I like Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent) a lot, from his work in "The Office" and also "Love Actually".
Bill Nighy is also in there, and I liked him tremendously in "Love Actually" and fairly in "Underworld", I think he has a lot to offer in the "sardonic satire" category of HHGTTG, the character of Slartibartfast must be rather fitting for him.
Why the chose Warwick Davis to play Marvin the Android I don't get, I thought he was rather normal-sized. It's not like Davis has a history of playing cynical, sharpwitted and cloy characters before, I would've expected something like Alan Rickman. Oh God how I would've liked Rickman as Marvin...
I've never seen Mos Def (Ford Prefect) in anything before, I'm slightly sceptical since my image of Prefect is a red-head, freckeled guy with bright blue eyes and a wide smile, sort of a Tintin-on-speed. I also read HHGTTG in the original english so I imagined Prefect talking in boy-school british ("'ere we are, lad, put this fish in your eah!"). I hope he doesn't fuck it up.
I felt Sam Rockwell was great in "Confessions of a dangerous mind" and "Green Mile", I sense he will take Zaphod Beeblebrox's overinflated ego to new heights. John Malkovich is stated as playing a "Humma Kavula", I don't remember that character but he'll probably pull it off in his usual, professional self (lol wtf!).
That's all the names I recognized from the cast list ass of now.
I so hope they make the Vogons look like they did in that beautiful HHGTTG comic book series I read (in 1999 I think, anyone?). There, the Vogons were tall, fat, green and scaly, with beady little black eyes, like dolls' eyes. What I do know is that they'll be CGI (Mak Wilson is credited as "voice" of Captain Jeltz) so there's hope.
Ok, so it is being made by Disney, so all the really good parts of Douglas Adams' lewdness, playful humor about couples, sex and innuendo may be watered down to wholesome american levels, but maybe the gist of the book(s?) will survive. Though if the producers have edited Fenchurch out I will slaughter their families.
What I don't know if this movie will be all four books in one (four-hour movie?) or if they will do three/four movies. I hope the latter, if they could churn out those happy-jolly Potter movies they should damn well do this.
Now that I think about it, large parts of the "Hitchhiker"-story were sad and fateful, with a lot of philosophizing and theories about heavy subjects (though at the same time tongue-in-cheek), I think he even got in a few dry jabs at the meaning of life.
Now I'm getting really worked up here. How can Disney possibly do the last book justice, since this is not at all a children's book and they will most probably try to pitch the movie(s?) as one...
It just hit me, I must try to remember Adams' immortal words.
Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Nim': Ok, so it is being made by Disney, so all the really good parts of Douglas Adams' lewdness, playful humor about couples, sex and innuendo may be watered down to wholesome american levels
Well, that officially killed any chance of my watching the movie. Changing all the character's physical atributes in a "re-imagining" is just pouring concrete over the coffin on this bad idea.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Try as I might, Mos Def (whom I have only seen in the teeth-gnashingly bad remake of The Italian Job so I am probably delivering undue critique here) doing the role of Prefect justice is a prospect I cannot wrap my tiny mind around at all.
And while Rickman playing Marvin ("by Grabthor's Hammer, I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed" - say it) would have been insurance against just about anything, I think that as it is, hooking up a generator to Adam's grave might be the best remaining course of action to still let some good come from this now.
(I AM NOT PANICKING, NO SIR.)
Registered: Nov 1999
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After the mind-blowingly awful promos for "I, Robot" (starring Will Smith, of all people), I've just about completely lost hope of anyone in Hollywood putting out a truly decent adaptation of any classic science fiction or fantasy novel. I think that "Lord of the Rings" is probably an extraordinary exception to the rule, not a herald of better movies to come.
I'll try to keep an open mind until I at least see the previews with actual footage from the movie, but Disney does not have my confidence right now...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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In all fairness, "I, Robot" was a decent movie. It even incorporated some ideas from Asimov. It just needed a different name, because it was not "I, Robot".
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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IMDb's trivia section for the film states that Malkovich's role was written by Adams specifically for the movie. So, presumably, it's not in the book/radio series/TV series.
Of course, IMDb also says principle photography ended in August, so you'd think they'd at least have had some real clips to use in the trailer.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Ah, yes, the fate of any film that comes out from a Disney studio. Remember how they took all the violence and profanity out of Pulp Fiction? I was lucky enough to read the original script and, well, I don't want to go into too much detail, but remember Sam Jackson's supposedly "iconic" line all the promo material used? "My wallet's the one with Mickey Mouse on the front"? That scene was just so much better as originally imagined.
Registered: Mar 1999
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It seemed to be high up in the "Newest Trailers" queue... I usually check once a week.
Tussen:
quote:IMDb's trivia section for the film states that Malkovich's role was written by Adams specifically for the movie. So, presumably, it's not in the book/radio series/TV series.
I read that his role was defined as "spiritual leader/missionary", so I thought he was the one who would oversee the building of that great machine that would figure out the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
If it's truly is a new character, it might be fun.
Sol System: I'm thinking more of "Cool Runnings", "Three Musketeers" and the "Mighty Ducks" series. Lukewarm and cautious, always with a mind for proportion.
One thing this movie cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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Well, having just read Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures about 1990s independent cinema, I'd like to point out that Miramax, who distributed Pulp Fiction, generally weren't all that influenced by becoming a division of Disney (if they'd even become when when Pulp came out, I can't remember right now). When the Weinsteins (who owned & run Miramax) did interfere with a film's content, it was more because they aspired to being a big manipulative studio, like Disney, than the fact that they worked for Disney.
posted
Well, my point, such as it is, is that Disney is a vast media machine, and Disney may pay for films filled with frolicking woodland creatures who learn how to play jai-alai, but they also own Touchstone and Miramax and I don't know what all else. A nuclear device. Half of Mississippi.
(My secret point was that the Mickey Mouse wallet made me laugh a little, quietly to myself.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
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It was a terribly sardonic thing to say, though.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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I hear Malkovich's character has something to do with the reimagining of Zaphod's second head, which itself is connected to certain sneeze-related theologies.
Registered: Mar 1999
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