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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trailer 773

Rakkis writes "A new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer is available on the frontpage of Amazon.com. From IMDb: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows the travels of Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), who is saved from the demolition of the Earth by his pal Ford Prefect (Mos Def). Ford is really an alien doing research for an updated edition of the universe's ultimate travel companion, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens April 29th.""
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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trailer

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  • by alanw ( 1822 ) * <alan@wylie.me.uk> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:01PM (#11689778) Homepage
    All I can see on the front page (Firefox 1.0) is the plain text
    Now Playing on Amazon.com: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Download the Flash Player.
    A quick look at the html with w3m shows the direct link to the flash movie [amazon.com]
  • by vossman77 ( 300689 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:02PM (#11689789) Homepage
    Direct link to SWF and a download?

    AmazonFilms.swf [amazon.com]


    broken link to mov file
  • by Folmer ( 827037 ) * on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:07PM (#11689852)
    It looks like my adblock filterset.G blocked it.
    Now when i have disabled adblock it plays, but at random places in the trailer it just stops playing. I can't remember when i last went to this much trouble to see a trailer, but i'm about to give up now...
  • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:5, Informative)

    by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:13PM (#11689921) Homepage Journal
    According to the IMDB entry for the movie, this character was added specifically for the movie by Adams, who has credits as the screenwriter. So, any changes to the story line are most likely of his own doing.
  • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:5, Informative)

    by philbowman ( 707419 ) * on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:15PM (#11689945)
    No, the book (or radio series, or tv, or any combination of the above) says they're distant cousins, and IIRC share several of the same mothers...
  • Re:Can't see it (Score:2, Informative)

    by glpierce ( 731733 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:16PM (#11689961)
    The object is located in a folder names "ads", and is therefore blocked by just about any ad-filtering solution. It is not a false positive, however, as it is an ad (it just happens to be an ad that you want to see).
  • by Miaomiao ( 618330 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:16PM (#11689970) Journal

    It's a little hard to believe, but the movie is actually one of Douglous Adam's last works.

    One thing the movie wont be is an adaption of the books and radio play all over again, it's something fresh new and different in the Hitchhiker universe. I'm looking forward to it very much.

    If you're curious about what the plans for the movie were, and the process heading up to it you might want to check out "A Salmon of Doubt" which compiles Adam's final works, along with several letters and coorespondencies leading up to this movie amoung other things

    I'm going to be forever wondering what the story behind half a cat and the rhino will be though...

  • by philbowman ( 707419 ) * on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:17PM (#11689976)
    When Arthur met Trillian on Earth (Islington) before she went off with Zaphod, she was still called Trisha McMillan.

    I think Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril, or something like that.

  • by davron05 ( 778470 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:19PM (#11690001)
    http://images.amazon.com/media/imdb/01/ads/hhgttg4 2/AmazonFilms.swf
  • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:3, Informative)

    by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <brian@@@wylfing...net> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:19PM (#11690006) Homepage Journal
    Where does this Humma Kavula charachter come from?, played by Malkovich.. Was it created especially for the movie?

    According to IMDB:

    John Malkovich's character, a religious leader, was created especially for the movie by Douglas Adams.

  • Re:Erm (Score:3, Informative)

    by EEBaum ( 520514 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:20PM (#11690020) Homepage
    Did you see the same trailer? This one is new and does indeed show Vogon Constructor Ships.
  • by br0ck ( 237309 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:26PM (#11690096)
    Where the hell is Zaphod's second head????

    In the trailer, 1 minute in, when Zaphod throws ice into two martini glasses with two hands, it cuts away and then back to his head lifting up and a second head appearing underneath. I don't believe that in the book it ever said the heads were next to each other??

    (Note that I'm talking about the .mov version that somebody linked to halfway down the Fark discussion since the Amazon one wouldn't work for me.)
  • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:5, Informative)

    by fetta ( 141344 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:28PM (#11690122)
    Also worth remembering that there are already different versions of the tale - the differences between the radio play scripts and the novel are fairly significant.
  • by jpetts ( 208163 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:29PM (#11690149)
    Did they change Trillian's name to Trisha?

    Trillian's name is Tricia (sic):

    See here [schule.de]

  • by Azureflare ( 645778 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:36PM (#11690237)
    Sweet!! April 29th is my 22nd birthday!

