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Hitchhikers Movie Update 302

Posted by timothy from the movie-worth-waiting-for dept.
DaViking writes "Over at Yahoo Movies there are a few more pictures, including one of the Heart of Gold, and an updated trailer for up coming Hitchhikers movie." I'm hoping this film will inspire some sequels, too!
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Hitchhikers Movie Update More

Hitchhikers Movie Update

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  • how bout burt reynolds in smokey and the restaurant at the end of the universe?

  • Great. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:46PM (#10808755)
    They're going to make Heart of Gold into a spaceball.

  • Can't wait (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Z00L00K ( 682162 )
    to see who is Zaphod Beeblebrox! It must be a challenge to do a guy with two heads unless you're a siamese twin!

    Just too bad that Mr. Adams died too early! He had a lot of satiric writing left to do! Or as a friend of mine that I lent a book of Adams to stated; "I wonder what he smoked..."

    • Sam Rockwell is playing him.

      And I thought the general shape of the Heart of Gold was that of a sneaker... or am I completely missing some section of my memory?

      • Re:Can't wait (Score:5, Informative)

        by Rary ( 566291 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:08PM (#10809283)
        "And I thought the general shape of the Heart of Gold was that of a sneaker"

        The thing about the H2G2 universe, though, is that everything changes, nothing is definite, and many things that exist in one of the versions of the story (radio, tv, book, computer game, movie, whatever) completely contradict the way things are in the other versions. That's the way Douglas Adams wanted it to be.

        To quote the man himself (from A Guide To The Guide: Some unhelpful remarks from the author in the omnibus edition of the first four books in the Trilogy...

        The History of
        The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now so complicated that every time I tell it I contradict myself, and whenever I do get it right I'm misquoted. So the publication of this omnibus edition seemed like a good opportunity to set the record straight -- or at least firmly crooked. Anything that is put down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good.
        • The thing about the H2G2 universe, though, is that everything changes, nothing is definite, and many things that exist in one of the versions of the story (radio, tv, book, computer game, movie, whatever) completely contradict the way things are in the other versions. That's the way Douglas Adams wanted it to be.

          No. The thing about the H2G2 universe is that Douglas Adams was constantly tweaking it around so it was never the same twice. That doesn't give Disney the right to come up with a version that no

          • Re:Can't wait (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Rary ( 566291 )
            "That doesn't give Disney the right to come up with a version that not only totally contradicts every single one of Adams' versions, but also totally contradicts everything the man's legions of fans can possibly believe the man himself would ever have come up with."

            How do you know Disney came up with the new Heart of Gold? Adams put many years into planning this movie. A lot of people involved with it right now are personal friends of his. Maybe this was his vision.

            All I'm saying is that I'm not going to i

      • Yes you are, it was knocked out by a micro-asteroid, possibly desguised as a tennis ball.
        Unfortunatly when the nanites were dispaced to replace the missing memory they too fell out of the same hole made by the aforementioned tennis ball.

      • Re:Can't wait (Score:3, Funny)

        by naoursla ( 99850 )
        It IS in the shape of a sneaker. It's even the same size. Do you think that everyone in the galaxy has feet shaped like we roadblocks do?
  • That Heart of Gold looks like an upturned air freshener!

    I like that!!

  • did they read the book? (Score:5, Informative)

    by soundofthemoon ( 623369 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:48PM (#10808781)
    Sorry, but that rendering of the Heart of Gold looks wrong. It's supposed to be shaped like a running shoe. Hmm, perhaps it is supposed to be a running shoe shaped for the foot of a superintelligent shade of the color blue.
    • I remember it being described as "sleek."
    • They did read the book, have you not seen Nike's new designs yet?

    • Re:did they read the book? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rary ( 566291 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:20PM (#10809348)
      "Sorry, but that rendering of the Heart of Gold looks wrong."

      How can it be "wrong"? If that's what it looks like in the movie, then it is absolutely not wrong.

      To be more precise, the movie is not the book. The book is not the radio play. The radio play is not the tv series. And the tv series is most definitely not the Infocom text adventure game.

