusing, increasingly tired attempts to massage some more life out of the original concept and characters, and did not have the same gusto as the radio show or the first two books (which were, I believe, that only ones that were adaptations of the shows).
[ UNSIGNED NOT NULL ]
But only if it is more sucessful than the mean movie at this time does it become ripe for the "sequel" phenomenon. And only if the hollywood types want to milk it for more money at the expense of their souls (duh, of course they do)!
Note that cast being available, dead, willing; the end of the previous movie being sequel-friendly etc has no bearing on whether a sequel will be made. Its entirely based on profit.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
And because a trilogy in 5 parts has already been done...but a trilogy in 4 parts?
I like LDTTOTS better than DGHDA. The standoff between dirk and his housekeeper over the refrigerator is great stuff.
I just got back from seeing the film for the second time. It wasn't as funny as opening night for some strange reason. I guess I knew most of the funny bits but a few still made me chuckle. I would definitely be interested in a few more flicks as long as they included Disaster Area and Milliways. I hope they put a lot more Guide in the next one, and I wouldn't mind if HHGG films were comprised of 35% of this. I forgot to bring my 3D glasses to check out the Magrathean warning visual, but oh well, maybe I will get another chance on the next ones. Excellent work I thought on the Vogons by the Henson crew, but why did the Vogon queue line not include that same quality? It was nice to see the original TV Marvin make a guest appearance waiting very bored in line though. Deep Thought looked great and I can't wait to see the first custom mod case! Weird coincidence by the way, when we walked out of the theatre, the first movie poster I saw in the hallway was for an animated feature entitled "Madagascar"...cool.
Those two are both MUCH more adaptable to film than any of the Hitchhiker books and were just as good. And personally, I enjoyed Long Dark more than HDA, but they were both some of the more entertaining reads I've had. - Jellisky
For those of you who hate what's been done to the books in the film, I'd suggest you dig up a copy of Frank Herbert's short story collection "Eye" and read his foreword. His situation and comments on the film version of "Dune" (By David Lynch no less), should be read by anyone who's seen a favored author's work get stuffed into cinematic form.
Most amusing difference between book and movie versions of dune:
Book: Maudib is the name of a mouse he saw get devoured by a hawk it never saw coming.
Movie: Maudib is some poetic nonsense about the shadows and the moonlight.
Will they make Arthur into a romantic lead again, instead of the hapless bumbler he was meant to be?
Oh, oh! You know how whenever Hollywood is making a romantic comedy, someone thinks, "hey! This movie needs explosions to draw in the boys!", and adds some shit blowing which makes no goddamn sense? No?
Well, then why the fuck did they insert a turgid romance into the middle of a darkly ironic SF comedy of non sequiturs? To wit:
Arthur Dent, as the romantic lead, is playing opposite Trillian. And when the small white mice are about to carve up his head (they left out the "DICED!" line, but that's a minor quibble), he cries out that no question has ever brought him happiness, and that for him there's only been one question ever, and it's "Is she the one?" and the answer is "Yes!---It's always been yes!".
And then he uses his superheroic strength to break through his bonds and smush the small white mice. Slartibartfast smiles. Earth Mark II having been recreated and all the people on it restored, Arthur and Trillian go off in the Heart of Gold, happily ever after.
And that is why I wish to piss in the Cheerios of whoever made the choice to smear that shit on the movie. That's all.
Oh, and when the characters are all waiting in line, keep an eye out for the Marvin from the original BBC television series. He makes a cameo. I thought that was cute.
And the Earth is made whole again and no one's really dead and... ugh. It wasn't true to the spirit of the books, and it didn't even manage to be true to the letter in a lot of places.
And those of us who liked the original work are left sort of gesturing and lamely telling disappointed fellow filmgoers that, really, it wasn't like that at all.
Pfah. Take your sequels and shove 'em.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
On how much money it ends up making. It'd take whatever an executive producer says with a grain of salt. Hitchhiker did claim #1 spot on opening weekend and grossed about 20 million, but it remains to be seen whether it has any legs, that is, if it will keep making money after the first couple of weeks. Now that all the fans have seen it, will it still rake it in?
Also, anyone have any idea how much the movie cost to make?
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I'm outraged! They don't support OGG vorbis or-
wait, what are we talking about? I'm not sure what we're being outraged about today.
mmm... scary but beautiful...
Art Schools Dietzilla
I am your father...
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Why does everyone keep saying "This was the same as the book", "This was different" etc. etc.
Surely you all know very well by now that Adams changed the story to suit the medium (and his own fancy). The radio play, books, TV Show and now movie are ALL DIFFERENT.
They share a LOT in common, but why people get all ansy(or is that antsy) about what's different in the films compared to the books is beyond me.
In the movie, the world is returned to how it was just before it blew up. That's fine for all of us (although it's better if the Campaign to Save the Humans saves us all in book 4), but what about Arthur and Ford on prehistoric Earth in Life, the Universe, and Everything? It won't work. And in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, he meets Fenchurch, which wouldn't make sense if he was already with Trillian.
I probably should have put "Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow." like they have in Wikipedia at the top of this post.
Before you walk a mile in someone's shoes, you should insult them so you know how they are and what they're doing.
When you say "I wish they did" about something that hasn't may or may not willen have happened, it's like fingernails on a chalk board. Please, learn to use the retro-temporal subjunctive correctly.
6. Audible Alarm (not shown)
-from a Cuisinart product owner's manual.
and you'll find out if there will be a sequel.
BUT, be happyt hat hollywood is paying attention lately to KEEPING its blockbuster moneymakers safe by doing a GOOD JOB!
Look at the new Batman, it has been painstakenly revamped to avoid the neon junk it turned in too... Hollywood realized they need to be careful with things dear to the audience.
They saw/see if with Star wars, and got slapped again with Star Trek, who will be taking some time off, hopefully to be reinvented with the same care as Batman is being.
And no, it's not so much that they care about us, but it will make them more money.... the laws of the box office are applying themselves to the screenwriting, and its good for you.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
It is made by Disney. Of course it will be a tradgedy!
You chopped up the plot lines so that you condensed way too much stuff into one flick and mostly screwed the order and NOW you're thinking about a trilogy... AFTER you also inserted tons of marketing ploys (Marvin and Zaphod have guns? Hogpod? What?). Well done, marketing.
Rotten Tomatoes has HHG going straight to Rotten soon- the Cream of the Crop has already dipped, and the overall rating keeps slowly dipping.
It's gonna get Uwe Boll'd from here.
****Movie Spoilers, read at your own risk****
The whole thing that drove the books on was the fact that Arthur was alone and lost in hostile universe, with more and more of his home Earth ceasing to be. At the end of this movie, Earth is restored and Arthur gets the girl. What's the point in continuing? To see Arthur fly around the galaxy sight-seeing, with a great girl by his side, knowing all along he can return to his home whenever he gets sick of it? That's not Hitchhikers.
They'd have to re-blow-up the Earth and set up another love triangle with Trillian or something.
dinner: it's what's for beer
Wow, that would be interesting. But does Terry actually like HHGTTG? I would imagine definitely YES, but it is hard to be sure about these things.
...fire everyone but the artists and Slartibartfast.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Perhaps instead it will be a trilogy in fourty-two parts, thus completing the circle.
Well, me and a bunch of friends took our towels to the movie in Hitchhiker fashion and were all pleased with it. So if your asking if I would like to proudly walk into the theater four more times with my towel (for the rest of the 'trilogy' I say hell yes. I pray that production values do not fall, though.
You have to understand that many of the jokes from the book wouldn't transfer over to Hollywood movie form very well so I'm glad that they found a way for it to feel Douglas-Adamssy while making it accessable to non fans. I can also accept that the 'plot' was altered to make it driven in some sort of way instead of having it meander like the book (something I think would have made non fans uncomfortable).
