Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy movie!

JetPlane · Post by **JetPlane** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:42 pm

42!

May 6th 2005!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/

Caine Hazen · Post by **Caine Hazen** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:12 am

Ya sista, the website for the movie has the first trailer up and running to. I saw it the other day at the theater. I remember way back a long time ago when Douglas Adams stopped here on tour in Dayton, he was in early production talks for this. He was so excited about this. It's too bad he won't be around to see it finished. I'll carry my autographed towel to the showing I go see...

3278 · Post by **3278** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:24 am

This is going to be a very difficult movie to do right, in my opinion. I've tried the radioplay, and the BBC film version, and neither has pleased me at all, so I'm quite dubious about this. Hopeful, but dubious.

One thing I'd like to know is what the production designer's obsession with spheres is.

Take a look at Marvin, for instance:
<img src=http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo ... .jpg></img>

And the Heart of Gold:
<img src=http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo ... .jpg></img>

And even the inside of the Heart of Gold:
<img src=http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo ... .jpg></img>

Got the teaser from <a href="http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/">the official site</a>, and will be checking it out, nonetheless. Hopeful, but dubious.

TheScamp · Post by **TheScamp** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:06 am

Wow. The Heart of Gold looks absolutely nothing like a tennis shoe.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 5:45 am

I hope people are just making the assumption that that is the Heart Of Gold. The TV series model was more appropriate than that is. The interior shots look like what Adams described, but I'm hoping the spherical thing is either another ship (though this shot certainly looks like two missiles about to be turned into a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale) or it didn't make it past the concept art stage. Or maybe it changes after they use the drive. *shrug*

3278 wrote:One thing I'd like to know is what the production designer's obsession with spheres is.

And massive heads. I think this is supposed to be Deep Thought.

I'll go see it regardless. Sam Rockwell seems like the perfect guy to play Zaphod to me. Zooey Deschanel will make a good Trillian. Martin Freeman seems like a good choice for Arthur. The only bit of casting that's got me scratching my head is Mos Def as Ford. I can't really see an American hip-hop guy pulling off lines as straight-up English as Adams wrote them, and changing them would probably annoy me. I guess we'll see. Maybe he'll do an English accent.

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:47 am

He did a decent one in Ocean's Eleven, I thought.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:54 am

That was Don Cheadle, though.

Anguirel · Post by **Anguirel** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:40 pm

Raygun wrote:The only bit of casting that's got me scratching my head is Mos Def as Ford. I can't really see an American hip-hop guy pulling off lines as straight-up English as Adams wrote them, and changing them would probably annoy me. I guess we'll see. Maybe he'll do an English accent.

Not Ocean's Eleven. Italian Job. And he can do it, I think.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:47 pm

Never saw that one. Cool!

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 8:07 pm

Man, what a weird feeling. I was fucking certain that it was Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven. Pissed me no end when I posted, but I was looking right at IMDB which was telling me different. Except, IMDB said Italian Job and some serious fuckup in my brain was going down.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:44 am

New trailer out today. Check it.

The release date is now set for April 29.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:37 pm

I've seen that link several times, and it always sends me to an Amazon page that is noticably lacking any kind of trailer. I found a scratchy screen-cap, but I'd really like to see the official release.

Cash · Post by **Cash** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:20 pm

Go a third of the way down the page (from the top) and look carefully. I've never read the book and now *I'm* drooling.

BlackJack · Post by **BlackJack** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:49 pm

It's at the top now. NICE!! I loved the books, I'm actually looking forward to the movie.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:35 pm

Fixed it - the trailer is in an "ads" directory, so Adblock was removing it.

mrmooky · Post by **mrmooky** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:39 pm

Hmm... the trailer doesn't look all that promising. The direction and the soundtrack make it feel like a slightly campier sequel to Men In Black.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:12 pm

None of the music in the trailer is original. (The music at the end actually was lifted directly from MiB - good ear!) That's not uncommon - music is one of the last things to be finalized in a film. The trailers for Fellowship of the Ring, for example, used a slightly edited version of Overture to Requiem for a Dream instead of the score that appeared in the film.

BlackJack · Post by **BlackJack** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:02 am

mrmooky wrote:Hmm... the trailer doesn't look all that promising. The direction and the soundtrack make it feel like a slightly campier sequel to Men In Black.

Interesting. I say that because Douglas Adams was pretty vocal in his unhappiness with MiB. He felt it was a bad copy of the books and radio dramas for Hitchhiker's.

Of course if you never read the books (I don't know if you have), they are meant to be campy.

