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H2G2 Film Website 321

Posted by michael from the disused-lavatory dept.
tplayford writes "On the third anniversary of Douglas Adams death, the makers of the 'Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' film have released their website, with a photo of the whole crew and a blog. I'm trying not to panic, but I just can't wait for the film to come out."
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H2G2 Film Website More

H2G2 Film Website

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  • Weird.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:08AM (#9139662)

    The new movie starts with "Click here to download the Flash Plug-In". I've seen that a lot, is that a new film studio?

    • Wasted (Score:3, Informative)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *
      The new movie starts with "Click here to download the Flash Plug-In". I've seen that a lot, is that a new film studio?

      Yet another wasted effort on a website. Flash is so aggrevating I simply do without and don't visit sites which require it. Poor choice not to offer a non-Flash website.

  • Waldo? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I like playing spot the black guy in the photo. It keeps me occupied for hours.

  • Skip flash (Score:5, Informative)

    by jfengel ( 409917 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:09AM (#9139668) Homepage Journal
    To skip the rather unnecessary Flash intro, go here [go.com]

  • Lets see if we can /. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Throtex ( 708974 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:10AM (#9139678)
    Deep Thought.
  • Not a very interesting site...

    Just a button you can't push!?!?!

    • Re:Not very good... (Score:3, Informative)

      by DaHat ( 247651 )
      Perhaps you should try pushing it again.
      • But it says...

        Please don't push this button

    • Re:Not very good... (Score:5, Funny)

      by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:16AM (#9139775) Homepage Journal

      Are you pushing your monitor hard enough with your index finger? Maybe try tapping it with a hammer. The button gets stuck sometimes.
    • I thought the main index page was a photograph of everyone who had contributed to the movie.

      I could imagine the director making a speech -"This movie is dedicated to every ancestor who has contributed DNA to my family tree, with special consideration to my great-great-great grandfather who contributed the gene TGHA-3 in Chromosome 6, and my great-great-great-great-grandmother who contributed the genes OXGH-5 and SRGH-3 in Chromosome 20."

  • Uhm? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Xilo ( 741751 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:10AM (#9139687) Journal
    I watched the Guide several years ago, and was really kinda disappointed. It's cool that it's finally .. being remade? What exactly is going on?

    • Re:Uhm? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Throtex ( 708974 )
      This is a movie. What you watched was a miniseries.

      Presumably you know that it's based off of a book, otherwise you wouldn't be here. :)

      • Re:Uhm? (Score:5, Informative)

        by drdink ( 77 ) * <smkelly+slashdot@zombie.org> on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:20AM (#9139853) Homepage
        Isn't the miniseries more based off the radio version? The radio was the original, then came the book.

    • Re:Uhm? (Score:5, Funny)

      by grahams ( 5366 ) * on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:13AM (#9139733) Homepage
      What you saw a few years ago was a BBC TV miniseries. It had a budget of approximately 3 dollars (US).

      The new film is a hollywood production.

      • Re:Uhm? (Score:3, Funny)

        by Throtex ( 708974 )
        You gotta give credit where credit is due! That lifelike prosthetic head and third arm Zaphod wore around certainly constituted all three of those dollars by themselves!

        • Re:Uhm? (Score:3, Informative)

          by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 )
          That lifelike prosthetic head and third arm Zaphod wore around certainly constituted all three of those dollars by themselves!

          Though some satire was intended, that is mostly true, though the dollar value is a bit off.

          Apparently a great deal of money DID go into the arm and head of Zaphod, and they were supposed to do a great number of things that they never really could quite get to work properly.

          As for the Three Dollars, that was probably spent on the beers consumed in the pub scene. :)

          • Re:Uhm? (Score:5, Informative)

            by Mark Hood ( 1630 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:42AM (#9140118) Homepage
            Apparently a great deal of money DID go into the arm and head of Zaphod, and they were supposed to do a great number of things that they never really could quite get to work properly.

            Actually, they did work, very well.

            Unfortunately owing to the budget constraints, there wasn't time to recharge the batteries between rehearsal and takes, so Zaphod's second head spent a lot of time asleep :)

            I heartily recommend the DVD of the mini-series, whcih includes a short clip of the head on 'Tomorrow's World' explaining how clever it is...

            Mark

  • Visiting executives from LA (Score:4, Funny)

    by lordmoose ( 696738 ) * on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:11AM (#9139693) Journal
    That's never a good sign.

  • Probability. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bludstone ( 103539 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:11AM (#9139696)
    While this story has adapted well to radio, book, and even a campy TV mini-series, what is the probability of hollywood trashing this?

    Id say higher then turning a nuclear missle into a confused sperm whale.

    I hope that this doesnt wind up sucking. But, unfortunatly, I think it will.

    Oh well.

    • Re:Probability. (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:14AM (#9139741)
      5,233,001 to 1 against... and falling!

      • Re:Probability. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Golias ( 176380 )
        So all we need is a hot cup of tea and...

