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

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31st May 2004
Behind the scenes clip on-line
The h2g2 movie news page has posted a short Realplayer clip of behind-the-scenes footage from the very first shot of the movie, the party scene where Arthur first meets Trillian. None of the actors are visible (in fact it’s hard to make out anything) but first assistant director Richard Whelan can clearly be seen and heard marshalling the crew.

31st May 2004
Aussie TV quiz update
Many thanks to Matt O’Leary in Australia who reports: “I just finished watching tonight's semi-final round episode of The Einstein Factor, in which our contestant Steve Royal won again in the Hitchhiker's Guide category (1550 points, beating the Titanic expert by 50 points). The questions I think should be up on the ABC site soon… [And indeed they now are - MJS] Of notable interest, Steve took several long seconds before finally answering a question with 'Magrathea'. The yearly finals should be on later this year, and will feature Steve and two other contestants. The announcer mentioned nine weeks, but the site seems to say November…”

30th May 2004
Another name added to movie cast list
At a recent Star Wars event at Disney-MGM Studios, actor Jerome Blake told the crowd: “I’m working on a little movie called Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Have you heard of it?” Commenting on the fact that Hitchhiker’s is being shot at Elstree, where Star Wars was made, Blake said: “When I work there I get the sense that history is creeping out of its very walls.”

Blake’s numerous roles in The Phantom Menace include slimy Neimoidian schemer Rune Haako, shaggy-haired serpentine Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis, Watto’s tall-crested betting partner Graxol Kelvyyn, alien senators Orn Free Taa and Horox Ryyder, and Mas Amedda – the booming voice of order in the Galactic Senate. He was a musician for twenty years before moving into acting, his first film role being in the short The Last Campaign. He can also be seen in First Knight, The Fifth Element and the Queen music video ‘Mother Love.’

(Many thanks to Carbonitekid for alerting me to this.)

30th May 2004
Karey Kirkpatrick interview on official movie site
Karey Kirkpatrick, the man whose job it was to turn Douglas Adams’ final script draft into a workable screenplay, has interviewed himself on the official HHGG movie website. Playing devil’s advocate, he asks himself such questions as ‘Who the h*#&! are you and what gives you the right to muck around with this treasured piece of literature, you American Hollywood hack?’ and ‘What gives you the right to decide what stays and what goes, you formulaic chicken writing bas%*(&*!’

For an insight into Karey’s family background, check out this piece which he wrote about his brother, singer-songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick.

There are also two more introductory animations on the site, though you may need to reload quite a few times to catch them both. And when the button is pressed it now correctly says ‘Please do not press this button again.’

19th May 2004
Another hopeful Tertiary Phase rumour
An anonymous poster to the Floor 42 forum says: “I have a spy (a member of my family) who works at BBC Radio. She reckons all the problems are now ironed out, and the Tertiary Phase will be announced formally soon, and will be broadcast this autumn on BBC Radio 4.”

19th May 2004
Mark Wing-Davey directs strange musical
The original Zaphod Beeblebrox, Mark Wing-Davey, has made quite a name for himself as a theatre director in New York over the years. Now he has directed a production of Batboy: the Musical at West Yorkshire Playhouse, which is described as a cross between Edward Scissorhands and My Fair Lady. It runs from 21st June to 17th July. (NB. Mark directed the play, but he’s not actually in it.)

19th May 2004
Hitchhiker’s Guide – in Lego!
Brickfilms.com is a site full of short films made entirely using Lego, including a truly extraordinary version of the first half of the first episode of the TV series of Hitchhiker’s Guide. It’s fairly basic animation using the TV soundtrack but it’s quite amusing. But be warned – it’s a 30MB download.

14th May 2004
Martinfreeman.com – set visit report and babel fish game
Jamie ‘brother of Martin’ Freeman has updated the site he maintains for his sibling with a world exclusive first set visit report from the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie. And it’s great! “Martin really is making a lovely Arthur Dent, full of very English confusion about the world he finds himself in.” … “Sam Rockwell prances and preens like only an egomaniac like Zaphod could.” … “The Vogons are simply amazing, detailed to the nth degree, and every bit as repulsive as described in the books.” Read the whole thing here.

Jamie has also added a silly but fun and strangely addictive game to his site. How many babel fish can you stick in Arthur’s ear in 42 seconds?

13th May 2004
Warwick Davis to discuss Marvin at Peterborough event
The first public appearance by a member of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie cast will be on Thursday 22nd July at Peterborough Central Library when Warwick Davis will be discussing his role as Marvin – as well as his other memorable roles in everything from Return of the Jedi to the Harry Potter movies. Davis’ talk forms part of ‘a Celebration of Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Science Fiction’ at the library which also includes a talk and signing by myself and a sci-fi fashion show/fancy dress competition in the evening. More details on the Magrathea events page.

12th May 2004
Cast and crew photo update
Many thanks to Chris Bainbridge for annotating this version of the cast and crew photograph. Interesting things to note on the picture include the blue slippers which the cast are wearing and also Sam Rockwell’s long and shaggy hair which gives a clue to how his character might look.

12th May 2004
Official movie website goes live!
Yesterday marked the third anniversary of Douglas Adams’ death so the Hitchhiker’s Guide cast and crew observed a minute’s silence in his memory before assembling for a group photo of everyone currently working on the movie. And now the official HHGG movie website has finally gone on-line. The site is a weblog which will keep fans updated about the production’s progress, giving a unique insight into the making of this unique film.

After visiting the site – why not visit it again? There are at least three different opening animations. Or skip straight to the site by clicking the ‘hot star’ at the top.