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
If they're going to do a trilogy, they should make, like, four movies at least...
I suggest you read Slashdot
After reading the review that said most of the humor was missing I was unsure of what to expect, but ended up really enjoying the movie. The movie is not the book, which is different than the radio and TV series. I went with a number of friends, many of whom are also fans of the books and the general consensus is that the movie was well done.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
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You might want to check out BBC Radio 4's webpages - the new series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Quandary Phase) starts Tuesday 3rd May. You can listen online using Real Audio, or wait for the Beeb to sell you a CD later in the year. More info on BBC Radio 4's Hitchhikers pages.
It never pays off. Instead, imagine you are somewhere really keen -- instead of boxoffice hell.
Movies like this we all *MUST* see, no matter how disappointed we'll be.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I thought the movie version was hilarious.
:)
All DA's versions were different, so why not this one?
What DA did with plots in the different media versions must make SF-ST/SW-canon-geeks heads asplode
My girlfriend hadn't read the books before because she thought they were nerdy, but she pissed herself in the movie and will be reading the books as soon as she finishes LOTR.
Her quote:
"Oh, I thought the H2G2 were just for nerds."
I think the movie will make a lot of people read the books for the first time.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
I hated it. I haven't been to the cinema in about a year, and it's for reasons like this. It didn't have a real plot, nothing really happened, wasn't funny, exciting, just "nothing".
I havent read the books or watched the TV series etc, so I'm not comparing it to any of those.
I just came out of the cinema angry that I had wasted my money. If you're a real fan, then go see it, if you've just seen the adverts and think it looks good, I'd suggest you don't bother.
We should wait to see if the current movie gets out past the lunatic fringe. If it ends up on DVD in four weeks, don't count on a 5-episode trilogy.
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
No! Then it would all end in tears! Terry Gilliam can't write a happy ending to save his life. LOL
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
Seriously, the movie feels like bureaucratic Vogons produced, directed and finished the screenplay. There was no understanding of the humor of Douglas Adams.
... locked file cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on it saying 'beware of the leopard'"
I know people have poo-poo'd the often repeated criticism of the change in an early line where Arthur Dent is telling the head of the (human) demoltion team about the trouble of finding the plans for the bypass. But that change says a lot about the movie.
Line from book/tv series:
"It was in the basement
Line in the movie:
"It was in a cellar"
The book showed the level of absurdity that bureaucracy causes. This basis of the joke in the book then continues when the Vogons use similar bureaucracy when telling humans where the plans for the hyperspace bypass are. But with the movie killing the basis of the bureaucracy joke, the Vogon part is far less funny as that joke is no longer built on anything previous.
I am not a "fanboy" wanting an exact word for word duplication of the book. The ridiculousness of bureaucracy could have been shown or stated in several ways in that eary scene, without quoting the book. But the fact that there was no emphasis on ridiculous bureaucracy shows a total lack of understanding of the whole scene. Unfortunately, the entire movie is the same lack of "getting it".
I want a coherent cohesive story that carries jokes forward and understands that humor relies heavily on context. No context means no humor. And the people/Vogons who made this movie clearly had no understanding of the context of Douglas Adams jokes. I hope to god that these same people have nothing to do with any further Hitchhikers movies.
I guess the ending suggested a sequel, and I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't exactly a perpetual side-splitter like the books, but I was satisfied. There was even a laugh-out-loud moment or two. I'd like to see more. I'm of the opinion that practically anything goes when it comes to the H2G2 flick(s). As long as they amuse me--and this one did--I say mission accomplished.
Besides, if they do another one, they'll almost certainly do a third--and in the span of two movies we can just about count on seeing the bit about "flying."
Special edition DvD for the win.
Made by Disney? I hadn't realized. OK. Now I panic.
After pulling in $21 million and ranking number one for the weekend I am not surprised that Disney is talking sequels. My largest concern is that the script felt a bit lackluster, though I enjoyed the movie. I just didn't think that many of the actors brought their characters to life. And Trillian's role was reduced to a damsel in distress who lowered her expectations in order to find love since her beau never truly overcame his cowardice.
If they do more, I'd want to see more sarcasm and wit brought into the dialog. I'd like to see Ford be less of a tree hugger and more of a pithy saw with his comments. Zaphod and Ford were far too kind to Arthur in this version, IMO...
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
If you're looking for commentary on the madness of bureaucracy, look no further than the scene on Vogsphere, when Arthur was trying to get Trillian released. It was a fairly brilliant sequence, IMO. Also note the cameo by the original Marvin the Paranoid Android in the queue.
Overall, I thought the movie was quite good. It's not a classic for the ages, but it was an enjoyable movie, and I hope they at least make the first three books into movies. The fourth and fifth are dodgier, and I wouldn't lose any sleep if they didn't do them.
Oh hush. I'm an avid fan of Douglas' work, and even though they removed some of his dialog, the stuff they replaced it with was suitably funny, and there was enough stuff changed and added that I was laughing throughout much of the movie, instead of mildly chuckling as each of Douglas jokes in the book is repeated verbatim.
Christ, even Douglas himself said that there was no such thing as the official Hitchhiker story. This movie is just another take on the whole Hitchiker idea.
It wasn't perfect. But it was a hell of a lot better than I expected it to be. And defeniatly a lot better than that godawful BBC miniseries.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
One of the things I really liked about the movie was that it was nice and cheery unlike the last book in the series. The magic of HG2G is in the lighthearted humor and fun style if they try and copy the depressing last book it would ruin the movies even more than it did the books.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
This is really odd. I've never seen such divided opinions on a movie before. I absolutely adored the movie, and there seems to be a whole second crowd who thinks it's a travisty.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
I've read each of the first four books eleven times.
:) I've managed to envision something like Little Twelve-Toes from "School House Rock".
I've only read the fifth book in the series three times. Didn't much care for the way it ended.
In a way, I'd love to see each of the books presented in movie form. It would be interesting to see how the folk from Krikkit get presented.
The portrayal of the Golgafrinchams would be easy: Average Americans. On the whole, we're a bit overweight, which fits the appearance of 'em quite well.
(I'm marginally alarmed that I remembered "Golgafrincham", considering it has been about eight years since I read the books. It's time to read through them again.)
When politicians are involved, everyone loses.
That is what editors are for.
(as in the TV version of Brazil in the states).
Also, I don't think the trilogy ended happy either (excluding the post mortem boon that I havn't read).
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
They made a mistake (or maybe on purpose) when marvin said "It's at the other end of the Universe"
In the book, the "End of the Universe refers to the end of time, not a physical destination.
That much hate should be illegal. Except in this case.
Ahh, I can just picture all the product placement and marketing tie ins that will surely ensue (a la matrix 2 and 3).
in 5 parts
Of course it has 42 acts.
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
I thought the opening theme song ("Thanks For All The Fish") was just great. They should really turn into a musical production.
Just Imagine a beowulf cluster of them... Or not.
HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I EAT COOKIES
...and it was the only movie I've walked out on in recent memory. I lasted about 45 minutes, most of them excruciating. Even if they did include some of Adams' funnier bits, they seemed to have abridged them in just the right way to lose the punchline, or curtail them when they started getting truly absurd (and absurdism, I thought, was the whole point of Adams' stuff). I couldn't figure out what the rest of the people in the theater were laughing at. Groupthink? Honestly, I'd compare the experience to watching a big-budget, Hollywood remake of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Why on Earth would I subject myself to such a thing? (Well, as I mentioned... I didn't.)
Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the movie was actually much better than I realized, and the subtlety of it was just lost on me until now. Adams, in writing the screenplay, was subjecting the audience to a kind of protracted version of a Vogon poetry reading! It was life imitating art...
Breakfast served all day!
You should see/hear Anne Rice's response to all movie versions of her work[1]...
[1] she even went to the extent of recording an answering machine message disavowing Interview with a Vampire.
[1.1] not that I think her books are classic literature, but then I don't care that much about LeGuin's material either.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I haven't gone out to see the movie yet, but I was told that it (tries to) cover all five books already... would they have to consider this first one a "scrapped" one and do it again from the start if they made a trilogy out of it?
-Vendal Thornheart
go get the omnibus.... I hear its running early.
"I don't see this as being a big money maker like the Lotr or Matrix series."
It doesn't need to be. It only needs to make a profit. It had a budget of $45 million and in 3 days it made half that. That's ONLY in the US.
"Derp de derp."
That makes six stories. If you include the radio series (where very little of the story agrees with the books) which was also published in book form, that makes seven.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Deep Thought's AI is a downloaded copy of Linus' brain. That's why the mice in Magrathea had all those brain-reading machines.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Unfortunately, absurd humor is only half of what gives the novels and the radio series their charm. The other half is the witty, irreverant, biting commentary on the nature of humanity, which the movies did away with entirely--probably so as not to "offend" anyone.
...ok, I'd watch them anyway.
Eddie was great, though. Even if they were terrible, I'd watch the rest of the movies just for him. >8)
While I don't think it was as good as it could have been... I quite enjoyed it for what it was... it had the audience I saw it with laughing, and that's pretty much the point.
Yeah well thanks, that cuts down on the number of movies *I* have to see...
I thought that Mos Def nailed Ford Prefect in about ten seconds. I liked Zaphod as well. Arthur was great, and Trillian was, well, around way too much. I could really have done without the love story, although Zooey Deschanel is easy to look at.
I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. I didn't think for a moment that they'd do the sperm whale joke, but they did. I was happy.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
i also liked the BBC TV version of the guide rather than the movie version. still a good laugh though.
You're forgetting opportunity cost -- it needs to not just make a profit, but make more profit than (whatever other movie the people involved could be working on instead). I don't think any studio wants to spend several hundred man-years of their time just to break even...
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Much better than I expected. Marvin was simply perfect; Arthur and Trillian were well-cast and well-acted. Even Ford was done well, though he didn't remotely resemble his description from the book.
Why not, indeed? I predict that the second and third movies will increasingly diverge from the plot in the book, while incorporating many of the original characters, names, situations, and quotes.
That's what happened with the Bourne trilogy, and I enjoyed the movies quite as much as the books.
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
There was a lot of hype surrounding this film. If no one shows up next weekend, the sequals will be killed*
*oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please...
if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll);
The books are legends I've read countless times over and over. So I didn't expect much from a big budget HGTTG. The movie does make concessions for a mainstream audience, but I still laughed and laughed and enjoyed every minute. Compared to most flicks made these days - it's still a 10 - even if it lets the book down a little. I dig it. I'm seeing it again and I want to see the sequels.
*********SPOILERS***************
:D
_
_
They left the earth intact at the end of the movie. This, to mean, implies that they've given themselves a perfect opportunity to take after the original radio show and destroy the earth in every single installation of the movie trilogy, in a different way. I hope they take it
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
You're forgetting opportunity cost -- it needs to not just make a profit, but make more profit than (whatever other movie the people involved could be working on instead).
That kinda sorta cuts both ways though. It might not have made more profit than some other things they could have been making instead, but it likely made more profit than a lot of other things they could have been making instead, like, I dunno, "Alone in the Dark". Do movie studios really talk about opportunity costs, seriously? The movie industry is basically a large and very formal form of gambling. Do people in Las Vegas walk away from the roulette wheel talking about opportunity cost??
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
-Scary Movie Three -
Too lazy to create a sig...
A swell foop? A foop like the noise of a hundred thousand people saying "foop"? A foop like the sound of a departing Krikkit Warship?
Damn Disney/Touchstone revisionism! The original line was "whop" damnit!! PC bastards!
Adams didn't 'work' with the other contributer, as he got hold of the script AFTER Adams' death.
As mentioned on the 'interview' linked from Slashdot some time ago: here,
Adams wrote the script to H2G2; after his untimely demise, it was taken over by another script writer who had the drafts to go from. The Point of View Gun, for example, was very much an Adams-style joke; I'm certain that that was his creation, not put in after his demise.
... or, knowing Disney, they'd more likely be thrown away and we'd be presented with trash. In any case, whilst I went to see H2G2 very soon after its release, I wouldn't accord any sequel the same honour -- I'd wait for others I trust to see it and give their verdict first. If it were done well, I'd be thrilled, but the cynic within me says it won't...
Any sequel would almost certainly have to be written by others, with only the books to refer to for guidance. I have serious doubts about the ability of the likely Disney-picked type to remain true to the spirit of the series.
My take on H2G2: Good, with seeds for greatness that weren't planted or watered. The sequel could take those seeds and use them
Do theatre owners also play a part. I heard they do somewhat because they control what movies get the best screens. Lucus had some deal like this for his pictures.
Depending on who wins the upcoming British elections, an SAS team might be on the way to your house....
The end of the movie was totally uncynical. The books painted the galaxy as the sort of place where the cynic mantra was key, and it was also the nature of the universe. The touched on it a bit in the beginning, with everybody being blase about Earth being destroyed, but the end... *ugh* totally written by Disney. It reeked of it.
I hate to say it But Zaphod ruined the movie. He is the Jar-Jar Binks of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I saw the movie Saturday, and afterward, I realized this:
The movie was okay. I mean, it wasn't terrible, and it wasn't great. It was just okay.
"Why?" I wondered. I didn't feel that the dialog was outrageously different from the books. There were a few deviations, but I actually welcomed them so I'd have something interesting to watch the movie for, instead of just mouthing the words along with the characters ("lunchtime, doubly so").
I then realized why I love the books, but I've never really been interested in the BBC series or in the radio show. The reason is because it's DNA's fiendish love of garden path sentences, of long and garish lines of prose that make the reader stop and parse the same sentence several times, popping words off their mental stack in different orders each time, before they find the one that makes sense, that make the books so hilarious. It's the short and witty lines that work beautifully in book form, but fail to make me even chuckle when presented in a theater ("exactly the way that bricks don't").
The books were hilarious not because of the storyline, or the clever plot, or even the funny jokes--they were hilarious because of DNA's writing style. And that writing style, sadly enough, just doesn't carry over into the Hollywood scene, regardless of how much freedom he had to make the movie exactly how he wanted it. Unfortunately, taking a hilarious writing style and making a movie where a British accent reads paragraphs in that writing style does not a hilarious movie make.
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
No, it covers just the first book and a bit of the end of the third (kinda.. not really).
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
and I am looking forwards to seeing it in much the same way as a sacrafisial lamb going to the kebab shop dosen't. The consept I'm most excited about is the way that every second 24 still images will be shown in quick sucession to create the illusion of motion, similar to the way my granddad can tell a story with 24 movements from teh original subject to create the illusion of a story remaining stationary.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
But they're actually going to fuck up V for Vendetta first before they go fuck up the Watchmen.
I had my fun and that's all that matters...
Pablo
I'd like to see the whole Lintilla Allitnil thing, with the archaeologists. And Marvin saving everything again, by falling out of the cup into the archeaological digs. That's something that Adams wrote with John Lloyd who is still alive, for the radio series. It was removed from the books, but would I reckon make a really interesting piece of absurdist cinema. Hotblack Desiato was done in the TV series, so I rekon they should go the other way. Lets face it, if Adams was still alive, it would take another 26 years to get a sequel.