        Eh, screw it. Quoting Adams is getting to be as pointless, annoying and overdone as quoting Monty Python.

    • Re:Probability. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by AceCaseOR ( 594637 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:17AM (#9139781) Homepage Journal
      From what I've gathered so far about the film, the only thing any Hollywood schmucks have to do with the actual filmmaking (aside from any special effects), would be with distributing it and promoting it in the USA. I've got faith that the film won't suck.

      However if it does suck, we may see the nerd riots [pvponline.com] after all, except they'll be in 2005-6 instead of 2004.

    • Re:Probability. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by pubjames ( 468013 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:24AM (#9139904)
      what is the probability of hollywood trashing this?

      Quite high, I expect.

      I mean, when hollywood can fuck up making a movie of Starsky and Hutch for flipsake, what chance have they got with this?

      I do hope they get the point of Arthur Dent in the story and don't try to make him funny. Like Brian in the Life of Brian, the comedy revolves around him and his situation. If they try to make Arthur into a comic character it won't work so well.

      Having said that, I think they have chosen the right actor for Arthur.

      • Re:Probability. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mydigitalself ( 472203 )
        Maybe not...they've cast John Malkovich who generally is involved with pretty good non-mainstream productions.

      • >I mean, when hollywood can fuck up making a movie of Starsky and Hutch for flipsake, what chance have they got with this?

        What, exactly, constitutes fucking up Starsky and Hutch? The teevee show sucked on virtually every level... bad acting, bad writing. If the movie sucks, it's just being faithful to the original. Some movies appear to be successful if being a great fit for MST3K is the goal.

    • HHGTTG might be a Hollywood producer's dream book: something that can be adapted and reinterpreted liberally without worrying about staying true to the source material.

      After all, IIRC, the plots of the radio series, TV series, books, and text adventure game [douglasadams.com] all differ from each other, starting sometime after Ford and Arthur arrive on the Heart of Gold.

  • Call me Marvin, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Doches ( 761288 ) <Doches@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:12AM (#9139720)
    ...After what I've heard about Disney having the script re-written after Adams' death, I'm not exactly looking forward to this _travesty_ with his name on it.

  • Comfy (Score:3, Funny)

    by CptSparrow ( 759491 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:13AM (#9139726)
    I wonder what the three guys in the front of the photo do that allow them to wear blue fuzzy slippers?!

  • Reload the page (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tribbles ( 218927 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:18AM (#9139818) Homepage
    The opening page acts in different ways when you press the button - although I had to restart the browser for it to change (refresh didn't seem to cut it).

  • Whatever... Vaporflick alert!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by LqqkOut ( 767022 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:22AM (#9139871) Journal
    Hate to break it to you all, but there isn't anyone in that staff pic with 2 heads. There's no way they can make this flick w/out the coolest guy in the universe!

  • Stock up on untainted books now (Score:4, Interesting)

    by spuke4000 ( 587845 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:22AM (#9139883)
    Better buy a bunch of copies now, before all you can buy are the one's with the picture of the cast on the cover saying "Now a major motion picture."
    • The phrase "Never judge a book by its cover" springs to mind.

      What difference does the picture on the front have to do with the quality of the words inside? Is your enjoyment of them related to the image on the front somehow?
      • Actually, I can't stand these covers, because even if I decide to read the book before the movie, I end up picturing the actors in my head while I'm reading, rather than letting my brain come up with its own interpretation. I always feel somehow cheated out of a crucial part of the experience when this happens.

        The worst was when I reread The Lord of The Rings before the movies came out. Even though I had read it before, my mind was tainted and I couldn't even recall how I had originally pictured them.

        Of
      • I don't see much of a problem with that myself either.

        Worse, however, is the pernicious phenomenon of the "book based on the film based on the book".

        Screenplay novelisations of films based on books are invariably rank.

      • Re:Stock up on untainted books now (Score:5, Funny)

        by jea6 ( 117959 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:46AM (#9140177)
        People who buy a book only after it has become a major motion picture are tag-alongers not true-believers. Tag-alongers deserve noting but our ultimate scorn. True-believers have been there since the beginning and are worthy of our undying affection and respect. It is only the power of the true-believer that has allowed this book to become a major motion picture. Everybody else is a free-loader who can bring no insight or value to this proposition.

        Other examples of this phenomenon are:
        • LOTR (obviously)
        • Harry Potter (When did you read Sorcerer's Stone)
        • My Slashdot ID is lower than yours (Sub-groups here are 3-digit, 4-5 digit, low 6 digit IDs)
        • People who had to watch Soprano's Season 1 after Season 2.
        • People who first watched the Matrix on DVD.
        • Anyone born after Carter left office.
        Apparently, the comic book scene (which I know nothing about), is chock-full of this ninniness too. The list could go on. My lunch break, alas, can not.

  • Unleash Mr Prosser (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zenmojodaddy ( 754377 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:23AM (#9139888)
    Radio series, in which Adams was involved: great.