      If I recall correctly, in the radio play and tv series, the characters went to Milliways before they got to Magrathea. In the books, Milliways happened in the second book, with Magrathea happening in the first. Definite contradiction there. In the books, Trillian is clearly described as being brunette and extremely intelligent. In the tv series she was a dumb ditzy blonde. In the movie, Ford Prefect is black. In the tv series, he was white.

      Douglas Adams always changed things up when the story went from one medium to another. There is no right or wrong in telling the H2G2 story. The story simply is whatever it is in whatever medium you happen to be experiencing it in. In this medium, the Heart of Gold is a ball. In the book, it was a shoe. If you want the shoe version, read the book. But this isn't the book, it's the movie, and it will differ, even contradict, the other versions -- which, by the way, frequently contradict each other already. This is nothing new. It's the way it has always been in the universe of H2G2.

      • If I recall correctly, in the radio play and tv series, the characters went to Milliways before they got to Magrathea.

        You don't. Arthur and Ford are getting picked up by Zaphod and Trillian on their way to Margratea.

        This chain of event stays the same at least in the numerous plays and the book.

        • "This chain of event stays the same at least in the numerous plays and the book."

          Actually, I think you're correct. What actually happens, I believe, is they go to Magrathea, then on to Milliways, but most of the rest of the events from the first book that happen prior to those two events in the book, happened after them in the radio series. According to the introduction in the omnibus edition of the first four books, the first book was based on radio series episodes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 5 and 6, in that ord

      • Re:did they read the book? (Score:4, Funny)

        by dswensen ( 252552 ) * on Saturday November 13, 2004 @08:42PM (#10809784) Homepage
        In other news, in this movie, Zaphod Beeblebrox will be played by an eleven year old Vietnamese girl who speaks all her lines through interpretive dance.

        Hey, relax you uptight purists! Just go read the book! It's in the movie, so it has to be right!

      • Re:did they read the book? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by hazee ( 728152 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @10:09PM (#10810176)
        The crucial difference is that when Adams introduced anything new, he went to extraordinary lengths to make sure it was just right and, crucially, extremely funny. We know that he went through countless revisions of all his work, attempting to get it "just so".

        Now we've got some unknown twit messing with the details for no good reason. If I wanted to see the musings of this nobody, I would have bought their books instead.

        Changing the details from those established by the original author just for the hell of it is WRONG, especially when the original author isn't able to protest.

        How would the LOTR movies have fared if they'd just decided to, oh I don't know, make all the hobbits 7 feet tall, say? Just for the hell of it? How many very pissed off people would that have resulted in?
      • So in other words, if they release a new sequel to MIB, and call it H2G2, that's ok, because the movie is not the book? A certain amount of continuity is necessary: Zaphod must have three arms and two heads, Marvin must be an electronic sulking machine, Vogons must be green, the mice must escape, and someone's arm must be bruised.

      • If I recall correctly, in the radio play and tv series, the characters went to Milliways before they got to Magrathea. In the books, Milliways happened in the second book, with Magrathea happening in the first. Definite contradiction there. In the books, Trillian is clearly described as being brunette and extremely intelligent. In the tv series she was a dumb ditzy blonde. In the movie, Ford Prefect is black. In the tv series, he was white.

        ready for extreme pedanticism?

        Ford's color was never given, or I'

    • you have to admit though, the bridge is excitingly chunky. Also, Marvin looks pretty depressed and Martin Freeman looks like a serviceable Dent.

      Give 'em a chance, it's not like they're casting Kenneth Branagh as Arthur Dent or something.
    • Sorry, but that rendering of the Heart of Gold looks wrong. It's supposed to be shaped like a running shoe.

      Perhaps it's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a running shoe?

  • Heart of Gold (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ford Prefect ( 8777 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:48PM (#10808782) Homepage
    Erm.. Wasn't it supposed to look more like a giant trainer than a bowling ball?
    Beneath it lay uncovered a huge starship, one hundred and fifty metres long, shaped like a sleek running shoe, perfectly white and mindboggingly beautiful. At the heart of it, unseen, lay a small gold box which carried within it the most brain-wretching device ever conceived, a device which made this starship unique in the history of the galaxy, a device after which the ship had been named - The Heart of Gold.

