Archive Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker’s Guide news for January 2004

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31st January 2004
MJ Simpson interviewed on NPR this Sunday
Last week I recorded an interview about Douglas Adams with Liane Hansen of National Public Radio which will be broadcast tomorrow on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday programme. The programme goes out at 8am on the East Coast, which is 1pm GMT. NPR is available on more than a hundred radio stations across the USA, via satellite or cable, or on the web using Realplayer or Windows Mediaplayer for those who understand how such things work. The NPR website carries an extended version of my interview and also a 1982 interview with Douglas himself which was rebroadcast in May 2001 as a tribute. (For hearing the show over the web, Greg Pacek recommends: “A good choice for getting a live stream is Boston University’s NPR station. They offer their stream in the aforementioned two formats as well as an MP4 QuickTime stream for the iTunes crowd. A second good option would be American University's station which again offers Real or WMA but serves up its third option as an MP3 stream which works in iTunes or other players which can handle streaming MP3s.” - Thanks Greg!)

31st January 2004
New stuff at Douglas Adams Continuum
Sweden’s very own Duke of Dunstable has interviewed Douglas’ half-brother, James Thrift, for his excellent Douglas Adams Continuum site, and has also added a selection of memorable questions and answers from various Douglas Adams interviews and webchats.

29th January 2004
Ford and Trillian cast, start-date announced!
Today’s issue of trade paper Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that the oddly named Zooey Deschanel and Mos Def have been cast as Trillian and Ford Prefect respectively. Californian Deschanel was in Almost Famous and was the female lead in Elf, while New Yorker Def (aka Dante Terrell Smith) was in the remake of The Italian Job and is also a rapper who has worked with people like Macy Gray and De La Soul. I have actually been sitting on these names for a while now but have not been able to mention them because of confidentiality agreements. I can confirm that the report is accurate although there has still been no official announcement from the producers.

Comingsoon.net cites today’s issue of trade paper Variety as saying that production will start on 19th April in “London” – actually Elstree Studios – although Variety continues its tradition of being slightly wrong about everything by saying that Nick and Garth will both direct.

Dark Horizons’ version of the story claims that “Robert Downey Jr had an offer for Zaphod Beeblebox, offer was pulled for insurance reasons and because he wanted too many changes to the script.” I can confirm that Downey was under discussion for the role of Zaphod at one point but no offer was made and the discussions ended for a reason which was neither of those cited.

28th January 2004
Ink magazine reviews Hitchhiker
The latest edition of new glossy literary review mag Ink includes a short but very positive review of the UK hardback of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams. Reviewer Paul Fitzpatrick gives the book four stars (out of five) and calls it “minutely researched and yet beautifully readable.”

28th January 2004
HHGG movie who’s who
Nicolas Botti has added a who’s who of known movie cast and crew to his Hitchhiker’s Guide movie site. Not too many names and faces there right now but expect plenty more to be added in the near future. (Although I would respectfully disagree with Nicolas on one point: my impeccably reliable sources assure me that Stephen Moore very definitely has not been cast as the voice of Marvin, at least not yet.)

26th January 2004
Mostly Harmless 91 received
The latest issue of Mostly Harmless, the world’s only publication devoted entirely to Hitchhiker’s Guide and Douglas Adams, arrived at Magrathea this morning. This packed issue contains three exclusive interviews: The Big Read’s Sanjeev Bhaskar, the new voice of ‘The Book’ William Franklyn, and part five of an epic chat with John Lloyd. There’s an in-depth feature on The Big Read including what really went down at the live final; a complete guide to who plays who in the Tertiary Phase, even down to all the one-line characters; a report on a lecture by Mark Carwardine; photos of Simon Jones and Geoffrey McGivern at a ZZ9 pub meeting, and of Susan Sheridan on-stage in panto; and loads, loads more. Newly added to the merchandise list enclosed with the mag are red-on-black ‘Don’t Panic’ T-shirts and plastic mugs with the slogan ‘Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.’ If you’re interested in Guide but are not a member of the absurdly-good-value-for-money official appreciation society ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, you’re really missing out on some amazing stuff.

26th January 2004
Shynola interviewed about work on movie graphics
As soon as I had identified London animation collective Shynola as the team responsible for the Guide read-out graphics in the movie, my mate Nicolas Botti lost no time in grabbing a quick interview with 25% of Shynola, Christopher Harding. Obviously he can say very little at this stage, but it’s clear that he and his colleagues are both enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

24th January 2004
Casting announcement not as imminent as we thought
It looks like the formal movie casting announcement hoped for this weekend is still a week or two away. This seems to be because one of the lead roles remains uncast and the producers want to announce the principal quartet of Arthur, Ford, Zaphod and Trillian all together.

