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More on H2G2, Including an Early Review 294

Posted by timothy from the I-hope-they-mean-malkovich's-character dept.
mwilli writes "Ain't It Cool has an early review of the upcoming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Along with the review is a short video showing Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian and some pictures. Also, 'I understand that in the movie, Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril. And this all ties in with the increased prominence of the Church Of Arkleseizure in the movie (a race with fifty noses, and the first to develop the aerosol deodorant before the wheel) and their leader John Malkovich, who also has a second head, and Zaphod's unwillingness to sneeze.'"
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More on H2G2, Including an Early Review More

More on H2G2, Including an Early Review

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  • 42 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:03AM (#11157489)
    42nd post

    (Sorry, couldn't resist, gotta read that book though)
    • I have noticed a severe problem in the timing of your post. You say that it is the 42nd post while in fact it is among to first 10 posts to this story. There is only one explanation, and we are not amused.

      It is quite clearly this kind of senseless mucking about in the space time continuim that has caused so many problems in the universe today (and yesterday and tomorrow). We at the Campaign for Real Time will not stand for this blatant disregard for historical preservation, by which we mean actually preserving history itself and not only its relics.

      You sir may expect a call for our lawyers. I certainly hope you had the foresight during your forrays into the past to deposit a few cents in a high interest bank account because you will need that money.

      Have a nice diurnal anomoly.

      And don't panic.

      • I certainly hope you had the foresight during your forrays into the past to deposit a few cents in a high interest bank account because you will need that money
        This is the reason why the Campaign for Real Time will not work because no matter how much money you put in lawers on us I can always go back further in time and make more money to conteract the cost. Thus the people you are suing will always have more resources then you because you are unable to go back in time and change your mistakes.

  • Don't complain about changes (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chris_Jefferson ( 581445 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:05AM (#11157496) Homepage
    Just a couple of points before anyone says "X isn't like the book".

    a) The book and radio shows were quite different in a number of ways.
    b) Douglas Adams actually wrote quite a bit of the script to this film. He said that it would be different to the books and the radio show.
    • I personally would be very disappointed if it WERE completely like the book. If there is anything that is consistant about the evolution of the Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy, it is its inconsistancy from one version to the next.

      I would be very disappointed if the movie failed to achieve the level of inconsistancy that we have all come to expect.

      ;)

      • "I would be very disappointed if the movie failed to achieve the level of inconsistancy that we have all come to expect."

        However, being consistant with the book (or BBC TV or Radio series) would be completely inconsistant with the trilogy's inconsistancy and would therefore be inconsistant making it consistant with the history of the guide which would be totally inconsistant, so we can't have that. What I demand is inconsitancy with everything, including the previous consistancy of being inconsistant. I de
    • b) Douglas Adams actually wrote quite a bit of the script to this film. He said that it would be different to the books and the radio show.
      Interesting references about it can be found in "The Salmon Of Doubt", a collection of various texts by DNA, both published and not, recovered from his computers after his departure (including a few chapters of his never-finished novel, another adventure of Dirk Gently). An absolutely suggested reading.

    • Re:Don't complain about changes (Score:5, Insightful)

      by eidolons ( 708050 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:44AM (#11157665) Homepage
      You know what is a positive sign? While the reviewer hadn't read or listened to Hitchhiker's in the past, his writing reflects he caught Adam's sardonic, existentialist British humor:
      For those of you who don't know this is your basic boy meets girl, boy loses girl to president of the galaxy, boy's planet is destroyed, boy finds girl and travels through the galaxy in search of the ultimate question. You know, the usual.
      Looks like the spirit of the books is present in the movies, for the author to obviously have caught the "bug" - that's the most important thing.

    • I know that Douglas Adams changed elements of the plot himself - inconsistency is fine (welcome, in fact). It's just that I can't quite see a chronically depressed robot as cute and adorable. We're talking about a robot who who caused a computer to commit suicide by telling it his view on life, and all the while I can't help comparing the costume design to a mechanized teletubby. It just doesn't seem to fit somehow.

      The only reservations I have (from what I know so far) are issues of production design rathe

      • It's just that I can't quite see a chronically depressed robot as cute and adorable. We're talking about a robot who who caused a computer to commit suicide by telling it his view on life, and all the while I can't help comparing the costume design to a mechanized teletubby.

        you forget that Marvin is a product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corp.

        The marketing division of which defines a robot as "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!" and features a "genuine people personality"

        admittedly the HG2G defines Th

      • Alas that is part of the absurd irony of Douglas adams. What it more unexpected than a cutsey family assistant who cant stand to be that way, or any way at all for that matter.