    I couldn't ask for a better present. DNA is probably my favorite humorist, (followed closely by Terry Pratchett). I'm really looking forward to this film. This is going to be my birthday party... going to see DNA's imagination on the big screen!

  • by Jerdie ( 516662 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:37PM (#11690257) Homepage
    Worked fine for me in Mozilla.
    Of course, my flashblocker waited patiently for me to click it before allowing the flash to run. ;-)
  • Glossary (Score:2, Informative)

    by rtv ( 567862 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:37PM (#11690259)
    Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with
    Hoopy: really together guy
    Frood: really amazingly together guy

    Example usage: "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."

  • by bonch ( 38532 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:39PM (#11690289)
    I think Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril, or something like that.

    That was a silly web rumor that everyone decided to believe and spread around for no reason. Zaphod's second head simply hasn't been created in CG yet. Several interviews have come out in the past few months explaining all about this movie, but unfortunately, Slashdot seems to have rejected all those submissions!
  • Re:Sheesh. (Score:3, Informative)

    by precize ( 83096 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:48PM (#11690398) Homepage
    4-2, obviously
  • first trailer (Score:2, Informative)

    by supersuckers ( 841107 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:48PM (#11690401) Homepage
    for those that haven't already seen it, the first trailer is here http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/hitchhike rsguidetothegalaxy/ [apple.com]
  • by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:51PM (#11690452) Homepage
    Um, except that there's a moment in the trailer where something is going on with this neck. His head tilts back, and another face pops up from underneath. I suspect that's where his second head comes into play. If they just hadn't done the CGI yet, they wouldn't put shots of him in the trailer (besides, it'd be late in the game to not have any CGI shots of him completed).
  • by Saeger ( 456549 ) <farrellj@nosPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:00PM (#11690568) Homepage
    Worked fine for me in FireFox, but I did have to bypass two adfilters to see it. :)

    First, I had to click the FlashBlock [mozdev.org] icon to get it to play (since autostarting flash is a dumb idea when it's almost always an annoying ad). Second, my default Privoxy [privoxy.org] install helpfully blocked the flash movie from playing since there's a nasty "/ads/" redflag in the URL.

  • by tc ( 93768 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:05PM (#11690624)
    On the other hand, the books were already made into a TV and radio show, so it's not much of a secret, is it?

    Actually, it was the original radio show which was later turned into a book, and thence a TV show.
  • by gmr2048 ( 176781 ) * on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:07PM (#11690653) Homepage
    I had a (default?) filter in AdBlock set to block */ads/* which prevented it from being displayed.

  • Re:Ford's Thumb? (Score:5, Informative)

    by StrangeInterlude ( 780335 ) <jimspurrier@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:07PM (#11690659) Homepage
    Actually, Adams wrote an earlier draft of the screenplay a couple of years before his death. The final shooting script was completed by another screenwriter, Karey Kirkpatrick (best known for his work on Chicken Run). Kirkpatrick has said on the official movie site that he mostly embroidered on Adams' draft, adding a bit here and subtracting a bit there while leaving the bulk of the script intact. Apparently, he even added a few things directly from the books that Adams had left out of the script. So really the screenplay is more of a collaboration between Adams (the text) and Kirkpatrick (the tweaking of said text). I'm curious to see how it turns out.
  • by sterno ( 16320 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:09PM (#11690676) Homepage
    Go back and watch the trailer again. His second head appears briefly in like the last 10 seconds of the trailer, popping up from underneath his regular head.
  • by uhlume ( 597871 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:15PM (#11690743) Homepage
    ....Go back and rewatch the trailer. Zaphod distinctly sports not only a third arm, but what appears to be a second head -- although the glimpse of the head is so brief that I almost thought I imagined it the first couple of times through.
  • by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:19PM (#11690781) Homepage Journal
    Everything in the movie has Adams' sanction

    For the zillionth time, no:
    10 September 2004 - Roger Birnbaum: Co-Chairman and CEO of Spyglass Films

    We worked with Douglas for a while in trying to get the script [go.com] to a place where everyone was satisfied. I remember admiring Douglas' loyalty toward the fans and his total dedication to writing a movie that would live up to their expectations. It was tragic and heartbreaking when Douglas suddenly died. The movie came to an immediate standstill.

    It was well over a year after his passing that Douglas' widow, Jane Adams, encouraged us to move forward with the film as Douglas undoubtedly would have wanted. Karey Kirkpatrick, who had written the hugely successful "Chicken Run", was hired to complete the work Douglas had started on a film adaption of the book.