10th May 2004
Hitchhiker US paperback confirmed for November
Justin, Charles & Co. have announced that they will publish the US paperback of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams in November. (If anyone has found any typos or other minor errors in the US hardback edition, now would be a good time to let me know. Thanks.)

10th May 2004
HHGG fan wins Aussie TV quiz
Hitchhiker’s Guide fan Steve Royal won his round of the Australian TV quiz The Einstein Factor yesterday, answering questions on the HHGG books. However, to say that the questions were easy would be an understatement. For example ‘Ford Prefect hails from a small planet in the vicinity of which star?’ and yes, even ‘What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?’

9th May 2004
New hope for Tertiary Phase?
Many thanks to Tom Marriott who sent me the following hopeful e-mail: “Recently I sent a message to the Radio 4 message board to find out the broadcast date of the Tertiary Phase. I then got a reply from one of the hosts saying that all the legal stuff which was keeping it from being broadcast has now been sorted out and it should be broadcast very soon.”

8th May 2004
More names on IMDB
Another batch of crew members has been added to the IMDB listing for the Hitchhiker’s Guide feature film. As always, these names and job titles should be considered probable, not definite. Mark Holding is simply credited with ‘sound’, having worked as sound mixer or sound recordist on the likes of Dungeons and Dragons, Blade II, Hellboy, The League of Extraordinarily Bad Actors, Neil Gaiman’s TV series Neverwhere and the superb Udo Kier short Mrs Meitlemeihr. Richard Whelan (Attack of the Clones, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Muppet Christmas Carol) is ‘First Assistant Director’ while Fraser Fennell-Ball is credited as ‘Third AD, Second Unit’, fresh from a similar gig on the Thunderbirds movie. The film’s ‘Art Director’ and ‘Set Decorator’ are Daniel May and Kate Beckly respectively, who recently worked together on The Calcium Kid. The IMDB has also got round to dropping their erroneous listing of Robert Ben Garant as scriptwriter.

7th May 2004
Nighy says Adams wanted Hugh Grant for Arthur
In an interview quoted on the Ireland Online site, Bill Nighy says that Hugh Grant was Douglas Adams’ first choice to play Arthur Dent in the HHGG movie. Comparing the Four Weddings star with Tim Freeman, Nighy said: “They’re both first class. Adams probably thought having Hugh on board would have got the film made.” This corroborates a widely quoted comment which Adams’ agent Ed Victor made on the BBC in January 2002: “I know that Douglas thought Hugh Grant would make a marvelous Arthur.” A few years earlier, Adams had commented that he favoured Hugh Laurie for the role. It is not known whether either of the Hughs was ever actually offered the part.

7th May 2004
Hitchhiker’s fan on Aussie quiz show
The Einstein Factor is an Australian TV quiz in which contestants answer questions on their own specialist knowledge, and on Sunday it will feature “a radio announcer who specialises in Douglas Adams’s The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy battling with a communications engineer who knows all about Byzantine history and a Victorian who knows more than anyone should about Jimi Hendrix.” The show goes out on ABC at 6.30pm.

7th May 2004
‘Three thousand light bulbs’ on Heart of Gold set
Today’s ‘Baz Bamigboye’ showbiz page in the Daily Mail has a piece on the HHGG movie. Quoting some bits from the interview that Jim Lynn and I did, Bamigboye says: “Three thousand light bulbs. All of them screwed in individually. That’s dedication for you. It also gives a sense of the detail involved in bringing Douglas Adams’s landmark cult radio and book series to the screen. (The mega job-lot of light bulbs, by the way, was for a scene involving the spacecraft Heart of Gold.)” There is also the usual picture of the Marvin costume.

Bamigboye reckons the movie is “filming on countless sound-stages at Elstree and Shepperton studios” – ‘countless’ being journalist-speak for ‘four or five but we’re not sure which’.

5th May 2004
French Don’t Panic received – with odd cover and wrong credit
A copy of the new French edition of Don’t Panic, translated by Michel Pagel, has arrived at Magrathea. It has a truly bizarre cover image but at least it doesn’t have an unrecognisable drawing of Douglas Adams like the Czech edition. What Pas de Panique! Douglas Adams et Le Guide Galactique does share with that edition is that, like the Czech publisher, Gallimard have not bothered to read their contract with Titan Books and have failed to credit either myself or David K Dickson. Zarquon knows, David and I weren’t exactly overpaid for our work on the book, and we don’t get royalties, so it would be nice if more foreign publishers could actually act honourably and professionally by following the simple terms of their contracts and giving us the title page credit we’re supposed to receive.

5th May 2004
25th Anniversary Edition – more details
A photography session took place yesterday to provide illustrations for the forthcoming Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide. Among items snapped were original promotional posters for the British paperbacks of Guide and Restaurant, a rare ‘cinema’ dumpbin for the Illustrated Guide, Douglas Adams’ personal newsletter The Ringpull, a So Long promotional three-pin plug, the 1980 Radio Times cover that celebrated the second radio series, the amazing full-colour trilingual Montreux Festival booklet and the 14-sided cardboard promo device for a training shoe manufacturer which featured Douglas Adams’ original version of ‘How to Leave the Planet.’ Behind-the-scenes photos from the TV series and the Illustrated Guide, courtesy of Kevin Davies, are also planned for inclusion. In addition, I have supplied a 5,000 word history of Hitchhiker’s Guide including a (reasonably) definitive list of absolutely everything Douglas Adams ever wrote. The book will be published by Harmony Books on 3rd August.

2nd May 2004
HHGG featured on brilliant spoof TV website
Recently brought to my attention, the TV Dregs is clearly the result of a lot of hard work and is one of the funniest things I’ve seen on the web for a long time. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is among those shows cleverly lampooned (included in the ‘1970s’ section).