    • Re:Heart of Gold (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) *
      Yea, they can't even get the plain written facts of the story right, I'd be terrified what Disney is going to mangle the story into if I planned to watch it. Me, I have the DVD set from the BBC. Even if they did get the story right I'm just not sure the story will benefit from a major cgi driven Hollywood remake.
      • The BBC TV series concept of the Heart of Gold [bbc.co.uk] didn't look that bad, IMHO.

    • Re:Heart of Gold (Score:5, Funny)

      by Adhemar ( 679794 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:09PM (#10808908)
      The shape of the ship is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a shoe.

    • Re:Heart of Gold (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NaveWeiss ( 567082 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:57PM (#10809223) Homepage Journal
      Yes, like in the Hebrew cover [avikatz.net] of the book.

      (BTW: Any female H2G2 fans here? I'm looking for a girlfriend!)

    • Re:Heart of Gold (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mh101 ( 620659 )
      DNA never specified it was shaped like a shoe to fit a human foot, did he? :)
    • This was Douglass Adams's idea. This was one bit he made clear before he died.

      Anyway, what good are stories if you're compelled to stay consistent? Adams certainly felt no compulsion, hence the five book trilogy, as well as the changed story in every medium.

      I find the inconsistencies funny as they add to the confusion as people talk about Hitchhiker's Guide. Maybe that's just me.

  • Charlie Brown (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lxt ( 724570 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:49PM (#10808786) Journal
    Am I the only one who gets an image of Charlie Brown when looking at art of Marving looking down at a barren landscape? Weird :)

    • Re:Charlie Brown (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Walt Dismal ( 534799 )
      You have a point. It looks like the Disney execs decided to make Marvin 'cute', which is a really stupid thing. Marvin is supposed to be a whiny character you laugh at because he's always complaining; the fun comes from looking down on his impotence. Making him sympathetic like a puppy is completely antithetical to the role. Worst, those money grubbing bastards will probably make a cutesy Marvin toy and stick it in a McD 'Brain the Size of a Small Planet' Happy Meal. I just hope the clueless execs at Disney
      • Looks like the production staff have taken the phrase "Brain the size of a planet" FAR too literally.

        Tsk.

      • Re:Charlie Brown (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Oh I believe the execs at Disney are quite clueful. They know their target audience very well and no, it's not us. It's the "American public" who voted for Bush twice... Don't be surprised if the movie turns into a 20-minute spaceship chase and ends with Arthur and Ford preventing a major terrorist attack with a surprisingly one-sided shootout where they kill 200 clumsy Arabs without breaking a sweat.

      • Re:Charlie Brown (Score:5, Funny)

        by UserGoogol ( 623581 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:25PM (#10809380)
        Although his form is completely contradictory to the original vision, it could work. After all, I think Disney has a very intimate understanding of what "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes" would have in mind while designing a robot.

  • Another Heart of Gold complaint... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by neuro.slug ( 628600 ) <neuro__ AT hotmail DOT com> on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:49PM (#10808788)
    Whatever happened to a "space age running shoe sleekness"?

    However, on a positive note, that spacecraft does look like it's from a Douglas Adams novel :D

    -- n

  • A lot of sphears. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) * on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:51PM (#10808792)
    It seems that spheres are going to be a very common shape in this movie, With Planets, The Hart of Gold that looks like a big sphere, and Marvins head which is a huge sphere on a little body. I don't know about everyone else all those sphears seem more of a nineties thing. The 2000 seem to prefer more edges in the style.
    • It seems that spheres are going to be a very common shape in this movie, With Planets, The Hart of Gold that looks like a big sphere, and Marvins head which is a huge sphere on a little body. I don't know about everyone else all those sphears seem more of a nineties thing. The 2000 seem to prefer more edges in the style.
      Sounds like load of balls to me. ;-)
    • It seems that spheres are going to be a very common shape in this movie


      I look forward to Anna Nicole Smith's cameo appearance!

    • you're complaining about datedness? Cripes, go read the books again, talk about a trip to the early 1980s.

  • Marvin, oh Marvin (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gwernol ( 167574 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:53PM (#10808799)
    "Marvin the depressed robot"? WTF? He's Marvin the Paranoid Android. I know he is a robot who is depressed, but sheesh he is, was, and always will be the paranoid android.