DarkMage · Post by **DarkMage** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:53 pm

Really I didn't think MiB was a rip of of Adams work His work is like Tolkins, when you're doing a mordern aline comedy movie you work off of ideas from Adams, but it didn't strike me as being a rip off.

Caine Hazen · Post by **Caine Hazen** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:53 pm

One thing that has been stressed from Adam's own family about all this is the HitchHikers was a radio drama first, the books were Adam's concept past that, and that the visuals there were not at all final "bible" on what HitchHikers was. Hell when I got to meet him he was already discussing this movie, he felt that certian scenes need to be included even though they weren't in the first book...he wanted the scene with Marvin and the Tank in the publishing offices made especially bad.. had to try and fit it in the movie somewhere... I have a feeling I'm really going to love all this... just got my 42 tee in the mail yesterday, and finished rereading the series fo rthe billionth time, and I sit now listening to the audio Douglas did for the first book.... ahh this is going to be the movie of the year!

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:19 pm

There are now bigger versions of the trailer on the official site.

I think the Vogons look good. The whole huge shot in front of Deep Thought, with the guy and the "think deep" foam finger, that's fucking funny right there. The round thing does appear to be the Heart Of Gold (bleh). And they definitely did something different with Zaphod's second head. And there's Malkovich walking across the table with the little mechanical legs. Very quick shot of Arthur and Slartibartfast going through the heart of Magrathea... Lots of familiar things in there, and a few new ones.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:53 am

There's a new trailer up on UGO, and I like it much better.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:58 am

Yeah, that one is much better. There is a bigger version on the official site.

Is it just me, or is that Alan Rickman's voice coming out of Marvin?

Johnny the Bull · Post by **Johnny the Bull** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:21 am

Raygun wrote:Is it just me, or is that Alan Rickman's voice coming out of Marvin?

My brother and I thought the same thing, but it turns out its Warwick Davis, the guy who played Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter series.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:28 am

He's in the suit. I don't think he's doing the voice, though. Darth Vader, like. Warwick Davis was in Ray (if you've seen it). Doesn't sound much like that.

Yep. It was Alan Rickman, according to IMDb.

Cool! Simon Jones (Arthur from the TV series) is in it.

Johnny the Bull · Post by **Johnny the Bull** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:26 am

Raygun wrote:He's in the suit. I don't think he's doing the voice, though. Darth Vader, like. Warwick Davis was in Ray (if you've seen it). Doesn't sound much like that.

Yep. It was Alan Rickman, according to IMDb.

Cool! Simon Jones (Arthur from the TV series) is in it.

That'll learn me for trusting jerk offs at the pub.

Alareth · Post by **Alareth** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:15 am

Let's not forget Warwick Davis was also the lead in Willow, Leprechaun 1-4, and his debut as that damn Wicket the Ewok.

Johnny the Bull · Post by **Johnny the Bull** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:10 am

Alareth wrote:Let's not forget Warwick Davis was also the lead in Willow, Leprechaun 1-4, and his debut as that damn Wicket the Ewok.

Death is a fitting punishment for Wicket the Ewok.

MacaroniAndViscera · Post by **MacaroniAndViscera** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:58 am

I'm generally very cynical and pessimistic when it comes to movie adaptations of books. I think the best thing I could think of about Hitchikers's is "Let's hope it doesn't suck too hard".

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:36 pm

Johnny the Bull wrote:Death is a fitting punishment for Wicket the Ewok.

No, gruesome death is the only fitting punishment. I suggest shaving and hanging it upside down over a one bar electric fire. Slow roast Ewok anyone?

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:24 am

MacaroniAndViscera wrote:I'm generally very cynical and pessimistic when it comes to movie adaptations of books. I think the best thing I could think of about Hitchikers's is "Let's hope it doesn't suck too hard".

How about book adaptations of radio plays?

They're going to have to do some serious chopping to make it all fit into two-ish hours, especially if they try to fit in bits from the whole series, instead of going with three movies or something. But if you consider the TV series, I don't think there's much you could do to make it suck more than that, and even that was still pretty entertaining. 90% of it is in the dialog. As long as they didn't mess with that too much, it ought to be worth your time, I think. That last trailer looks much more promising to me.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 7:33 am

MacaroniAndViscera wrote:I'm generally very cynical and pessimistic when it comes to movie adaptations of books. I think the best thing I could think of about Hitchikers's is "Let's hope it doesn't suck too hard".

Adams wrote the script himself. I have high hopes.

TheScamp · Post by **TheScamp** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:58 pm

Well, he wrote a draft of it, which was used as a blueprint for the current movie.