    • I'm heartened that Simon Jones has a part in the film (the "Magrathean greeting hologram"). It may be hard for me to accept anyone else playing Arthur (almost but not quite entirely unlike Simon Jones) but I'm pleased that the original Arthur is there in spirit.
  • I, for one, welcome our new snot-nosed gods.

  • Heads in nostrils (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:07AM (#11157506) Journal
    That's funny, since the news page on Douglas Adams Continuum where the picture link goes to, has this to say:

    THE NATURE OF ZAPHODS SECOND HEAD REVEALED?

    "In an additon to his test screen review on Ainitcool.com news earlier this week, "Cracker Thompson" makes an effort to set the reckord straight within the confusion his report caused, and to which a spoof news site added with stating that Zaphods head was located in his nostril:

    "1) I was worried about Mos Def because the only thing I had ever see him do was General Cornrow Wallace on the Chappelle Show. Not because I didn't think he would screw up the character seeing as I haven't read the books.

    2) Mos Def DOES NOT do a British accent in the movie.

    3) Zaphod does have his third arm, and his second head DOES NOT come out of his nose, rather it comes from underneath his already existing head."

    If this person has really seen the test screening, then this is the shit. Further speculation would in that case be rendered obsolete."

    That's yesterday news, posted 21 dec.
  • understand that in the movie, Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril

    And let me guess, his 3rd arm is actually on his foot. And he wears his sunglasses on his knees.

    There's artistic license and then there's just taking the piss.
    • Yes, this is ridiculous. Will Zaphod really only have one visible head? That just kills one of the central characters. Who needs all the CG in the world when they can't affix an extra head on an actor? The BBC Miniseries version of the second head was pretty stupid, but I'd take that over a "head in the nostril" one.

      • This is one of the many reasons why I wanted to see H2G2 as an animated movie. In animation, a two-headed, three armed Zaphod Beeblebrox would have been no trouble at all. Having the people I have envisioned for literally two decades as the characters:

        Zaphod: Bill Murray
        Arthur: John Cleese
        Ford: Eric Idle

        would not be a problem due to their ages because their voices would be all that would be needed. Some of the more unfilmable aspects of the book series could be rendered 100% filmable.

        Still, I'm willing t
    • you do realize that Adams wrote the screenplay, right? he often changed things completely to reinvent them. AFAIK, if its in the movie, he put it there.

  • Several factual errors in article.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by jridley ( 9305 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:14AM (#11157535)
    I think there is some confusion here.

    The great green Arkelseizure was the creature who's nose the universe was sneezed out of. It is worshipped by the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI, which lives in fear of the time of the coming of the great white hankerchief.

    It is in fact the Jatravartids that developed deodorant before the wheel, but it's because they had more than 50 ARMS each, not noses.

  • Karma whoring video mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by EvilCabbage ( 589836 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:15AM (#11157538) Homepage
    do your worst... [playingwithfire.org]

  • Nose-deo? (Score:3, Informative)

    by koi88 ( 640490 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:21AM (#11157555)

    a race with fifty noses, and the first to develop the aerosol deodorant before the wheel

    Wouldn't that be fifty arms? Seems like a much more logical solution... (and the correct one, if I correctly remember the book...

  • Before the film... (Score:3, Funny)

    by bcmm ( 768152 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:26AM (#11157584)
    Everyone read the books. NOW.
    Before the film comes out.

    It might get popular after the film or something and not be so geeky...

  • Zooey Deschanel (Score:3, Funny)

    by Evil Grinn ( 223934 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:28AM (#11157593)
    .. is destined to be the next great sex symbol for nerdy sci-fi fan adolescents and straight-men-preteding-to-like-indie-art-movies alike. Comic Book Guy and The Critic both agree that she's hot. Look out Natalie Portman and Liv Tyler. Move over Daria and that chick from "Ghost World". And she can sing, too.
  • This is awesome - very exciting. While the rest of the books didn't do for me what the first one did, they were all incredible!

    However - I've never heard any of the radio series. Is there a place where I can download them? Or do they have to be bought somewhere? Thanks..

    • Re:Radio Series Downloads? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Tony Hoyle ( 11698 ) <tmh@nodomain.org> on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:40AM (#11157647) Homepage
      You can buy them from the BBC shop.

      The newest one is pretty lame, as it DNA didn't write it - stick to the original ones (primary/secondary phases).
      • Yeah, DNA was so uninvolved in the latest radio series that he even managed to act in the thing from beyond the grave.

        I was under the impression that DNA did a great deal of work for the third series, including the aforementioned voice recording, before his untimely demise. Is that incorrect?
        • The voice done much earlier... most of the script was written later.