    If they can't even get that right... let's hope its just the phone sanitizers at Yahoo who made the mistake and not the movie's writer(s).

  • Sequels! Yes! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:57PM (#10808827)
    Because we all know that if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

    Besides, sequels are usually just as good if not better than the original.

    Sorry. I'll shut up now.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @05:58PM (#10808830)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • It would seem that... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by th3space ( 531154 ) <brad@bradfuci o u s . c om> on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:00PM (#10808843) Homepage
    there's very little to be said for artistic license. I, for one, am just happy that this is making its way into the visual realm, and relish the thought of getting to see what the disney artists concepts of adams' work end up looking like. perhaps holding one's tongue and putting judgement by the wayside until it's been released would be a pragmatic thing to do?

    nevermind...that's not a shoe! ;)

  • That's no Heart of Gold... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Colonel Cholling ( 715787 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:06PM (#10808883)
    ...that's a space station!

  • uhhhh (Score:2, Interesting)

    by moosesocks ( 264553 )
    I think it's cause for concern when the release is 7 months away and all they have so far is CONCEPT ART!!!

    Or is it possible to produce a film of this proportion in that span of time???

  • Direct Link to Trailer (Score:4, Informative)

    by David Saxton ( 725580 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:13PM (#10808928)
    For those who don't want to scroll through countless popups: wget http://mp3content01.bcst.yahoo.com/bus01root6/Bus0 1Share24/yahoomovies/6/8768235.mov

  • boo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mpost4 ( 115369 ) * on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:16PM (#10808945) Homepage Journal
    I love HHGTTG and probably will go see it just for that, but it looks like Disney is tring to make it into a kids movie. Just look at Marvin. (Mod me down if you want) but it saddens me that Disney is making this movie. I fear that they might try to "clean" up the movie.
    • I eagerly await the part where Marvin runs down the hall shouting DANGER WILL ROBINSON while Captain Joey Tribiani grasps his towel in a masculine fashion and tries not to panic.

    • Re:boo (Score:3, Funny)

      by myowntrueself ( 607117 )
      "but it looks like Disney is tring to make it into a kids movie."

      Well yeah, its *disney*

      If they'd released it under 'touchstone' then maybe Trillian would be sexy... but it'd still be total crap; Its *disney*, remember.

      Even Hitchikers will be shit once disney get through with it.

    • Re:boo (Score:3, Funny)

      by michaeldot ( 751590 )

      Disney "made" Pulp Fiction.

      And the way they dumbed down that motherf****r down really gave me the f****ng ****s!

      (Mind you, I wouldn't mind someone going medieval on Eisner's ass. The guy's a bozo and shouldn't be in charge of a company as important to US culture as Disney.)

    • Re:boo (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fbg111 ( 529550 )
      Agreed. Too bad Pixar isn't doing HHGTTG instead. I know they prefer to do their own stuff, but I think their creativity would strongly complement Adam's flippantly brilliant style, and they'd probably enjoy such a unique challenge as well. Oh well, coulda shoulda woulda...
  • From the official website: "If you don't want Flash you can go directly to the blog."

    And where does this link take you to? A page with a single full-screen Flash.

    Ah well...
  • So there should be plenty of material for 5 or 6 more movies

  • Lame Design ... so far ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by orangeguru ( 411012 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @06:37PM (#10809074) Homepage
    Marvin looks like a small little stormtrooper drone. Yuck! And the Heart of Gold ... like a flying airport. All drawings and photos so far look way to clean and 2001 like.

    And I miss a bit more englishness so far ...

    Very different to the first pictures and stuff Peter Jackson released about Lord of the Rings (which had just the right 'feeling'about them).

    I am afraid Hitchhikers will be a flop ...
  • Did anyone else notice the constellation near the end of the trailer? How can they give away the answer without asking the question?

    Mr.

  • That's a Blog? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bozoman42 ( 564217 )
    It's hip to have a blog, isn't it? Of course, it is. That's why when launching a new movie Hollywood thinks they must put up a blog as part of the promotional mix.

    Of course, Hollywood appears to know about as much about what a blog is as what the Heart of Gold is really supposed to look like. Just because you take your standard production news site run by some faceless intern with no community feedback features and CALL it a blog, doesn't make it a blog...