24th January 2004
Exclusive! British animation collective working on movie ‘Guide entry’ graphics
Back at the end of November, techno stylesheet XLR8R (“America’s most sought-after electronic music journal”) ran an interview with British animation collective Shynola. The Kent-educated, London-based quartet have produced videos for the likes of Radiohead, Blur and Queens of the Stone Age, as well as various ads and title sequences. In the XLR8R interview (available on-line here), Shynola’s Jason Groves answers the question ‘What are you working on now?’ with the following revelation:

“At the moment we’re just starting work on a project with Hammer and Tongs. They’re directing a film version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and they’ve asked us to do all of the Guide entries. It’s a huge task for us, because at the moment we don’t have the computer power to create film-sized frames, and, as there are only four of us, it will be months and months of work. It’s a nerd’s wet dream, really: not only do we get to work on a cult sci-fi novel that we all love, we also get to buy a whole load of new computer equipment to work on.”

(Thanks to Simon Carless of Slashdot for spotting this and mentioning it on his blog.)

23rd January 2004
Is this the movie’s ‘Don’t Panic’ logo?
Every movie needs a website and typing in ‘www.hitchhikers.com’, ‘www.hitchhikersmovie.com’ or ‘www.hitchhikers-movie.com’ gives you this. Interestingly, ‘www.hitchhikersguidemovie.com’ takes you here. (For some reason, this pink ‘Don’t Panic’ logo isn’t visible in certain browsers; if you can’t see anything, try the version cut and pasted onto Nicolas Botti’s HHGG movie site.)

22nd January 2004
Marvin news spreads
The power of the internet can be clearly seen in the way that, starting with just a couple of e-mails to Dark Horizons and Comingsoon.net, the news about Marvin – and that picture – have spread around the world. In particular, an enthusiastic story on Aint It Cool News has been picked up, retold and translated, bringing lots of new readers here to Magrathea. Pleasingly, the response to the design has been overwhelmingly positive. But once again let’s remember that (a) this is a prototype, and (b) the voice has not yet been cast. The Marvin news and image have even made it as far as Korea, so a big ‘Pangampsamnida!’ to all our readers in Seoul!

21st January 2004
More movie casting – very imminent!
I learned this evening that certain contracts have now been signed, and this is born out by Martin Freeman’s official site finally confirming his involvement. Furthermore at least two more major roles are expected to be announced within 48 hours. Check back frequently!

21st January 2004
Marvin walks – see it here!
To all those who wondered – or even doubted – whether the Marvin costume picture was real, take a look at this. Unless Warwick Davis has been cast as a super-deform stormtrooper in a movie being directed by Garth Jennings’ twin brother, that’s proof that it’s all real. Although it must still be stressed that it is only a real prototype and other designs are still being considered. This still comes from a 35-second video clip which can be seen here as a 9.29MB embedded video or here as a 3.19MB zip file. Freeow!

21st January 2004
SFX to run exclusive behind-the-scenes feature on Tertiary Phase
I have just delivered to SFX a ‘set report’ feature on the Tertiary Phase, including some answers to the questions that people want to know, such as how the script copes with the fact that the end of the second radio series and the start of the third novel are entirely incompatible. I was the only journalist allowed to visit the recording so this is an exclusive, including extracts from some of the various interviews which I conducted with cast and crew that will be published in forthcoming issues of Mostly Harmless. This issue of SFX should be on sale mid-February and will also feature a full round-up of Hitchhiker’s movie news.

20th January 2004
Hitchhiker revised paperback edition received
My author copies of the paperback edition of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams arrived this morning. This revised and updated edition will be published by Coronet on 2nd February at £8.99 which is not bad for just under 400 pages. It is already being enjoyed by one delighted reader.

19th January 2004
Bill Nighy nominated for BAFTA
The nominations were announced today – by Douglas Adams’ friend Stephen Fry – for the BAFTAs, the British equivalent of the Oscars which are more properly known as the Orange British Academy Film Awards. Among those nominated for Best Supporting Actor is Bill Nighy, recently revealed as the big screen incarnation of Slartibartfast. He is nominated for his role in Love, Actually, against Albert Finney, Ian McKellen, Paul Bettany and Tim Robbins.

