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

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29th June 2004
Nicolas Botti’s movie site gets hijacked again
First it was those pesky Vogons, now a second alien race has hijacked Nicolas Botti’s unofficial HHGG movie site – the Dentrassi. All three versions (Dentrassi, Vogon and original) are available to view here. This is likely to keep happening, I suspect, as long as there are quiet periods without movie news…

27th June 2004
Martin Freeman in Blake’s 7 film! What?
It’s too late for an April Fool so it must be true: Jamie Freeman reports that his brother, not content with playing one iconic late 1970s British science fiction character, has taken on the role of Vila in a spoof of Blake’s 7 which will screen at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival! Written by Tim Plester and directed by Ben Gregor, Blake’s Junction 7 also features Johnny Vegas as Blake (looking alarmingly like Gareth Thomas!), Tim’s Office co-star Mackenzie Crook in drag as Servalan and the original voice of ORAC, Peter Tuddenham. In this short film, shot on 35mm, the galactic freedom fighters having to cope with a motorway service station. Check out these extraordinary pictures. (To see a Quicktime trailer for the film, go to beamtv.com, sign up (it’s free), then go into ‘all public reels’. look for ‘godman’ and then for ‘ben gregor’.)

25th June 2004
eBaywatch update
With a day and a half to go, the Hitchhiker’s movie hymn sheet mentioned yesterday has rocketed from £3.70 to £20. Meanwhile thanks to John Coxon for pointing out this mega-rarity: an audience ticket for the 10th December 1992 recording of Have I Got News for You signed by host Angus Deayton, team captain Ian Hislop and guests Peter Cook and Douglas Adams, both since deceased (starting bid £24.99, auction ends 27th June).

24th June 2004
Hymn report – and an eBaywatch special!
Rich Johnston at comicbookresources.com has posted a report on Saturday's recording of the Humma Kavula hymn, including one of the verses. And if you want to read the whole thing, one of the hymn sheets is already on eBay! (Current bid £3.70, auction ends 27th June.)

23rd June 2004
New picture in movie site gallery
A second picture has been added to the gallery on the official movie site. It’s not terribly clear but appears to show part of a Vogon…

(I know precisely what it shows, but I’m not at liberty to say. Believe me, I find this as frustrating as you do.)

22nd June 2004
Tertiary Phase misinformation doesn’t take long
The uncanny ability of the press to get things wrong means that in less than a day incorrect stories about the Tertiary Phase are already circulating. Both this story on the BBC news site and this one on the Scotsman’s website (provided by the Press Association) make the same mistake. Dirk Maggs has gone on record as saying that Douglas played him a recording of himself reading Agrajag’s lines and that this happened in Douglas’ home 18 months before he died. That is correct. But the story now being propagated is that Douglas had newly recorded those lines in a home studio.

In fact, Douglas’ lines were recorded for the American talking book company Dove Audio in about 1991 as part of an unabridged reading of Life, the Universe and Everything. Originally released in the UK by Isis, the audiobook was subsequently reissued by BBC Worldwide, which is how the rights to use them in the new radio series became available.

21st June 2004
Tertiary Phase broadcast date announced
The BBC has announced that the Tertiary Phase will be broadcast on Tuesdays at 6.30pm from 21st September, with the as-yet-unrecorded fourth series to follow in Spring 2005. Each episode will be repeated at 11.00pm on the following Thursday. There is a short ‘video trailer’ on the BBC site (in Realmedia) and the Above the Title site (in Quicktime) although I can’t get either to play properly. Hitchhiker’s fans outside the UK should not panic or worry about missing the broadcast as BBC Radio 4 can be listened to over the web. There is no information whatsoever yet on a CD release.

(Many thanks to everyone who e-mailed me about this. The news broke after I left for work so had to wait until I got home before being added to the site.)

21st June 2004
Humma Kavula hymn recorded
On Saturday a hymn was recorded for the Hitchhiker’s movie soundtrack, to be sung by followers of the missionary Humma Kavula. It was recorded in St Michael’s Church, Highgate, London (interestingly, not far from where Douglas Adams’ ashes are interred) by a 500-strong choir of non-professional singers – the intention being to sound like a congregation rather than a professional choir.

An open call for singers was circulated a couple of weeks ago but I was asked not to publicise the event as the film-makers (understandably) wanted to have people turn up and sing rather than to be swamped by inquisitive Guide fans. Jamie Yardley made the trip all the way down from Scotland to join in and has posted a brief report on alt.fan.douglas-adams. The hymn was written by Joby Talbot from The Divine Comedy who also writes the music for The League of Gentlemen as well as being a respected classical composer.

18th June 2004
Win a (very small) role in the Hitchhiker’s movie!
The froods at h2g2 have launched a competition with an amazing prize – the winner gets to be an extra in the Hitchhiker's Guide film! Building on the theme of global destruction, and with a nod to Douglas Adams’ love of ecology, the competition is looking for photographs of The Bit Of The Earth That Should Be Saved. It could be a natural feature, an animal or plant, a building – anything at all that justifies constructing the hyperspace bypass someplace else. The deadline is tight (Friday 25th June) and pictures must be submitted as jpegs or gifs no larger than 40K (doesn’t matter if they're digital snaps or scanned prints). The compo is open to UK residents only. The winner must be able to get to Elstree on 8th July for a costume fitting and again on 19th July for filming, and of course must not be connected in any way with Disney or the BBC.

