HA! Richard Simmons as Eddie the annoying ship’s computer!
MachV, Eric Idle was not a Python … Hie thee to that video store, and then give your first-born child my name as its middle name. Or perhaps combine the names - Kiltal? Sounds good to me!
What are you on about?
Cleese, Palin, Jones, Idle, Chapman, Gilliam, (Cleveland).
Arthur: Ewan Macgregor
Trillian: Liz Hurley or Minnie Driver
Zaphod: Bruce OR Billy Campbell
Marvin: Steven Wright
Tansu - my God, I have no idea where my brain was when I wrote that. For some reason I was convinced he wasn’t in Monty Python. I’m just going to put it down to a very, very bad day.
Before eveybody goes on about who’d make a good Slartibartfast, I have to take my hat off to the man who played him in the orignal TV version, Richard Vernon. Once I started to recognize him, I realized I’d seen him in other things and he was always brilliant. And he always played the same character; the standoffish, noncommital, British executive type. In serious shows (Gandhi, The Sandbaggers) he was calculating and distant. In funny shows, he was doddering and oblivious. And he played it exactly the same way. He just magnified whatever the mood was around him. As Sir Desmond Glazebrook on Yes, Minister he was hysterical. If he weren’t dead, I’d cast him as Slartibartfast in a minute.
And I wouldn’t cast Bruce Campbell as Zaphod for almost the same reason. I’ve really liked him in some things, but he’s also always the same, and you can’t help but recognize him. I wouldn’t want Zaphod to remind me of Brisco County Jr.
My cast (and I hope I’m not dating myself here. All these people have been funny, but they haven’t all been funny lately.):
Zaphod: Val Kilmer. I first thought of John Lithgow, but he’s a bit too old. Kilmer was funny while being cocky and clueless in Top Secret!, if he can still do that, it would work. Alternates: Timothy Dalton, Steve Martin.
Trillian: Can’t think of just one right now, although I like the Nicole Kidman idea. Alternates: Rebecca Pidgeon, Lisa Kudrow, Victoria Tennant.
Ford Prefect: Michael Keaton. Not only can he be weird when he has to, he couldn’t stop being weird if he tried. Also, with George Clooney as the Vogon guard, you have the unprecedented Batman trifecta. Alternates: Rik Mayall, Kevin Spacey.
Arthur Dent: Kevin Kline. He can be long-suffering and sympathetic, but also blustery when he has to.
The very strange thing is, I can picture any one of these people in these roles, but I can’t picture any two of them together.
Zaphod Beeblebrox - Mike Meyers
He could pull off Zaphod’s antics to a T.
Marvin the Paranoid Android - Alan Rickman
Alan can do the dry, biting commentary perfectly.
Trillian - Nicole Kidman (already mentioned in another post)
She can do the accent and I imagine they can fix her up to look pretty neat. Oh, and she’s blonde.
Arthur Dent - Hugh Grant (already mentioned in another post)
Hugh does incredulity well, and that’s what Arthur Dent was all about.
Slartbartifast - Ian McKellen (already mentioned in another post)
Because he rocks.
Okay, here are my picks thus far: (and it’s a dream cast, so they can be dead or too old)
Arthur: Michael Palin from the Flying Circus days
Ford: Ryan Styles or Kevin Spacey or Bill Irwin (I)
Zaphod: Bruce Campbell (both heads?) with a cameo by Robin Williams as his third arm
Slartibartfast: Ian McKelle or Ian McDiarmid
Trillian: Julianne Moore or Samantha Morton
Marvin: voice of Stephen Wright
the true Ruler of the Galaxy: Albert Einstien
Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged: Alan Rickman
Majikthise and Vroomfondel: Kyle Gas and Jack Black
Rbtt! and I will be thinking of more characters castings.
If you haven’t read the trilogy in a while, I think it’s about time you pick it up. Reading it once a year is a nessecity for happiness.
You know, I think Stephen Wright is too obvious for Marvin. I think I’d like to hear James Earl Jones voice an eternally depressed android.
Mr. L. Prosser: a middle-aged Gary Burghoff, MAS*H’s “Radar”
OK.
If you said Rbtt! and meant flup (which you did), then here I am.
Arthur: I actually see him as a young Dudley Moore; annoyingly British and twitchy. But less drunk. In a completely different way, I could also see Seth Green in that role.
As for Ford… think about this before you call me stupid and throw it out… Edward Norton.
Zaphod: tough call. It’s very hard to picture what he looks like at all, let alone who would play him… Maybe the guy who plays Robert on Everbody Loves Raymond (hey Shane, does he also do the voice of the Big Dog? “Food!”).
Slartibartfast… If anywhere, here is where I would put Alan Rickman. He’d be great.
Trillian: Rita Hayworth
True Ruler: I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.
Marvin: The guy who does the Robot on Time Squad
Agrajag: Raul Julia
Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged: voice of Adam Carolla
more to come…
flup!
The robot on Time Squad is Mark Hamill. I thought you would have known that, Flup, being a bigger Star Wars fan than I.
Hotblack Destiato, the leader of Disaster Area, who is spending a year dead for tax purposes: Vin Diesel or Ving Rhames (I always saw him as a very big black guy)
Thor, the Norse God Trillian meets at the giant cocktail party in the sky: they guy who played the alien bounty hunder in The X-files
Alien bounty hunter guy or Fabio.
I’ve got it. For Zaphod Beeblebrox: Vincent D’Onofrio, who played Edger in MIB and the serial killer in The Cell. That guy could convincingly portray a little black girl with a Swedish accent if he had to.
I must have some sort of alternate imagination. I always thought of Harrison Ford as Ford Prefect, the guy who played Qark and the principal on Buffy (or Ben Stein) as Dent and John Belushi as Beeblebrox. Trillian is the asian cartoon girl from Futurama.
I know, I know. But they do so much live action-cartoon mixes these days in movies. And that rock star did concerts long after he was dead.
Douglas Adams wanted Hugh Laurie as Arthur, and I agree. Hugh Grant would sort of suit, but Hugh Laurie would be ideal.
And if you don’t know who he is, do not go by Stuart Little as a guide.
You know, this may be part of my problem lately. It’s been a few years. I’m going to have to take your advice. Now, do you mean the trilogy or the “trilogy”? I have the whole shebang (including the fabulous Young Zaphod Plays It Safe) in a big green hardback.
Oh, and I recommend Vince Vaughn as Zaphod. He looks nothing like him, and he’s way too tall, but can do the attitude perfectly.
Masonite, I agree. Vaughn could certainly do the attitude part well. And I also have the hardbound collection, though mine is black with gold leaf and looks rather like a bible. I’ve read the whole thing cover to cover several times, even though it does get a bit tedious when Arthur falls in love and learns to fly and all that. It also has Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (on the spine of the book it’s spelled ‘Zaphoid’- quite a place for a spelling mistake). “The Hitchhiker Trilogy” refers to the first five books in that edition.