17th January 2004
BBC 7 pulls radio series repeat at last moment
A poster on alt.fan.douglas-adams reports the following announcement from digital radio station BBC 7: “Now I have another apology to make, this time to Douglas Adams fans. We had very much hoped to bring you The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy starting on Saturday. Unfortunately we are unable to broadcast this because of complex copyright agreements. In our second year of broadcasting we have a new rights agreement in place for BBC 7 and are effectively clearing programmes from scratch, hence a few programmes which you heard last year might not automatically get a repeat this year. I am very sorry to disappoint you.”

As previously announced, a full run of all twelve episodes was scheduled to start this weekend. For some time now there have been complaints from scriptwriters about BBC 7’s system of repeat fees but it seems odd that a programme should be pulled so late. It’s not inconceivable that the tangled contractual web surrounding the Tertiary Phase may have affected this in some way. I will report more if and when I can find out anything.

17th January 2004
Douglas Adams profiled in Cambridgeshire Life magazine
The January issue of Cambridgeshire Life (‘The best selling county magazine in Cambridgeshire’!) features a two-page profile of Douglas Adams by Kim Smith, summarised from last year’s two biographies, Hitchhiker and Wish You Were Here. A similar feature is reportedly in Essex Life, highlighting Douglas’ connections with Brentwood. (Thanks to Lucy Ramsey for the alert and Jonjo for supplying a copy of the mag.)

15th January 2004
Prototype Marvin costume revealed – full story and picture!
The very first piece of design from the movie has slipped out accidentally onto the net – and it’s terrific. It’s this prototype costume for Marvin the Paranoid Android, which is now confirmed as the role being played by Warwick Davis. The picture was spotted by a fan who innocently looked at a site which turned out to be producer Nick Goldsmith’s blog! The blog should of course have been password protected and as soon as the mistake was spotted, it was taken down. However, the picture is now in the public domain.

This is not a hoax – there was in fact a short video clip on the blog of Warwick trying the costume on, which I don’t have the technology to show – but it should be stressed that this is not the final costume, merely one of several prototypes developed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop last September. A reliable source at Henson’s has confirmed that several other prototype Marvin suits have been produced – though they’re all about three feet tall! – and a final selection has not been made.

The voice of Marvin remains uncast, despite what the Inaccurate Movie Database says, but Stephen Moore has not been discounted. It should be stressed that such casting news as has leaked out – Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Warwick – has not actually been confirmed by the producers because contracts have not yet been signed. I have however been given the names of five other actors – two British, three American – who have been cast and will be announced when signatures are in place.

14th January 2004
Exclusive! Harmony Books planning amazing ‘de luxe’ edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide
The novel of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published in 1979, and in honour of its quarter-century Harmony Books are planning to publish The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 25th Anniversary De Luxe Edition. Retailing at approximately $35, the book has been accurately described as a “a fan’s dream”; not only will it be classily produced and attractively designed, it will also be liberally illustrated with unseen Hitchhiker’s Guide photos and designs and photographs of impossibly rare memorabilia. Harmony have approached me to help with compiling the book so I will have more inside information towards September when it will be published in the USA alongside a facsimile edition of the first American hardback (price 14 dollars, give or take a kibblesworth).

12th January 2004
Movie casting at last! Arthur and Slartibartfast confirmed!
The BBCi films page has scored the scoop we were all looking for: in an interview with Bill Nighy, the actor has confirmed that he has been cast as Slartibartfast in the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie. Furthermore he has revealed that Martin Freeman will play Arthur Dent. Nighy’s previous film credits include Still Crazy, Underworld and Love, Actually and he recently finished filming British zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. Freeman was also in Love, Actually but is best known as Tim in The Office. According to the Nighy interview, a director has not been confirmed for HHGG but this sounds like a journalist getting his wires crossed as Garth Jennings is still very much attached.

Two other snippets have cropped up recently: Warwick Davis (Willow, Leprechaun etc) told Fangoria.com that he has been cast in Hitchhiker’s Guide though he didn’t specify a role. And Cinescape has received an anonymous tip-off that the movie will spend a week or so shooting in Iceland. A tip of the hat to Comingsoon.net for pulling these various threads together.

Coincidentally, Freeman stars in surreal radio comedy The Rapid Eye Movement alongside the original stage Arthur, Chris Langham (who also plays Prak in the Tertiary Phase). Langham also wrote and starred in the sitcom Kiss Me Kate, in which his brother was played by … Bill Nighy! Even more bizarrely, check out paragraph five of this Guardian review from two months ago.

The roles of Zaphod, Trillian and Ford have also been cast but have not yet officially been announced.

10th January 2004
Hitchhiker nominated for BSFA Award
Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams has been nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award in the ‘Best Non-Fiction’ category. A short list of titles will be drawn up next month based on which titles received the most nominations, so if you’re a paid-up member of the BSFA, do feel free to nominate it again! BSFA members will then vote for titles from the shortlist and the winners will be announced at Eastercon in Blackpool.