  • by McSpew ( 316871 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:19PM (#11690784)

    He wrote A screenplay, not this screenplay. He wrote what HE considered the final draft. And then, he died.

    You should read the rather funny self-interview conducted by the guy who wrote the final screenplay [go.com]. It's apparent from that interview--without being explicitly stated--that Adams's final draft was never going to be filmed without further modification. That's just the way the movie business works. Even the "final" approved script gets changed during filming because of (A) inspiration of the director to expand a scene, add a new scene, etc., or (B) the discovery that a scene that reads brilliantly on the page just doesn't work when filmed.

    Douglas Adams wrote a lot of great stuff, but he couldn't figure out how to structure it to make it work as brilliantly in movie form as it had in book and radio play form. The eventual screenplay consisted largely of reorganizing Adams's own material into a shootable script. Where changes deviating from Adams's own writings had to be made, they deferred to his intentions as much as possible, by referring to his notes, unfinished musings, half-written scenes, etc.

    Is there some stuff in the script that wasn't written by Douglas Adams himself? Definitely. Did they likely cut out stuff Adams would have kept? Probably. Did they put back in stuff that Adams had cut? Definitely.

    Unfortunately, due to his untimely death, we'll never know what Douglas Adams himself would have thought of this movie. If you'd asked me five years ago if a movie of HHGG could ever be anything other than horrible, I'd have answered with an unequivocal NO. But Peter Jackson's version of The Lord of the Rings has made me change my mind. I think it can be good. Will it? I don't know, but I'll withhold my judgement until I actually see it.

  • Re:Ford's Thumb? (Score:5, Informative)

    by patvan ( 234768 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:22PM (#11690810)
    It's not Ford's thumb.

    Because of the crappy quality of the trailer, you can hardly see the electronic thumb he's wearing. Looks like a ring with an antenna.

    To see it clearly, look here: http://www.h2g2movie.com/pages/february04.html [h2g2movie.com] and scroll down to the picture of the survival kit (with Towel, Babel Fish and Thumb).
  • by SmokeHalo ( 783772 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#11690914)
    Yes, a towel is very important. But you don't hitch a ride with a towel, you use the Sub-Etha thingy (the "thumb") for that.
  • by Auckerman ( 223266 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:43PM (#11691056)
    Your joking aside, what's really interesting is the book wasn't first. Here's a nice timeline:

    March 78 BBC Radio Show
    Dec 78 Christmas special
    May 79 Stage play in london
    Oct 79 The book is published

    It goes on and on, with TV shows, more Radio shows, the classic text adverture game, up to Adams himself writing the draft screenplay a selling movie rights to Disney. It's been in his hands the whole time. A living breathing story, something that in this day and age of keeping perfect records (as we like to think) is getting more and more rare.

    I've got copies of two of the BBC radio shows, I've seen TV adaptations. I'm looking forward to the movie, I'm sure Adams will continue with his great tradition even after death.
  • Re:Erm (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:58PM (#11691251) Homepage Journal
    you know with DNA doing the script before he died and them not changing a thing about it since then and all.

    10 September 2004 - Roger Birnbaum: Co-Chairman and CEO of Spyglass Films
    We worked with Douglas for a while in trying to get the script to a place where everyone was satisfied. I remember admiring Douglas' loyalty toward the fans and his total dedication to writing a movie that would live up to their expectations. It was tragic and heartbreaking when Douglas suddenly died. The movie came to an immediate standstill.

    It was well over a year after his passing that Douglas' widow, Jane Adams, encouraged us to move forward with the film as Douglas undoubtedly would have wanted. Karey Kirkpatrick, who had written the hugely successful "Chicken Run", was hired to complete the work Douglas had started on a film adaption of the book.
  • Re:Theme Music (Score:3, Informative)

    by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:02PM (#11691302)
    This is extremely common. I remember the first time I noticed it, in a trailer for (I think) Pitch Black. They were using the music from Stargate.

    My brother is actually in the film scoring business, and this is the normal state of affairs. Once the real score is finished they'll start using it. The music hasn't been "stolen," but fairly licensed.

  • by Gondola ( 189182 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:04PM (#11691318)
    I recently purchased the DVD version of the BBC's television production of HHGTTG. I would say to anyone who loved the books and intends to see this new film, be prepared for changes. Adams liked to tweak things, and according to what I saw on the DVD, the books have been revised and changed over time as Adams fiddled with bits here and there to refine them.