"...we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that." B.Spears 2003
You must have been watching a different movie than the one I saw, because the stuff they replaced it with was very much not funny -- unless you're a two year old and like to see people get hit in the face with a giant mutant fly swatter, which was argueably the most amusing moment in the film (which isn't saying much) outside of the guide bits that they made politically correct.
... you mean "like a plank of wood" then I'd have to agree.
There was nothing there. Mos Def was bored throughout the whole movie, barely intelligible at times (*mumble mumble*) and... just not Ford Prefect. Sure, he was "weird" etc, but the passion, the joy was not there.
The movie could have done without the love story (although that did give rise to the thought-slapping things, which was quite a nice touch).
And the towels - they didn't explain the thing about the towels! At all! And where was the joke about the Ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal?
We Build Beautiful Websites
So what does that mean for possible sequels? Would someone else play Arthur or will Martin continue that role, but take no new comedic roles?
"That's what happened with the Bourne trilogy, and I enjoyed the movies quite as much as the books."
Watched the movies, found out it was a series of books first... tried to read the books but couldn't finish the first one because I couldn't stand the writing style. And I'm not normally a person to just stop reading a book part way through.
Seriously where have you been for the last 50 years: any film that makes enough money will be turned into a trilogy or atleast have a sequal, even if theres no obvious sequal to make. If it makes even more money it might even get a second trilogy no matter how crap its gona be (starwars 1, 2 & 3). Hitchhikers Guide does have an obvious sequel so to say that there wouldnt be any more made after it was a box office success is just insane. Its only in rare cases that a 'not-obvious-sequal' film is spared from a sequal - usually when the director/producer has some dignity and the power to say no. And of course in the case of Gigli they just cut their losses and burn the rights.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I wish I had some Mod Points!! THIS IS TONIGHT PEOPLE!
;)
Nice one dunsurfin
Duguk
I can't see how you could say Mos Def nailed Ford! There are so many reasons I could go on complaining about Ford. He only did suitably well if compared to Zaphod.
In every series before, Zaphod came off as a bit stupid but only just stupid enough that we don't totally write him off. Sometimes we even caught ourselves wondering if his stupid was just some form of high genius at work.
In this movie. Zaphod is absolutely and without a doubt an idiot. It's hard to even LIKE the character in the movie, and most people I know who like the books rank Zaphod behind Marvin as their favorite characters.
To add insult to injury, not only is he poorly depicted in personailty throughout this movie, he doesn't even have two full heads! That Head-in-Neck deal was a great joke ruined!
The original miniseries on BBC lacked alot of things in the way of cinematography and special effects, not to mention costumes, sets, and lighting. Even some of the acting wasn't the greatest! But the charm was there, full force. The humor was maintained, and even enhanced!
It's those areas this new movie really screwed up.
Though I do admit Arthur was played well, I still didn't like how they reduced him down to a total coward. Lost and confused? Sure, Arthur was that. But a total coward?
Even though there are a lot of things I don't like about it, I do have to admit there are some good bits in this movie. Still, it can't help but feel it's far inferior to it's predecessors.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Ah, I couldn't disagree more. Mos Def was a very good actor, but misinterpreted the purpose of his role. He played "alienness" when much of the humour for the early part of the story only works if Ford is a character Arthur thought he could relate to. Mos Def's Ford was so alien as to be unintelligible, killing the Arthur-Ford dynamic and making the beginning of the movie not funny.
Much of the later part of the movie picked up and was funny, including the changes they put in, but those first impressions dented the movie as a whole.
Plenty of films get sequals if they did well enough to get profit. If the sequel does well then that may get another. B movies do it a lot, but so do bigger movies that were not necessarily huge money makers, just walk aroung a video rental place some time and count the sequals there.
Plenty of other books have been adapted into movies without the assistance of their authors, with varying degrees of success... it all depends on who is doing the work.
Look at the extras for LotR. They knew the books extremely well, yet they changed a lot. Why? Not just for kicks, despite what you might think. It was about making it into working *movies*. Three races (elf, man and dwarf) running at exactly the same speed chasing Uruk-kai? Worked in the book, would be silly TV. So they made Gimli struggle to keep up, cover up a bad plot hole by humor.
That is why Tom Bombadil had to go. Why Arwen had to come in. Why Frodo had to fall over the edge with Gollum. Why they never arrived at the Gray havens. Why Gollum split Frodo and Sam. It's all to make a movie with the right setup for an action climax and an emotional climax.
A good director is supposed to use enough of the book, but not too much of the book. The author can be both a help and a hindrance to that. It's a damn difficult job and there's no wonder great directors get paid big bucks.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
What kid is going to have a good time parsing out a lot of complex language that, while funny, makes no sense to a pre-teen. The slapstick will come across. The sight gags will come across. And maybe even the love scene will make some sort of impression. But you have to face the reality, this movie was not produced for the fans of Douglas Adams' work -- it was produced for the pop culture that Hollywood always produces for.
As for how I personally enjoyed the movie, I found it to be entertaining and I did laugh at several parts - out loud even. But on the whole I found it an almost completely new story that I don't fully consider part of the Hitchhiker's world simply because while the other variants of the story deviated from each other, they were all bascially the same retelling of the story. This one was a new story almost completely. That is, this story had a specific plot even if it doesn't make any sense given the original story.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the worst, I give this movie a 6. I've certainly seen worse films that didn't make me laugh or even crack a smile (I'm thinking Say It Isn't So).
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
This is the Zaphod I know. The movie Zaphod was not this. The movie Zaphod was so unhip, I was surpirsed his bums didnt fall off.
He then realized he was going to have to speak at this point.
He took a series of very shallow breaths, and then said as quickly and as quietly as he could, "Door, if you can hear me, say so very, very quietly."
Very, very quietly, the door murmured, "I can hear you."
"Good. Now, in a moment, I'm going to ask you to open. When you open I do not want you to say that you enjoyed it, OK?"
"OK."
"And I don't want you to say to me that I have made a simple door very happy, or that it is your pleasure to open for me and your satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done, OK?"
"OK."
"And I do not want you to ask me to have a nice day, understand?"
"I understand."
"OK," said Zaphod, tensing himself, "open now."
The door slid open quietly. Zaphod slipped quietly through. The door closed quietly behind him.
"Is that the way you like it, Mr Beeblebrox?" said the door out loud.
"I want you to imagine," said Zaphod to the group of white robots who swung round to stare at him at that point, "that I have an extremely powerful Kill-O-Zap blaster pistol in my hand."
There was an immensely cold and savage silence. The robots regarded him with hideously dead eyes. They stood very still. There was something intensely macabre about their appearance, especially to Zaphod who had never seen one before or even known anything about them. The Krikkit Wars belonged to the ancient past of the Galaxy, and Zaphod had spent most of his early history lessons plotting how he was going to have sex with the girl in the cybercubicle next to him, and since his teaching computer had been an integral part of this plot it had eventually had all its history circuits wiped and replaced with an entirely different set of ideas which had then resulted in it being scrapped and sent to a home for Degenerate Cybermats, whither it was followed by the girl who had inadvertently fallen deeply in love with the unfortunate machine, with the result (a) that Zaphod never got near her and (b) that he missed out on a period of ancient history that would have been of inestimable value to him at this moment.
He stared at them in shock.
It was impossible to explain why, but their smooth and sleek white bodies seemed to be the utter embodiment of clean, clinical evil. From their hideously dead eyes to their powerful lifeless feet, they were clearly the calculated product of a mind that wanted simply to kill. Zaphod gulped in cold fear.