17th June 2004
Exclusive: My day on Viltvodle
A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to visit the set of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie at Elstree and Frogmore Studios where a scene on the planet Viltvodle was being shot. Here is what I saw (or at least, what I can currently tell you I saw). A much longer, much more detailed report on my day on set will be published in issue 93 of Mostly Harmless so to find out the real deal, join ZZ9 now.

17th June 2004
Magrathea is one year old
I launched this website one year ago today with a handful of news items including the announcement that Hammer and Tongs were going to make the film. Since then Magrathea has brought you more than 300 news stories, including fantastic exclusives on the movie, the Tertiary Phase, the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition and The Big Read.

The past year has also been a busy one for Douglas Adams collectors with the publication of the The Book of the Future, Wish You Were Here, the UK paperback and US hardback of Hitchhiker, numerous foreign editions of Don’t Panic, French reprints of the Dirk Gently books and the remake of ‘Shada’ on CD.

In addition to running this website, I have also supplied to Mostly Harmless, the world’s only Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker’s Guide magazine, exclusive interviews with John Lloyd, Dirk Maggs, Sanjeev Bhaskar, David Lee Stone, Nick Goldsmith and Garth Jennings, William Franklyn and Ashley Highfield.

So happy birthday to us – and watch out for more exclusives in the next twelve months here on Magrathea, the only site on the web dedicated solely to providing accurate and up-to-date news about Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

16th June 2004
Nicolas Botti’s movie fansite hijacked by Vogons
Nicolas Botti’s fansite for the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie has been, well, hijacked. By Vogons. Take a look.

16th June 2004
Brief set report from background artist
John Perkins, who has had uncredited background roles in Band of Brothers and the new Peter Sellers biopic, has also landed one in the Hitchhiker’s movie and has posted a few non-specific but enthusiastic words about his experiences on the film’s IMDB message board. “They’re are being very painstaking about each scene/shot they do. They’re having a very good crack at it,” he says, and of Mos Def he reports, “I really do think he will work out, he looks great.” He also says the film has a budget of one hundred million dollars although this is presumably based on canteen gossip and doesn’t tally with more reliable figuires which I have been quoted by other sources.

11th June 2004
Two set reports – new and forthcoming
Jim Lynn has posted a report on his visit to the movie set on his h2g2 page (thank to Jonathan Lunt for alerting me to this). “The Vogons have a particular facial appearance which is a result of one aspect of the environment of their home planet which Douglas told us about several years ago (and which we all thought was very funny),” says Jim, “so it’s great to see that not only is this idea still in the script, but the physical design of the Vogons has been shaped by it.”

On Monday I visited the set myself and my own set report will appear here shortly once it has been okayed by the producers to make sure it doesn’t give away too many secrets. A much longer version will be published in the next issue of Mostly Harmless together with an exclusive interview with executive producer Derek Evans – so now is the time to join ZZ9 if you haven’t done so already.

11th June 2004
Movie gallery launches
The official website has now been augmented with a gallery where a selection of unusual and probably debate-provoking photographs will be posted over the coming months. To start with, there’s just this one – but what is it? Or more pertinently (because we can all see what it is) why is it? I know, but I can’t tell you…

10th June 2004
Terry Jones writes Foreword for anniversary edition
Proof pages of the forthcoming 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide arrived at Magrathea yesterday. The book includes a Foreword by Douglas’ friend (and occasional colleague) Terry Jones which begins: “Douglas and I used to hang out drinking real ale in a low dive in the south of London and complaining about the state of the furniture on which we had to sit. They were shared obsessions – beer and chairs – both under-rated and absolutely necessary to civilised life and communication.”

The book contains more than 50 pages of additional material including dozens of photos of fabulously rare Hitchhiker’s memorabilia and a 5,000 word essay by Yours Truly on the history of Hitchhiker’s Guide, plus a list of Douglas Adams’ (reasonably) complete works totalling – of course – 42 items.

7th June 2004
Hitchhiker wins SFX award
I am thrilled to announce that at last night’s SFX Reader Awards ceremony in London, Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams was announced as the winner of the ‘Best Non-Fiction’ category. It beat off competition from two Lord of the Rings books, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer book and Ray Harryhausen’s autobiography. The awards were presented by Red Dwarf star Chris Barrie and winners in other categories included Johnny Depp, Terry Pratchett, JK Rowling and – unsurprisingly – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

6th June 2004
AICN rumour proves inaccurate
Unsurprisingly, the rumour which surfaced on Ain’t It Cool News last week has proved to be unreliable. There had been plans to shoot at Moorgate Station today, but they were changed even before the AICN story appeared. So you’re welcome to hang around Moorgate all day today but you won’t see any filming. It’s not known where/when the scene will be (or was) shot instead.

1st June 2004
Jerome Blake update
Many thanks to James Taylor who was at the Star Wars event where actor Jerome Blake announced that he is in the cast of the HHGG movie. James had the presence of mind to ask Blake what part he is playing and was told that he is a Vogon Guard.

1st June 2004
London filming rumour on AICN
The massively over-rated Ain’t It Cool News has a report that a scene from the HHGG movie will be filmed in Moorgate underground station this Sunday night (6th June). Allegedly the scene will be a shop full of TVs showing the destruction of Earth, with Douglas’ family among the extras.

However AICN’s willingness to report anything told to them by anybody without substantiation or evidence means that they are wrong as often as they’re right and anything reported only on that site should be treated with caution unless or until it is reported elsewhere. So this story may be true, partly true, or complete nonsense…

(Thanks to Chris Bainbridge for pointing this story out to me.)