  • "new" trailer? (Score:5, Informative)

    by wyldeone ( 785673 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:00PM (#10809238) Homepage Journal
    Am I the only one who has a problem with this being called a new trailer? There was actually a /. story when this teaser trailer came out about 6 months ago.
  • If Disney can't even get the Heart of Gold to look like a sneaker, how can we expect them to get the mockery of intergalactic corporations right? If only Douglas Adams is dead only for tax purposes after selling his artistic license to the Mickey Mouse club, we might one day see an H2G2 movie worth all this expensive simulation. Otherwise, the Ursa Minor publishing houses might as well pack it in - we'll be better off reading the longer, but more accurate, Encyclopedia Galactica.

  • Repeat after me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by adolfojp ( 730818 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:04PM (#10809259)
    Ok, repeat after me. It is a mass media oriented movie adaptation of a non visual original that appealed only to a niche market.

    Changes will have to be made in order to make it marketable and profitable. Kids will want to see it, and they will not understand the humour, so they will need cutesy characters. Many non intelectual types will expect more explosions and COOL effects than required so they will be there. The ships will be of a more recognizable shape so that the average moviegoer doen't say "A sneaker! This is lame". And so on...

    If I don't get another Battlefield Earth I will be more than happy with the movie. And only if it makes a profit we will get a sequel.

    Cheers, Adolfo
    • The ships will be of a more recognizable shape so that the average moviegoer doen't say "A sneaker! This is lame"

      Right, so instead they get to say, "A bowling ball! This is lame"

      How is a sphere more of a recognizable shape for a spaceship, over something that has characteristics which suggest a shoe? Take most visual ideas of spacecraft, break off the pointy bits, take slight license with the lines, and you can have all kinds of shoe-like craft. But a sphere.. Can someone possibly be less imaginative?

  • one movie per novel? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Harald Paulsen ( 621759 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @07:05PM (#10809261) Homepage
    I was hoping they would make one movie per novel, sort of like lord of the rings. There is so much material in the books that there shouldn't be a problem to make several movies, one per novel.
  • At least Martin Freeman seems to be exited.

    Martin Freeman's blog of the movie can be found here [martinfreeman.com]. It also includes the stupid game of babelfish!

    Cheers
    Adolfo
  • I'm running Firefox on Gentoo. When I tried to watch the trailer, I got to this URL [yahoo.com], which tells me that I need to 'upgrade' to IE or Netscape.

    First round running shoes, now upgrading Firefox to IE. It's a world gone topsy-turvy!

  • Different endings of Earth? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @08:20PM (#10809685) Homepage
    For those who hadn't noticed yet: try reloading the http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com site a few times. (Hm... Would that be considered a Serial-Slashdotting?) There are a number of different fashions in which the earth gets obliterated -- Not sure how many there are total, but I've seen at least 7 different ones.

  • I hope they (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Aropax20 ( 636154 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @11:06PM (#10810509)
    I truly hope they don't Americanise this movie too much, but keep it very "English".

    Before any US /.-ers mod me down for that remark on patriotic grounds (I'm not a Brit, but Aussie, btw), consider this:

    The original Arthur Dent was very, very, very English - meaning that, no matter what happened, he approached it with the traditional (and much stereotyped) British "stiff upper lip".

    Case in point: refer to the tale he told Fenchurch in "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" about the biscuits in the railway station.

    Adams' delightfully dry humour will only translate well if Arthur maintains the original Dent nature.

    And let's face it, the dialogue is the best part about HHGTTG, in all it's forms - radio program, book, TV series, LP series, stage show and (hopefully) this movie! I doesn't need to be about great special effects as long as it's funny :)

    Adams himself said the TV series was his least favourite adaption, but he was happy enough at the time to keep a heap of the main actors (Jones, Jones, Wing-Davey and Moore) and my guess it was he wanted the TV show (and presumably the movie) to have the same feel.

    I know that's not possible right now, but I'm sure he intended it to keep its original look and feel.

    I'm really looking forward to seeing if this movie version measures up to the dream :)

    I devised my sig. going around Hyde Park corner on a moped

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