They had been dismantling part of the rear bridge wall, and had forced a passage through some of the vital innards of the ship. Through the tangled wreckage Zaphod could see, with a further and worse sense of shock, that they were tunnelling towards the very heart of the ship, the heart of the Improbability Drive that had been so mysteriously created out of thin air, the Heart of Gold itself.
The robot closest to him was regarding him in such a way as to suggest that it was measuring every smallest particle of his body, mind and capability. And when it spoke, what it said seemed to bear this impression out. Before going on to what it actually said, it is worth recording at this point that Zaphod was the first living organic being to hear one of these creatures speak for something over ten billion years. If he had paid more attention to his ancient history lessons and less to his organic being, he might have been more impressed by this honour.
The robot's voice was like its body, cold, sleek and lifeless. It had almost a cultured rasp to it. It sounded as ancient as it was.
It said, "You do have a Kill-O-Zap blaster pistol in your hand."
Zaphod didn't know what it meant for a moment, but then he glanced down at his own hand and was relieved to see that what he had found clipped to a wall bracket
Because having all the possible Earths collapse and disappear would be a happy ending? Or maybe you were thinking about the way Fenchurch just vanishes leaving Arthur alone again? You must be *jolly*
"I think it would be a good idea!"
Gandhi, about Internet Security
He wrote Starship titanic for/with Douglas Adams so there is some association.
That was Terry Jones.
"Christ, even Douglas himself said that there was no such thing as the official Hitchhiker story. This movie is just another take on the whole Hitchiker idea."
I keep hearing this in defense of the film's unfunniness. No-one's arguing that Vogsphere shouldn't be in the film. The problems lie with the butchered Guide entries, coordinates for Magrathea for a ship that gets where it's going in a completely different fashion, trying to retain some of Adams' lines under the mistaken belief that by cutting words out of sentences written by a writer who would famously "turn up for work with half a script, work all day and leave with a third", you can further distil them while keeping the comedy.
I for one left the movie feeling like a 14 year-old boy who'd been seduced by Miss Jones the hot gym teacher; I felt good in a general sense but lots of little nagging feelings telling me something was very, very wrong.
Mind you, if they hadn't ended the movie with the absolute most diabolical, travesty-inducing joke I might not feel so bitter. The other end of the universe? The only thing sadder was the belly laugh the joke elicited from the unread half of the Brooklyn audience.
-- Religion is not an exact science
You know, I hate that particular omission as much as anyone else, and have complained about it to various people, but I think it's a bit of a red babel fish overall. I think taht particular omission is the exception rather than the rule. (Though what happened to the "this must me some strange new use of the word 'safe' I wasn't previously aware of"?)
Didn't play on the lack of getting sarcasm, didn't have the semi-annoying personality, didn't seem to prefer to party as opposed to save the universe (or others), and was over the top stupid with the towel. Also, hate the politically correct angel. Let's make Shaft white in a future movie.
Because if that isn't a happy ending, I don't know what is!
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Be tuned into BBC2 (if you can) from 11.20pm It may not of had the greatest special effects but it at least hadthe wit and charm of the radio series . http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.sht ml?day=today&service_id=4224&filename=20050503/200 50503_2320_4224_24332_35
I rewatched the second episode last night to see how it dealt with the whole explanation of the Infinite Improbability Drive compared to the movie. It was an order of magnitude better.
I don't have many complaints about the movie. It was relatively professional and I think it was true to Adam's vision. I just don't think, ultimately, it worked. The timing was off. Punchlines came well before the rest of the joke, some were given without the rest of the jokes appearing at all. While I don't blame them for making it self contained given the chances were the studio would never have stumped up the money, I do think it would have worked better if they hadn't had to hurry the movie to get in an ending, instead seeing it as a trilogy from the start.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I saw the first 30 minutes and walked out.
I won't walk out of the sequel.
"A foop like the noise of a hundred thousand people saying "foop"?"
...naaah.
Given that we're dealing with movie versions of famous fiction books here, there's going to be a trilogy, and the Orcs shouting "Grond!" in the Return of the King was done by getting a football stadium's worth of people to do so...
- Kizor, who tried to put in the italics with Wikipedia tags
"although Zooey Deschanel is easy to look at."
Cute, but nothing to go to see the movies about. She looks just like Pam Dauber back when she was doing that really horrible TV show with Robin Williams.
I agree this isn't a gold star movies that we are use to Like LOTR or Harry Potter. But it is Decent and I'll probably watch it again. Yes a lot of the stuff was missing. But I expected it, sure they cut a lot of lines out which would only take them a second to add. But there is so much they can put in it that all those little seconds will add up. And it can quickly become a 4 hour movie. But they tried to some degree of humor to visualize the humor. Like with the Vogon ships looking like bricks just hanging in the air. Or with them sitting on the Gazzell like creature. Also they did put more attention to things that thy did not put as much attention to. Like the Towel, while book and the radio series talk about how useful the towel is they rarely really used it for anything, I was happy to see Ford using it to move a hot pipe, wipe sweat off his and other brow, use it keep the sun out of his eyes and use it for warmth, fight off vogons with it. Also I did like how beurocratic the Vogons were the previous versions made them seem more evil but I think the movie nailed them.
While ford was good but he seems disjointed from the group more of Zaphods friend then Authors, And the heavily romantic Author Trillian thing was a bit to much. And I felt that Author got to comfortable with the bazzar. But all in all it is a good movie. Probably one more suited for DVD then the Big screen.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"FYI, speaking as a total DNA fan and (less) DW fanboy, you're bang on"
Its sentences that this that scare the bejesus out of me.
They were other examples where they left in the setup for the jokes but cut out the punchlines.
There's a reason why Ford is loading up on beer and peanuts at the pub in the last few minutes for earth. He tells Arthur to dig in but never says why. (AIRC, you need to be hydrated to for beaming up to the ship.)
At the end they have Slartibartfast repeatedly saying, "Do you need anything else?" to seemingly, no one. The mice are supposed to answer each time, "That will be ALL, Slartibartfast!" telling us who placed the order. Never happens in the movie.
I had the strong feeling we could see the hand of the Disney suits telling them to keep up the pace and make sure the movie doesn't run more than the exhibitor-friendly 1:50.
I agree with Ebert and Roeper that they could have used more of the perspective of those who hadn't immersed themselves in Adams' world so it would be a bit clearer to mere civilians. That said, I took the GF to the movie after giving her a quick briefing and showing her Marvin on the movie site. She laughed out loud at Marvin. She loved the movie and said she wasn't lost.
They were obviously setting up for the "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" sequel. Let's hope the movie makes enough so the sequel happens.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
I saw the movie Saturday, too. Previous warnings had calibrated my expectations sufficiently downward that I was able to enjoy the movie.
Low point: Don't even think about them, because that would take away the enjoyment I did get out of it.
High point: The Magrathea factory floor really benefited from a big special effects budget. Of course we won't say anything about whether or not that was central to the movie.
****SPOILER****
Really Good Point: When Trillian picks up the tiny light sabre with the 6 inch blade, and slices her bread into toast with it. One brief scene skewers the Great Weapon of Star Wars, trivializing it in a toss-off gag.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
"...I never got why thaey bothered aquiring the I, robot rights. I mean it's not like anyone who has read the book was fooled into thinking that it was going to be anything like it. All they did was piss off a bunch of Asimov fans (myself included) without bringing in any extra audience.
The makers of "I, Robot" (the film) probably acuired the rights to "I, Robot" (the collection of short stories) so that they could refer to and use Asimov's three laws of robotics, without being spanked to Africa and back by the Asimov estate for copyright infringement.