10th January 2004
Movie casting announcement expected imminently
On 8th January, executive producer Robbie Stamp told the Douglas Adams Continuum that the casting of four main characters would be announced soon. On 4th January, in an e-mail to me, Robbie said that he expected an announcement in the next couple of weeks – and that was nearly a week ago. So stay tuned because some big, big news is coming. (And if it’s any of the names that I’ve heard mentioned ‘off the record’ from various inside sources – none of which have been suggested by fans in their endless quest to second-guess the casting – then we will all be blown away.)

9th January 2004
Douglas Adams Continuum relaunches
Sweden’s number one Hitchhiker’s Guide fan, the Duke of Dunstable, has given his Douglas Adams Continuum website an overhaul and a redesign. Check it out here.

9th January 2004
eBaywatch for week ending 9th January
If you’re such a Hitchhiker’s completist that you even collect cash-in rip-offs and/or you’ve got a 48K Spectrum lying around, you could get yourself a copy of the infamous-but-dull Backpacker’s Guide to the Universe game (ends 18th January; ‘buy it now’ for a quid). For those who merely want every published variant, this boxed set of the four ‘quartered’ British paperbacks is very rare (ends 14th January; no bids yet; starting price $4.00). Here’s something most people don’t know even exists: the one and only UK edition of Wired, ever (ends 14th January; ‘buy it now’ for £1.25). Douglas Adams was a contributing editor and wrote a column for this solitary issue, which presumably hardly sold at all, hence no issue 2. Or what about the March 1984 issue of Fantastic Films, which includes an Adams interview (ends 11th January; latest bid $2.50)?

Fancy reading one of Douglas’ original school reports? It was reproduced in this imaginatively titled 1987 charity volume along with those of other celebs (ends 13th January; no bids yet; starting price $12.00). Twenty years ago, an extract from Hitchhiker’s Guide was included in this book, only available through the British store Marks & Spencer (ends 11th January; no bids yet; starting price 99p).

There have been many different American omnibus editions of the Hitchhiker’s novels, but this 1983 compilation of books 1-3 was the first and is therefore one of the rarest (much more so than all those ‘rare’ leatherbound editions). This copy is not only signed, it also includes a special freebie which I’ve never seen before: ‘Doug Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Travel pack’. Blimey (ends 12th January; latest bid £155.00). Or – holy heck! – what about a signed US proof of The Meaning of Liff (ends 11th January; latest bid $36.00)?

8th January 2004
Seattle Times reviews Hitchhiker
“Douglas Adams … was a physically large man, an atheist and a lifelong Beatles fan,” points out Nisi Shawl in the Seattle Times’ books round-up. “MJ Simpson's Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams covers these and other personal matters, while also giving a step-by-ambitious-step account of Adams’ professional career.” Shawl highlights the inclusion in the US edition of “helpful guides to public figures less well-known to us colonials, and to the conventions of Britain’s educational system and its radio and television programs” but cautions: “because he strives for accuracy, Simpson struggles sometimes with his subject’s tendency to exaggerate and invent.” The book is also included in trade mag Locus’ list of notable new titles for December 2003.

7th January 2004
Hitchhiker’s radio series to be repeated on BBC7
A complete run of all 12 original radio episodes of Hitchhiker’s Guide is scheduled for BBC7 from Sunday 18th January at 18.00 (GMT). BBC7 is a digital station devoted to comedy and drama, which is available throughout the UK on DAB or via cable television, and around the world over the web.

3rd January 2004
Ballantine pick up US rights to Wish You Were Here
This was announced about a month ago in the Publisher’s Lunch trade e-newsletter but has only just come to my attention. US rights to Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here have been sold to Ballantine, who publish Douglas Adams’ books in paperback and trade paperback in the States. There’s no details on their website yet, which is in dire need of updating anyway; not only does it say that Douglas is still alive, it reckons he still lives in London!

2nd January 2004
eBaywatch for week ending 2nd January
Everything you might want to know about the original, abandoned version of ‘Shada’ is in this issue of In Vision magazine, though it predates the recent audio remake (ends 5th January; latest bid £2.25). This Salmon of Doubt promotional poster is nice but hideously overpriced (ends 2nd January; no bids yet; starting price $74.99!). And for the completist Adams bibliophile, here’s a nice edition of Heathcote Williams’ epic poem Falling for a Dolphin which uses an extract from Hitchhiker’s Guide as a foreword (ends 2nd January; no bids yet; starting price Aus$8.00).