    Books, in which Adams was involved: variable, from okay to great.

    TV series, in which Adams was involved: pretty cool, all things considered.

    Film, with no input from Adams but lots from clueless Hollywood types: worse than Vogon poetry, I betcha. Prepare to gnaw your own legs off.

  • Humma Kavula (Score:5, Informative)

    by vossman77 ( 300689 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:33AM (#9140010) Homepage
    At the IMDB site [imdb.com] it shows that John Malkovich is playing Humma Kavula. My labmate had no idea who this was so a quick google search gave us this site [lutherarkwright.com] and we learn:
    Joining the cast set to start shooting the movie of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in London next month is the acclaimed actor John Malkovich. In a slight twist to the original concept, engineered by Douglas Adams in creating the initial draft script for the movie, Malkovich will play a crazed missionary, living amongst the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle Six, called Humma Kavula. The script for the film went through at least two other writers hands after Douglas's death in 2001, so only time will tell how much of his original concept will survive the trip to the silver screen.

    This character doesn't appear in the books. I was wondering if anyone knows how Humma Kavula works into the story.

    • Re:Humma Kavula (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cally ( 10873 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @11:15AM (#9140514) Homepage
      It should be interesting....
      Many races believe [the universe] was created by some sort of god, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI firmly believed that the entire universe was infact sneezed out of the nose of a being called teh "great Green Arkleseizure". The Jatravartids, small blue creatures with more than fifty arms each who were therefore unique in having invented the aerosol deoderant before the wheel, lived in perpetual fear of a time called "the coming of the Great White Hankerchief". However, the Great Green Arkleseizure theory is not widely accepted
      outside Viltvodle VI...
      From the intro to the first book IIRC, and from memory so probably wrong in places.

      Shit, how sad is it that I can recite this stuff verbatim? ah well that's what comes of falling asleep listening to the radio shows every night for 20 years. OK I exaggerate a little for comic effect but one grilf did give me plenty of grief over it. (The others just left...;)

  • Something it didn't say (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dacarr ( 562277 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:38AM (#9140067) Homepage Journal
    The button first said "please do not push this button"; upon pushing it, I expected the word "again" to be appended. Instead, I got "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED".

    Ah, well.

    • Re:Something it didn't say (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Strange Ranger ( 454494 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @11:25AM (#9140619)
      I think ^that says the most about the upcoming movie. It will be an Adams-esque movie, wrapped in a Somebody Else's Humor Field so that only those who are looking for the differences can tell.

      But the difference really do matter. "again" really tickles the funny bone. "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" is only mildly amusing.

      Just like the web site, the movie is sure to be almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Adams.

  • Cast & Crew (Score:3, Informative)

    by slackerboy ( 73121 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:38AM (#9140070)
    Well, according to , it looks like they've chosen an interesting cast. I think Martin Freeman is an excellent choice for Arthur. I suspect Warwick Davis is being cast as Marvin simply because he seemed so pessimistic for most of Willow. [imdb.com]

    One of the screenplay writers, Karey Kirkpatrick, also was credited with working on the screenplay for Chicken Run, which was pretty good and original. So I think we can all continue to hold out hope for a while longer.

  • Three destructions (Score:5, Informative)

    by dinaui ( 733236 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:40AM (#9140094)
    The flash intro apparently randomly chooses one of three ways to destroy the Earth:
    1. A standard explosion, with chunks of planet flying by
    2. A burst of light which vaporizes the planet
    3. Getting hit by the cue-ball in a game of galactic billiards
    Using IE 6, refreshing did work to see differing intros, but the randomizer does often go on runs of the same intro.

  • Just a Reminder! (Score:2, Informative)

    by thefritob ( 234484 )
    Towel Day is coming! May 25th!

    towelday.com [towelday.com]
  • As an avid fan of HHG2G, I'm looking forward to the movie a lot.

    It seems to be a very good cast, from what I've seen, nobody really huge, so the past movie baggage isn't there (which like it or not, matters a LOT for a movie like this).

    As well, for arguments that Hollywood is going to screw it up..well..from everything I heard, the HHG2G story is already going to be screwed up from the first draft written by DNA. It's the same thing as the book was screwed up from the radio script.

    It's part of the mythos
  • but the reason a lot of films suck is the dialogue and characterisation doesn't work. You can't just swap people in and out of roles to fit an audience demographic *without rewriting all their lines and possibly changing everything* Mos Def as Arthur Dent? where did that come from? Is he going to play it straight as the original character (i.e. not flash, just a jobbing journalist), or as I would imagine - he's going to be a little cool and swarve/charming? If so why would he be friends with Dent in the fi

  • here i am (Score:3, Funny)

    by zarniwhoop ( 698439 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @11:11AM (#9140461)
    with a brain the size of a planet and all you want me to do is moderate? Oh, alright I'll moderate but don't ask me to enjoy it becasue I won't.

    Hang on - I'm supposed to be designing the fjords...

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