The perversion of of the three laws underlie the main plot elements of the film, so it's pretty vital that they be able to name and refer to the laws. Of course, with the rights to the stories, they also got Susan Calvin, "positronic brains", and associated tech. bunkum to throw into the pot.
T&K.
Political language
Vogon ships looking like bricks just hanging in the air.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
One of my favorite lines from the book. >8)
I cannot be the only one that realizes that Zaphod was made to sound like president Bush. My Girlfriend has never even seen a copy of the books nor had any idea about it. At the end of the move we both went "hey he sounded like bush".
If this was the joke I believe it to be it was wonderful, if not I am an idiot.
Does anyone know if the action figure line will be carried in major stores, or just hobby shops and online stores?
Schnapple
Ford Prefect was ok, but having watched the BBC TV series more times than I care to remember, I was always going to have problems seeing someone new in the role.
In a perfect world, I'd like to have seen the "beware of the leopard" joke survive, and "last orders" being called in the pub. I preferred the old booming, awe-inspiring voice of Deep Thought rather than the film's version, but I did like having the massive crowd there reacting to the answer.
It was good to see the sperm whale joke, but I was even more pleased to see the bowl of petunias! I thought that as a particularly bizarre element, it might have been removed or replaced with something less taxing for those who aren't familiar with the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed the film, and I'd be over the moon if they made the sequels.
I saw the Hitchhiker's Guide movie this past friday. I enjoyed it, and here's why.... You know how geeks like us walk around making jokes that refer to hitchhiker's guide, monty python, blazing saddles, etc? Well, that's what the movie felt like: two hours of references to the book.
So, yeah, I enjoyed it... but did the movie have any purpose? Did it enhance the experience of the book? No, I don't think so. And I truly feel sorry for the people who see the movie without having read the book first. What a pointless excersize that would be.
Do yourself a favor -- go read all the books and don't worry about the movie(s).
Funny, when I was watching the movie, I thought the Vogon scenes were very Gilliam-esque that I later googled to see if he had anything to with it.
I very much hope they do a sequel(s) -- I enjoyed the movie but wanted to see so much more.
If they show V's face, I'm taking a bus to Hollywood so's I can get my stab on.
Just sayin'.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Everyone keeps bringing up the original Marvin's cameo. Did nobody notice that the recorded message from Magrathea was Simon Jones, the original Arthur Dent! I thought both were great additions though overall, I wasn't terribly thrilled with the movie.
I think I'm just a snob for the original BBC series.
Please. I too felt a bit of disappointment at that very moment, when they condensed the absurdity of the bypass plans into "it was in a cellar." But I quickly got over it and went back to enjoying the movie.
A lot of the humor, the asides, the long-winded explanations, and the twists of language Adams employed in the books couldn't be reproduced verbatim in a movie.
Anyway, the ridiculousness of bureaucracy WAS stated with the Guide's entry on Vogons (wouldn't save his grandmother, signed in triplicate, etc). As other posters have pointed out, there was ample emphasis on Vogon bureaucracy throughout the movie. But one little ommission spoiled it for you. I suppose you left the theater murmuring "but what about the leopard?!"
That would be the Total Perspective Vortex, invention of one Trin Tragula, which shows you the whole of creation, and yourself in relation to it, with a little "you are here" arrow. Drives one mad, unless one is Zaphod Beeblebrox in a pocket universe created for his benefit.
It was several years after reading that when I found out that "fairy cake" was just British for "cupcake". I remember being faintly disappointed.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
They did, but from the exterior receding shot. It's barely audible. Kinda like how the movie was barely tolerable.
My wife and I saw it Friday night. She's not a H2G2 fan, and hated the movie (i.e., it failed to interest her and gain a new fan). I was so-so about it. i think they did a respectable job condensing a book into a movie, but it felt too clinical.
The zaniness just wasn't there.
Plus, this Zaphod sucked huge. I wanted to kill him five minutes in. What happened to egomaniacal playboy doofus? That's how I see 'im.
GTRacer
- ROTS better not do this too
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
But you can only spoiler things that don't suck.
*scratches head*
Well, if I've saved you from dropping five bucks on that pile, I've done a good deed.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I haven't read the books (blasphamy!) but I did enjoy the movie. Having heard people bitch about that particular line, I recognized its truncated version. I don't think it prevented people from connecting the two events (English bypass vs. interstellar bypass, wow totally different!). You don't want to be too obvious with things, and in a two hour movie you don't want to waste time on earth.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I enjoyed LoTR without constantly bitching. I'm really looking forward to Revenge of the Sith, Danny the Dog and Batman Begins.
I can both enjoy the good and criticize the bad. You can too---really, give it a shot.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Personally, I liked the movie. I went in with absolutely no expectations, or delusions of grandeur - and I feel that that is the single largest mistake most people made. How often do we see that, no matter how good the book was, the movie is less? Every time. EX: LOTR was a great series of books; The movies were good as well; The movies and the books are similar, but different. It's the same with H2G2.
We see the converse of this where movies have been adapted to book form. The books don't follow the movie, has a different flow of events, and is usually written in a new perspective. Most are bad, some are good - it depends on the writer.
Personally, I'd like to see a five part trilogy - I think it would be great. I don't, however, have any expectation that it would, or even should, follow the books with a faithfulness of more than using the ideas in them, and building anew. With the proper writers, script editors, etc.., a series of movies could be great. It also brings me to another point - if the movies were to be close followings of the books, don't you think it would get monotones? Do we really want our own visions of what we think it should be, of how we picture it on our own minds, shattered by something that strives to be an exact copy? I wouldn't. I'd want something that I could watch, and maybe see the story from a new angle, not the same old thing regurgitated in a visual form.
Anyway, just my two cents worth.
http://www.accelerateglobalwarming.com
how could they take stuff from the other books when they already crammed them into the movie, twisting and warping everything as they went along. the endless party is alluded to, but turns into some random bs with the great green arkleseizure, the supernova bomb becomes a POV gun that serves almost no point, nor makes any sense, marvin shutting down the krikkit robots turns into him shooting the vogons (obnoxiously overly dramatic), hactar becomes deep thought (excuse me as i have a fit for a moment!!!!!), i dunno, there was probably more, but just dont make it worse.....
Could have been communicated better, and probably will be when you watch the DVD (and the laughter isn't drowning out the lines) but this is what I got out of it:
Apparently, on Vogsphere, the slappers are an indiginous creaturethat, being slightly telepathic, crave ideas so much that they try to get as close as possible, as quickly as possible, to the creature thinking it. Effect: if you have an idea, you get smacked in the face.
Which explains the evolution of the Vogons.
That they slapped you for thinking. Ford says "nobody think" and no one get's slapped. It would explain why the vogons never think...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I was very disappointed with the move, they removed so much of Douglas Adams' humor and really changed the story. By itself the movie was ok, as a movie from the book, it sucked.
If the first one was so bad, I'm worried about the 2nd
The "Last Orders" line was in there, it was (barely) audible as Ford was running away from the pub after Arthur left.
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I never liked Zaphod in the books. The first time I read them, I kept hoping for some horrible accident that would leave him mute and paralyzed, so that the only jokes I had to deal with concerning him were ones made at his expense. I always wrote Zaphod off as an evil that I had to put up with to enjoy the rest of the books. Mos Def did a good job of matching the Ford in my mind. I saw the BBC series a couple weeks before the movie, but by that point, Ford had an image in my mind, and the BBC series seemed to lack that. I always thought that the only reason Ford didn't seem alien to Arthur was the fact that Arthur is not the quickest on the uptake. And yeah, he was a coward. Lost and confused brought that about, but cowardice is cowardice. Marvin will always be, hands down, the best character of the series, and the guy who did his voice did an incredible job. Can't say I liked the new model of him, though. The BBC seemed more appropriate.