          The third series was a travesty - it was just a rehash of the existing books with no new content. It completely failed to have any link to the second series, and seemed to have been written by someone who had only read the books and thought that was all there was.
      • You can buy them from the BBC shop.

        BBC Shop - HGTG Stuff [bbcshop.com]

        Note to Americans: Prices in pounds, and I have no idea what they charge for shipping.
        • Is that the original radio show or the rerecording that was sold later on vinyl records? What you want is the original. I guess it's probably the original, since that is what BBC would have the righs for, but I wonder if anyone actually knows.

          I got the original on tapes through the internet from the other side of the planet back the mid 80s. Then I lent it to a friend, and his girlfriend recorded music for a party on top of them, since "there was just some guy talking" on them...
      • Douglas Adams didn't write all of the original series either. John Lloyd wrote a few episodes.
        This is why the Haggunenons only appear in the Radio Series, they were the creation of John Lloyd.

  • Proof that H2G2 has taken way too long to create.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by macz ( 797860 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:34AM (#11157619)
    1. Douglas Adams died
    2. Zooey DesChanel's web domain name [zooey-deschanel.com] expired due to non payment. Zooey plays Trillian.
    3. I was initially excited, 2 YEARS AGO. Now I don't give a F**K.

    That last one at least isn't entirely true, I really hope that this movie is as great as the book(s). Even the BBC Radio and television series were all well done, and entertaining, and I remember fondly comparing (heatedly) the differences in all of them with my friends like bible scholars compare the different gospels

    But with DA gone, I wonder if the spark went with him. I hope not.

    I saw a trailer for this at the beginning of "National Treasure" this last weekend. It showed the earth in space, while Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" played in the background. Then the earth blows up... and they say the tagline "The greatest adventure in the unverse begins when the world ends." Enter H2G2 logo, cut, print.

  • Small? (Score:3, Informative)

    by nicklott ( 533496 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @09:50AM (#11157717)
    http://www.douglasadams.se/movie/images/h2g2art51. jpg [douglasadams.se]

    That's the Heart of Gold??!

    It's a little smaller than I imagined it...


  • Or was the film so much of an issue that he just threw a SEP over himself. If you jump about and watch the clip, I'm sure there is something in the background.
  • FTA: First, I need to preface this review by leaving my nerd credentials at the door. I have not read Douglas Adams' series of books, nor have I heard the HITCHHIKER GUIDE TO THE GALAXY radio show. The only knowledge I had of Adams' works is what I had read on-line prior to the screening, so that maybe I would be able to get some of the inside jokes.

    So in otherwords your completely unqualified to review this for fans of Douglas Adams? This review might be useful for people who have no clue what H2G2 is bu

    • I suspect Disney is counting on getting a lot more cinema-goers than just those who've read the books or heard the radio series. In that case a review by someone who is equally ignorant of the source material is valuable. Just not to fans.

  • Some petimeter tidbits (Score:5, Informative)

    by dukedunstable ( 842704 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2004 @11:04AM (#11158353) Homepage
    Hey guys. Thought I'd pop by and offer some info. Douglas wrote the entire script. It was modified by Karey Kirkpatrick, director Garth Jennings and exec producer Robbie Stamp, who was friend and collegue of Douglas. Zaphod does not have a second head. It's a second face. It nests under his chin, and he brings it out by tilting his head back. The red flying bubble is the Heart of Gold rescue pod. The story will be losely, losely, based on the first novel. Every version of Hichhikers has been different, and the movie is no different. Ok, thanks. Dukey http://www.douglasadams.se
    • The story will be losely, losely, based on the first novel.

      This is the first, first, first time I have ever seen the "reverse" mis-spelling. Does this mean I should be booking a table at Milliways?
  • Where the book was SUPERB and the movie sucked monkey balls!
  • Why waste time not reading the article when you can not read the summary... That makes me sad.
  • Personally, in some aspects I find the books about Dirk Gently (Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency and Lond dark tea time of the soul) even better than hitchhikers guide. At least the latter one (tea time) is for me one of the funniest books I ever read. Sure, it probably helps if you're a scandinavian, but just the first 5 pages in tea time makes you laugh on your floor.

    The hitchhikers guide to the galazy is a masterpiece, but don't forget his other work :-)

    Albert
  • Very excited about Freeman getting the nod for this lead role! Judging by his performace on The Office [bbc.co.uk] as Tim, he'll be perfect!

    I think that Billy Boyd [imdb.com] would have been a good Ford Prefect. I think at the very least he'd have a better shot at pulling of a Guildford-like accent than Mos Def...

  • Wil Smith as Arthur Dent?

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