Interveiew on casting (and other stuff):
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mjs2000/nickgarth1.htm
According to AICN, principle phtography has started:
Brian
I’m still mad Terry Gilliam isn’t directing.
It had better be cool! Meaning: have cool CGI but use it richly and with a very skilled touch (like they almost did in The Fifth Element). Don’t make the journeys through outer space seem claustrophobic, make it wondrous! Big sets! But always focus on character (don’t make the Lucas mistake), and make all CGI characters (even the walk-bys) incredibly distinctive. Stay true to Adams’ humor (repeat that a million times)!
Go now and make a good movie. I will wait patiently with skeptical eye and readied wacking cane.
Any rumors on if there will be a “book” role, and who might play it?
AFIAC that’s 90% of the charm of the story -
Actually, Zoe Deschanel is the bit of casting that impressed me the most. She wouldn’t have occurred to me after reading the book, but after I heard the announcement I realized she was perfect for it. She has that aura of someone who looks wide-eyed and ditzy but there’s a real sense of intelligence underneath. The personality is 1000 times more important to a performance than any accent.
The BBC series really made an impression on me, so I’ll always picture the characters as those actors. But I think it’s cool that they’re not afraid to mix things up. From that interview N9IWP posted, it sounds like they know what they’re doing.
(I’m just glad we haven’t heard the usual “Oh no! Disney’s making this movie?!?!?” bit yet.)
Ok.
Is that really the Marvin outfit (above link)? Looks nothing like any description of Marvin I’ve ever read/seen. That looks like a midget stormtrooper.
As for the cast I think that Sam Rockwell will do well as Zaphod – although I always see Zaphod as ultra-handsome/dashing and Sam doesn’t quite make that cut.
But Zooey Deschanel is PERFECT for this role. I have often tried to cast the stories into films as an exercise in daydreaming and never had much luck with Trillian - then when I saw that she had earned the role for this film it all just clicked - she is perfect.
As for the rest of the cast I really don’t know – I just hope that the director/producers love the books or else they will screw this up completely.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
I don’t know who the others are but…
Bill doesn’t seem to have been around for long but he’s a bloody good actor and a funny cool dude.
I noticed in the interview linked to above that the producer and director mention that they talked to Stephen Fry recently. They don’t say it was about casting him in the movie, but if they’ve read my mind they will cast him as the voice of the book. I can’t think of anyone who could do it better, and I believe he was a friend of Douglas Adams. I know he is a big fan.
Damn, you beat me to it. My first thought when I saw that pic was “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” 
I’ve always pictured Marvin as about four-foot-and-a-half, battleship grey, with an oval head, so this version is actually pretty close for me. I love the idea of a super-sized noggin.
I always pictured Marvin akin to Bender on Futurama.
I am not a big fan of Futurama (I never got to watch it) but it just dawned on me that all of the characters in Futurama are similar to HG2G. Am I an idiot for not noticing this before? Huh?
I’m panicking.
Something in me is telling me that I just do not want to see this movie get made.
Some of the actors don’t fit with what I always envisioned, but I’m not mad about it. I have no problem with the people picked for Arthur, Trillian, and Slartibartfast. I can’t see Mos Def as Ford, but I won’t judge him until I see it. I never pictured Zaphod as rugged looking as Sam Rockwell. For some reason, I always thought of him as looking like a used car salesman. When I first saw that picture of Marvin, I was overjoyed. That was exactly how I pictured him: about five feet tall, and with a giant globe head.
As for the movie, it is only going to cover the first book, right? That doesn’t seem bad, but I don’t really reamember any big points in the book that they could make a movie out of. (I read all of the books at once, so I read it like a long, yet really funny and interesting, intro.)
Martin Freeman is an excellent choice for Arthur Dent; he can do the deadpan and ‘whooshed’ really well.
I always pictured Marvin as Johny No. 5 from Short Circuit. I don’t like the idea of a big head. Hrmmph. I suppose if the movie is good the size of his head won’t make a difference.
That costume has no facial features, for one thing, so I imagine it was either something being done for fitting or there will be additional effects or props or some such added later. I’m still curious about the voice myself. My favorite suggestion for that part remains Alan Rickman.
I generally pictured Marvin as being smaller than a person, but I’m not sure Douglas Adams agreed with me. I also tended to picture him with wheels even though it’s a vital plot point that he has legs. 
Anyway, I do remember he has red, triangular eyes. Achernar’s linked picture of him would be good.
I have to say that I can understand people being nervous, but I don’t get the people who’ve already given up and decided it will suck. You haven’t seen a single frame or read a word. You’ve seen the casting choices and one picture of Warwick Davis. Chill out and please don’t gloom it up too much for those of us who are geniunely excited about this, OK? On an unrelated note, John Malkovich is about the pickiest, most pretentious actor in existence, so I don’t think he’d have signed on if the script sucked.
By the way, the guys making it seem to be fans, and I think that’s a major plus.
Garth: “Yes, both Nick and I were fans when we were younger. I loved the TV series and the books and I had the radio script that my dad bought me and all that kind of stuff. I don’t think either of us had gone back to it since early teens but we had such fond memories, which is why our reaction was, like I told you: ‘Oh my God, let’s hope they haven’t screwed that up.’”
And now that I’m on the last page, I see Jennings has this to say about the Marvin photo:
“No, it’s real footage of when we were testing a prototype at Henson’s. It was a bit of a blow that that got out because it’s just test stuff.”
So, again, let’s keep cool. And pretend I wrote this post in kind of a relieved sneer, which is actually quite tricky.
John Cleese would be great.
I’m guessing that the whole noggin is a display screen, and that facial features will be projected onto it. This would make Marvin’s face as expressive as you could need, but still retain a plausibly robotic look. It would also allow him to display appriate images, like the formation of a black hole or the heat death of the Universe, in lieu of a face, when he’s in a particularly bad mood.
That is a picture from the Illustrated Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is a great addition to a H2G2 addict’s library. The images in it are very true to the book, much truer than anything else I’ve seen, especially the TV series. The only difference is that Zaphod is black (as you can see in this gallery), but that only because all Earthlings have a disease which prevent them from seeing the ex-Galactic President in his true form.
I think one of the reasons that the images are so great is that they were designed by Adams himself and only he truely knows what’s going on inside his head. They’re probably better than whatever the movie will turn out.
I must own that book.
As well as all three parts of the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on vinyl so I can fram them and put them on my wall.
And a good job.
And I’ve heard several people mention Alan rickman as being an ideal voice for Marvin, but never thought twice about it. I just thought about a few lines and how they’d sound coming from Alan Rickman’s voice, and I’ve gotta say, I really really hope they cast him to do the voice. There could be no other. He’d be perfect.