I hope the movies are better than the books. I found myself skimming them in the end just to finish them. Now I find out there is a fifth book, too?!? I'm glad I bought my set back in the 80's when there was no fifth book. I'll just pretend I didn't hear that, and won't bother having to read another of those boring, pointless books.
I'm still not sure how they got a movie out of the first book. After finishing it, I though that there was enough material to produce an hour long TV show - with commercials included. No idea how they stretched it out to movie length. Sheesh...
It's a pity, because the cretins that make up the cream of the Hollywood scum are certain to fuck it up in their mindless and tasteless greedy quest for more money at the expense of everything else on earth.
It's days like this that I think it a pity the Soviets never launched all the SS-18s at the USA and vice versa so that humanity can start over again.
correct me if I'm wrong, but there were 4 novels, not 5. Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless, and the Resturant at the End of the Galaxy. where's the fifth??
1001100 1100101 1100001 1110110 1100101 1001101 1111001 1000010 1101001 1110100 1110011 1000001 1101100 1101111 110111
and count the sequals there.
What is so difficult about spelling this word correctly?
If you're looking for commentary on the madness of bureaucracy, watch Brazil.
You know, the first thing that I said when I came out of the cinema was "Wow, fab film, even if it was a kinda weird British/American mix. In fact it felt a lot like Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits".
Really. I don't think they need a new director, just a few more films to tell the rest of the story. Worked for Peter Jackson.
"What can I say? I'm the queen of java."
subduction.net
I admit, this isn't the ideal movie that it could have been; I would have actually rather seen it made by the Farscape producers, as I think they could have better hit the style (and it could still have those Henson Creature Shop creations in it). But all in all, I think the good exceeds the bad. And I can sit here and go on for a few hours about the parts they got wrong. Arthur was great; Ford was hit and miss; Zaphod was good, but it felt to me like he was occasionally pulling off a bad George W impersonation; Trillian was fairly far from the mark; Marvin was done damn near perfect; and the Vogons where better than I had imagined.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Those bastards.
Muscle relaxant, actually.
No, I left the theater murmuring, "What happened to the funny?"
The leopard joke is just one high profile example. I felt the whole tone of the movie was off. DA might have written most of the screenplay, he may have added the love interest angle, and the POV gun sub-story, but the bottom line is, he didn't finish it. Someone(s) who did not completly "get" Adams humor did, and the movie suffered for it, IMHO.
And whoever replaced, "Here are the aliens. Should I go sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart here?" with "I'm a robot not a refrigerator," is a waste of human flesh and should be tossed out an airlock after being fed to the ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
(Warning: this post contains movie/book spoilers.)
Okay, so I read the first book and watched the movie. I finished reading it two days before seeing the movie and, having the text still fresh in my mind, I must say I liked the movie. It was quite faithful to the book except from some plot twists, and IMO it's quite apparent that the changes were made for the sake of the pace of the movie (ie, to adapt to a different medium), not to change the author's concept.
Some of the parts I enjoyed the most were not in the book, at least not from the first one: the Vogon planet, with the thing that smacks people in the face whenever they think for themselves (which results in a planet of bureaucrats) and the point-of-view gun. Of course, the fact that I was not expecting those parts must have a lot to do with that -- but I think they very much follow the books' spirit of commentary on contemporary life. Are they from the other books?
The filesystem is the package manager
BTW, Shada is available on DVD from the BBC.
Three bad movies, instead of just one!
Have to disagree there. They replace my favourite ever joke (not my favourite H2G2 joke, not my favourite DNA joke, my favourite ever joke ) -
They replaced that piece of utter genius with Ford saying "Do you want a hug?"
Do I need to say more?
I think that Douglas Adams would love the idea of "re-blowing up the earth for a sequel". In fact, that should be a plot point, you would just replace Psychiatrists, with propaganda controlling media outlets (essentially, filling the same role and making it more politically up-to-date). Scenario; Because the producer was making a documentary about the plight of primitive worlds and the earth was blown up just before he could get all the 3d hyperdimensional cameras set up--the earth just needs to be blown up again. You know, to highlight the tragic plight of underdeveloped planets.
In my view, Douglas Adams wasn't too much about plot, except as a way to hang together his wit and acerbic critique of the nonsense we all hold so dear. I really love the way that one cranky reincarnated being keeps getting killed by Arthur and that projects can span eons just to get ruined by a pencil pusher. The Hitchhikers Guide is very necessary as a counterpoint to idealistic and bureaucratic thought. Or just as a counterpoint to thought--since it is highly over-rated.
What anyone writing a sequel should respect is the "Douglas Adams" way, and not to get too hung up on how things happen--they just do and religions and plots spring up around them so that the feeble and confused beings inhabiting the universe can invent comforting things like "purpose" or "digital watches". I can't wait to see the movie, but I can already guess that they are going to be too nice to Arthur, they will have too joyful an ending, and they won't display a creature that wants to get eaten.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
The "hug" line was not an adequate replacement, but I think Adams confesses to nicking that line from soomewhere else, it's kind of an old gag.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Terry Gilliam would have been perfect to make this movie.
I love that the greatest Terrorist the "Brazil" the movie, is a repairman.
The terrorists life is saved by a smashed fly. The wrong person is executed and because his family doesn't except the "compensation", it drives the rest of the movie with a bureaucratic tailspin.
That the name "Brazil" sounds exotic and forrested, and nothing in the movie has not been paved over by industry.
Terry gets the irony and absurdity of Douglas Adams. More than anyone else I can think of. I always thought that "Time Bandits" had a similiar mood/creative sensibility to the "Hitchhiker's Guide".
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
One thing you must understand is that the book is NOT the original master copy that everything must match up to. HHGTTG was a radio series a year before any book was ever released. In addition, the book did NOT match the radio series in content or in chronological order. When they said that the movie would follow in the true spirit of Douglas Adams, they were not kidding. Douglas constant changed and contradicted the series with each incarnation. Trying to use the book as a reference for anything is just silly. Those who went and saw the movie and whined that it didn't match up with their expectations, rather than watching it with an open mind, evaluating it on its own merit, are just plain silly.
I think the real joke about Zaphod, is that he was so brilliant and socially amoral that he seemed like an idiot. He seemed like Douglas Adams attempt to say; "if you did really understand it all, you'd end up crazy and misunderstood." Zaphod is the one who has "stared too long at the sun."
I thought that Arthur was not intended as a coward by DA, but as an "everyman". He is just befuddled and trying to avoid death, which the universe in these books seems to throw about with aplomb. Still, I think that they could do anything with the characters as long as it is funny. But from reading these comments, it seems they might have "Disney-fied" them. Too bad this wasn't done by Pixar or Terry Gilliam.
When I like to write comedy, I like to channel Douglas Adams and Voltaire.
I can't wait to see the movie. Seems with Slashdot it is a prerequisite.
Of course Disney will curb the biting wit, but it may still be fun.
Disney CAN'T make a movie where they guy doesn't get the girl (or vice versa)--can you name ONE DISNEY movie (not Pixar), where there isn't a love interest? They have a corporate mogul plot form (read VOGON) that requires the "love interest" checkbox to be filled out in approving any script.
I thought Trillian was Zaphod's girlfriend in the first book? Arthur only became intersting to the Trillian (the not-Trillian copy) because he was that "little bit of home". Arthur isn't a boob, he is just a normal guy. Zaphod was exciting and alien--how can a normal guy compete? Blow up the earth. There are positives and negatives to everything.