    The background information about the making of the series, and about Douglas Adams is fascinating. It reveals some of Adams' manic-depressive personality. It talks about how Adams was not one to write a book and then want to translate that 100% to another format; he welcomed change and refinement with the TV series, and based on what I saw in the interviews, I think he enjoyed the opportunity to revise and rewrite HHGTTG yet again on the big screen.

    Adams' only problem, according to the interviews and behind the scenes information, was an awful writer's block at the start of any project. The infamous line about loving deadlines, especially the sound they make as they go whooshing by, was very true for Adams personally.

    Adams was a performer; he didn't really want to be a writer. He started out performing, acting, doing live comedy. At least with writing, his particular quirky sense of humor reached many thousands of people who revere him for what he accomplished, personal foibles aside.

    If you saw the BBC series, Adams was featured in two different spots. One, he was in a suit counting money while walking out of the bank. The other, he was throwing his money away and walking into the water naked.
  • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:3, Informative)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:06PM (#11691336) Homepage Journal
    "No, the book (or radio series, or tv, or any combination of the above) says they're distant cousins, and IIRC share several of the same mothers..."

    I just read the book a week ago: Yes, these two are related. It's a very vague reference.
  • Link to avi. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:20PM (#11691527)
    Here you go :
    http://dicion.net/hhg.avi [dicion.net]
  • by imr ( 106517 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:21PM (#11691550)
    He will lose those after a while in the movie.
    It is in one of the 2 reviews that were linked here, iirc, et which was quite dispointed by the movie. It was a preview not the final thing tho'.
  • True direct link (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mr_Perl ( 142164 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:42PM (#11691853) Homepage
    Here are two direct links,

    One to the HUGE [vitalstream.com] trailer

    One to the SMALL [vitalstream.com] trailer.

    Quicktime format. See the site [go.com] for the in-between ones and read the source code on the pop-up.
  • by Mr_Perl ( 142164 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:48PM (#11691921) Homepage
    Note that these are the older trailers, if you want the newest ones you gotta use the flash...
  • by Happy Monkey ( 183927 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:51PM (#11691968) Homepage
    It was Ford who stuck out his thumb, and he had a glowing blue ring on it. So I guess they changed a thumb-shaped device into a thumb-mounted device.
  • by hollismb ( 817357 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @04:12PM (#11692198) Homepage

    Yes, but that's not the actual question, remember? Authur and Ford got shipped to earth 2 billion years in the past along with all those B-Class citizens from another planet, who subsequently, caused the actual earth-men to die out, which would have lost the question forever. When Aurthur and Ford conduct an experiment, which basically involved Arthur playing blindfolded scrabble, the question that came out was indeed "what's six times nine", but then again, Arthur wasn't technically descended from creatures created for the actual experiment, so it doesn't really count.



    Later, in Life, the Universe, and Everything, the come across Prak, who had too much truth serum and goes on to tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth, most of which has a lot to do with frogs. Later, when he stops laughing at Arthur enough to be able to answer a question, he notes that the answer and the question are mutually exclusive, in that no one person can know both the question and answer at the same time, and doing so would cause the universe to vanish and be replaced by something even stranger, if indeed it hadn't already happened.



    Just so happens, I read that part last night. Anyway, 'what's six times nine' is not the actual question.

  • by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @05:16PM (#11692914) Homepage
    But just to clarify, they have revealed his second head in the trailer, but it's hidden most of the time. Therefore, the reason for the one-headed Zaphod was not that the CGI hadn't been finished yet, but because his second head is under his first head, and therefore hidden by his shirt.

    In this sense, when asked, "Where the hell is Zaphod's second head????", the answer, "I think Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril, or something like that," is true enough. His head isn't hidden in his nostril, but it's "something like that". In other words, yes, Zaphod has a second head, but no, it's not visible under most circumstances.

  • by enosys ( 705759 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @05:24PM (#11693011) Homepage
    If you look at the source of the relevant part of the Amazon web page you can find the URL of an XML file [amazon.com] which gives you the URL for the trailer. However, it is an rtmp:// URL, and I don't know of any program that can download that.

    RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) is a proprietary protocol used for streaming media to a flash applet. There is also a totally unrelated RTMP (Routing Table Maintenance Protocol) in AppleTalk.

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