Is this a reference to something? Perhaps “Magic Carpet Ride” has been played in too many movies while characters are crusing along in vehicles to the point where it’s been cliched? What are you getting at here?
Star Trek: First Contact, I believe.
Such a missed opportunity with that scene! They should have had someone stick in a cartridge of Shatner singing Rocket Man to which what’s his name (you know, the guy that built the warp ship) say something like, “Oh god, I hate that windbag!” before swapping it out with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
Whether or not it is cliché, it seems cliché.
It just seems a likely hollywood combination. Since, IMO, it wouldn’t fit with the voice of the series, it’s as good a suckage test (Hollywood vs. Doug Adams) as anything else I can thing of. 
Through the “Teaser” page you can access a few pictures of the cast. Personaly, I really like their designed for Marvin. He looks really sleak and futureistic, but at the same time really really depressed. 
(must be the slumping shoulders)
Are you kidding? It’s so very HHGTTG. To quote:
Compared to that, “The most astonishing adventure in the universe” is cast-off amateur-hour fluff at open-mic nights across Grallaxis VII, the planet of Underpaid Ad-Copy Writers. 
Ah, but the big question remains: did they secure the original version of “Journey Of The Sorcerer” to use as the theme? Meaning, did they use the one from the radio series, which was the Eagles’ original intrumental, or are they starting from scratch with a new orchestrated version, or are they doing something totally different this time out? Every time I hear that song, I think of HHGTTG, so I really hope they include the original.
Having John Malkovic play a part that isn’t in any of the previous incarnations of H2G2.
But Douglas Adams created the character specifically for the movie - so that gives me hope.
But he ain’t around anymore to keep an eye on things.
Hey, I thought Sean Connery as Alain Quatermain would be a good thing, too, before I saw LXG, and my heart still aches from that one.
Is it me, or
[spoilers]are the people in charge of advertising this movie cramming the best jokes down everybodys throats? The tagline “The best adventure in the universe begins, when the Earth comes to an end” is a prime example. This is also spoiled on the back of the newest editions of HGTTG and it pisses me off. When I first read the book, I had no idea the Earth was going to be destroyed, and when it happened I cracked up because:
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It was unexpected
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It was ironic
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Hack her to death with a kitchen knife
I can’t imagine finding it even remotely as funny had I known about it beforehand. But now, everyone going to see this movie is going to know THE EARTH BLOWS UP! Also, on the HGTTG movie site, there’s a picture of a movie poster giving up the meaning of life the universe and everything else. Are these people going to leave any suprises for the audience?[/spoilers]
Aw crud. Could a mod kindly put my post in a spoiler box?
I dunno, I neer got the impression that the demolition of the Earth was a big surprise - I’m almost positive that some of my many copies of the book said it right in the back cover copy “When the Earth is demolished to make way…” etc. From my point of view, there’s no real suspense or surprise element - and more than likely it’s going to take place in the first 10 minutes of the movie.
That bit isn’t even a joke, it’s the event a few pages in that kick-starts the entire story. If you can’t give that away in an ad, what is there to tell people about the movie?
Well I thought they set it up as a joke seeing as how Arthur’s house was about to be bulldozed to the ground right before the Earth was blown up to make way for a hyperspatial express route. You can advertise plenty without giving away the destruction of the Earth, I mean, just because a guy is travelling through space and getting into misadventures doesn’t mean he’s doing so because his planet has been blown up.
And many copies of the book do outright say that the Earth blows up, which also grates my nerves.
Perhaps I am overreacting. Who here knew the Earth blows up before reading the book? Did you still find it funny once it happened? What about Dopers that didn’t know? Do you think your reaction would havbe been different if you knew beforehand?
I didn’t know when I read it the first time, but I wasn’t at all surprised when it happened. Definitely saw it coming. As far as I saw it, it was just a plot device to get him off the planet and traipsing around the galaxy. (Why wouldn’t Arthur just cross his arms and pout til someone brought him home? Let’s blow it up! Then he has no choice!)
Obviously, you’re not a fan of Steve Martin. Because he took a survey once to see how many people remembered when the Earth blew up, and no one did. They didn’t even remember coming here on the great space ark, or that the governments of the world all agreed to not tell the stupid people about it, oh wait…
Anyway, the idea for HHGTTG came about, originally, as “The Ends of the Earth” which was going to be an anthology programme where each week the world was destroyed in new and exciting ways. Problem was, that after Adams created Dent and Prefect, he felt guilty about just flushing them into space to die, so he scrapped “The Ends of the Earth” and made the series HHGTTG.
When he talked about dodging asteroids, I immediately thought of the awful shuttles-approaching-the-asteroid-like-X-wing-fighters scene in Armageddon.