I don't think that Douglas was really so negative-- I think he just destroyed all possible Earths as a way to get people off his back on writing new books in the series. He was on to other things that he thought were more interesting so I assume he wanted to "move on". I mean, with the "improbility drive", all the possible earths could be recreated in the slip stream--since all their existences have been removed, restoring all their existenses with all people intact would be the most improbable event. Thus it would just "have to" happen in a sixth book. Or God could come back, and restore them just for spite because HE wasn't consulted. In the DA universe, anything can happen and likely does.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
I had read a terrible review (link from previous
It had most of my favourite lines (but why would they leave out:
I quite enjoyed it.
10 out of 10 for style.
..of five films.
I dug the towel-fu towards the end.. that & the improbable use of the improbability drive i think was well done too. Though, they also never explained how the mice got on board the Heart of Gold.. or anything about the babelfish for that matter. They kinda skipped over a bunch of stuff - which if they do come out with the next movie (hinted at the end - if i got my hints correct) is to be centered around or properly include Millyway's. Also, didn't Arthur & Trillian's romantic connection get 'sealed' towards the 2nd or 3rd book? It's been a while since i've had the books in my posession & looked..
"One may conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, but he is the greatest of conquerors who conquers himself."
Disney movies are tolerable--even good--until Eisner craps all over them.
I thought the movie Zaphod was not only not very likeable, I thought the was semi-despisable. I guess I thought of him as as callous, but likeable rockstar kind of guy... In the film he seemed like a big asshole, and not in a good way.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
If you're looking for commentary on the madness of bureaucracy, look no further than the scene on Vogsphere, when Arthur was trying to get Trillian released. It was a fairly brilliant sequence, IMO.
Indeed, probably the funniest moment in the movie. If the rest of the movie had original scenes like that instead of being half-assed fanservice parroting lines out of the radio show (then book, then tv series), it could have saved it. But cripes, I already heard, read, and watched at least half this movie already.
Additionally, the whole movie lacked any context for anyone who wasn't already a fan. They don't even give the guide much of an introduction -- all of a sudden, Arthur's just reading the thing, and all of a sudden Ford's a writer for it (mentioned in an aside). I rather look forward to the Director's Cut in the hopes that it isn't so savagely edited...
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
The books were hilarious not because of the storyline, or the clever plot, or even the funny jokes--they were hilarious because of DNA's writing style.
Actually, it was a radio show first. But the long and garish paths of prose like "exactly the same way that bricks don't" not only are in the radio show, they're even funnier that way. The visuals in the guide actually seemed to detract from the humor.
Unfortunately, this movie starts off by wiping away all context that would make it funny to non-fans, then systematically removes most of the lines for those remaining. It had great moments -- the thought-slappers on vogosphere for example, Alan Rickman as Marvin -- but otherwise the whole thing just falls horribly flat.
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
I've really enjoyed that James Bond trilogy.
Scrap the books and add more car chase/crash/crush scenes.
And, play it LOUD.
I just saw the movie premiere night (call me a geek)
And I loved it!
OK, they sort of amped-up Trilian and Arthur's relationship, but I still thought the movie was wonderful.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
The weird thing for me was that I saw Warwick Davis' name in the opening credits and realized he must be inside the Marvin outfit... and for the whole movie I just kept thinking about Willow being inside that costume whenever he was on screen and walking and such.
I read a great number of postings lamenting how the movie wasn't true to the books. HELLO! The books weren't true to the radio series (The ORIGINAL medium). The books weren't even true to the books. All forms of THHGTTG are different from one another. That's almost the point. All are good, in their own ways. All have limitations. Personally, I found radio to be the best medium, unfettered by the limitations of visuals, but I enjoyed some of the new angles chosen for the movie (Zaphod's head being one of the best). I was not ROTFL for any of it, but I've been a fan since it was first broadcast, before the books came out. It was all familiar, even if it wasnt' the same.
I think a trilogy is a fine idea. It would give them time to explain some of the jokes. A series could work, too, if they found a writer who could hold a candle to DNA (yes, such people DO exist).
BTW, the Quandry phase is playing now on BBC Radio 4. You've got five days to download ep 1 before they move on.
Then his George Bush impersonation worked!
What happened to egomaniacal playboy doofus? That's how I see 'im.
What are you talking about? He nailed egomaniacal playboy doofus. It was a great impersonation of Bush.
I have misplaced my pants.
or anything about the babelfish
:P
scratch that -- i saw it again today and remembered that they briefly did mention what the babelfish was all about.. d'oh.
"One may conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, but he is the greatest of conquerors who conquers himself."
I keep hearing this in defense of the film's unfunniness.
Except we're not defending it for being unfunny. We actually think it's funny.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
"unless you're a two year old and like to see people get hit in the face with a giant mutant fly swatter"
Hate to admit to it in the face of your belittlement of it, but I loved that part. I didn't exactly catch on to why it was hitting them, until Zaphod spoke about having an idea, then I laughed. Loved it's inpromptu return as well.
"Well it was my idea in the..." *BAM!*
outside of the guide bits that they made politically correct.
Quite honestly, if they had kept the guide bits like they were, there would have been more trouble. If it came down to a choice between Disney keeping foaming at the mouth fundies at bay and keeping foaming at the mouth fanboys at bay, they quite obviously chose fundies, and quite honestly in the age we live in today, I don't blame them, as much as it saddens me to say it.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
Hate to admit to it in the face of your belittlement of it, but I loved that part. I didn't exactly catch on to why it was hitting them, until Zaphod spoke about having an idea, then I laughed. Loved it's inpromptu return as well.
:p The guide bits were still among the funnier parts of the movie even after they were cut to pieces, primarily because the original text was left mostly intact.
I think it was one of the funniest parts of the movie. Which speaks poorly of how funny the movie really was.
Quite honestly, if they had kept the guide bits like they were, there would have been more trouble. If it came down to a choice between Disney keeping foaming at the mouth fundies at bay and keeping foaming at the mouth fanboys at bay, they quite obviously chose fundies, and quite honestly in the age we live in today, I don't blame them, as much as it saddens me to say it.
I don't fault them for doing so -- I completely understand it. It just bugs me.
I just meta-moderated your post - it's quite insightful, but unfortunately I have to say that while Gilliam made an amazing movie in Brazil, I don't know whether he would be the right one to do a good movie out of Galaxy. Mainly because I can't see him being anywhere NEAR true to the book. Not exactly a perfect follower for such a rabid following. My guess is hardcore fans would be as disappointed with a GOOD Hitchhiker's movie done by Gilliam as a BAD one, and the only question would be whether the movie was successful as a whole. The books were incredible, but at this point they're going to be farmed by Hollywood as much as possible regardless of situation.
Anyways. Err... Went on a rant. Loved Brazil, great movie, but it required a freedom that Gilliam won't have again for a while. Watch the extras about what he went through after he made it on the special release DVD... He took so much crap from his studio that they almost didn't release the thing, as I remember.
My little site.
Wow, I just found out about these SlashDot messages.
Personally, I think that Gilliam would do what you say; not follow the script. Which is exactly what DNA would do if he were still alive and had his own way. Which is the point that I'm making that DNA made fun of trying to make points about the whole big Mish Mosh. Life has no point, but if you have a martini at the right time, it is bareable.
Gilliam I think is a genius and he is running at the same "tune" as DNA. He would Grok it and piss off almost every DNA puritan and make an awesomely funny movie. To me, Terry can do no wrong.
I mean Time Bandits was brilliant. Baron Munchausen was a great fable. Terry just needs to get a contract with Steve Jobs and produce a Pixar movie--there he could get creative!
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Heh. The first adult Pixar movie ever.... I think Pixar's too mass-market for Gilliam, but I also think that the level of computing / graphics power they used for even Toy Story 2 will be available to him within the next five or ten years.
My little site.