HitchHikers Guide official trailer online!

[Skywatcher]

@Smeghead

@Wearia

Wait, the Ford joke was that he thought cars were the dominate species?

IIRC, it wasn’t spelled out in the books.

No, but it’s been said elsewhere. From the author himself:

I decided to call him Ford Prefect. (This was a joke that missed American audiences entirely of course, since they had never heard of the rather oddly named car, and many thought it was a typing error for Perfect.) I explained in the text that the minimal research my alien character had done before arriving on this planet had led him to think that this name would be `nicely inconspicuous’. He had simply mistaken the dominant life form. So how would such a mistake arise? I remembered when I used to hitch-hike through Europe and would often find the information or advice that came my way was out of date or misleading in some way. Most of it, of course, just came from stories of other people’s travel experiences.

[cryptic_j]

Hurrah!!

you see I did remember almost right…

I knew someone would have the actual text somewhere - thankyou Lute - May the Fords be with you

[Marley23]

@cryptic_j

I have no problem with Moses Definitely (to give him his full name) playing Ford - - but when I read the books I always picture him as Robert Llewelyn (Kryten from Red Dwarf - without the make-up )

His name is actually Dante Smith. Now, if it was Mose Def, Moses Definitely would be right on.

[MovieMogul]

@Go You Big Red Fire Engine

I had to turn off ZoneAlarm to get it to finally work.

ZoneAlarm? I have absolutely no idea what that is.

[Max_Carnage]

Actually, I thought the duo that played Arthur and Ford in the BBC television series were absolutely prefect…er…perfect.

[Larry_Mudd]

@Khan

And this Humma Kavula of whom you speak, would that be that guy who was mounted on a bunch of tiny metal legs from the chest down?

Yeah, that’s him. (Played by John Malkovich.) Douglas Adams developed the new character for the film with Malkovich in mind.

[Skywatcher]

@ArchiveGuy

ZoneAlarm? I have absolutely no idea what that is.

The Big Red Fire Engine means, “Check your firewall settings.”

[gonzoron]

@drewbert

I’m not going to post a direct link, because I’m getting the distinct impression the powers that be didn’t mean for it to be available anywhere but Amazon… but readers of Slashdot.com might just find something larger and downloadable…

Larger, downloadable, and completely different, unless I missed something. I combed through all the slashdot comments and only found links to the teaser trailer (which shows nothing much at all). Not the full trailer, which I got to work once on amazon, but won’t play again for some reason.

[Scissorjack]

@Marley23

His name is actually Dante Smith. Now, if it was Mose Def, Moses Definitely would be right on.

Really? Because Ford is Virgil to Arthur’s Dante.

[Chronos]

Someone let me know when this thing is actually available in a movie format, instead of that bastardization of Flash. The quality when I watched it was terrible, and every five seconds, it had to stop for two seconds for “Buffering… Please wait”. Very hard to form an impression of the movie itself, through that.

Of course, if this is any indication, when they do release it in a movie format, it’ll probably be exclusively Real Media…

[Terrifel]

I am actually pleasantly surprised by the trailer, which didn’t instantly activate the alarm on my suck detector as I had cynically expected it to. Granted, I haven’t had the detector turned up to maximum sensitivity since that painfully debilitating feedback incident involving the LGX trailer, but I am still cautiously optimistic.

The manner in which Zaphod’s extra appendages are presented was, for me, one of the more distressingly portentious rumors regarding the production (“So…he only has the two heads in some of the scenes? Danger! Danger! Suckitude Threat Level has been elevated to Orange Alert Status!”). Astonishingly, the brief glimpse provided in the trailer actually makes this approach look kind of intriguing.

Marvin does look as though he has been expressly designed to be marketed as a little novelty toy containing a microchip that says depressing things when you press a button. However, he also appears to fit in rather well with the production design for the Heart of Gold, which is a far cry from the ‘sleek running shoe’ description from the text…unless there’s a new fad I’m unaware of among the kids these days, involving perfectly spherical athletic footwear. I have faith that Alan Rickman is up to the challenge of voicing Marvin, although I always thought that the whole point of the character was that he’s not just depressed, but unreasonably depressed out of all proportion to the events at hand. This Marvin appears to have perfectly sound reasons for hating existence, having been created in the image of a hydrocephalic TWIKI.

I kind of wonder if the entire Guide entry for the Babel Fish made it into the final script, and if it did, whether it will be present in the American theatrical release. On the one hand, it’s one of the funnier and most quoted parts of the book, and I believe that it has been featured in all the incarnations of Hitch-hiker’s so far. On the other hand, given the current American social climate, the idea that a Disney-produced and distributed summer movie would include an explicitly stated proof of the non-existence of God (no matter how humorously intended) seems…well…improbable, to say the least. On the third hand, if you’re going to go ahead with a movie that basically establishes that all of the world’s religions are grossly mistaken anyway, then the Babel Fish bit shouldn’t be any harder for the audience to appreciate. We’ll see.

[Terrifel]

@Terrifel

Granted, I haven’t had the detector turned up to maximum sensitivity since that painfully debilitating feedback incident involving the LGX trailer […]

LXG, that is, of course. Curse that debilitating feedback!

[msmith537]

Somehow I picture Zaphod more like Johnny Knoxvilles character in Men in Black II.

[msmith537]

@Cisco

This is a total guess but I’ve got a feeling that they’ll use the first book as the overall storyarc with elements from the other 4 books and most likely a stop at Milliway’s.

At least that’s what I’m hoping. If they manage to pull this off, I do not want them screwing it up with a bunch of sequels.

I wouldn’t mind if they did the first three books Lord of the Rings style. A 9 hour comic epic might be a bit much though.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@Larry Mudd

Yeah, that’s him. (Played by John Malkovich.) Douglas Adams developed the new character for the film with Malkovich in mind.

Malkovich malkovich malkovich? Malkovich? Oh, Malkovich! Malkovich malkovich, malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich.

Malkovich

[DMark]

The advantage of having read this book decades ago:

1. I vaguely remember Hitchhikers Guide was funny and I liked it a lot.
2. I cannot remember a single thing about the book(s) anymore.
3. Looking forward to the movie version as I have no expectations of any specific characters or situations.

My guess is, a lot of the book will come back to me while I am watching it…but that is sort of cool. Kind of like a virtual reality flashback.

[Larry_Mudd]

@Terrifel

This Marvin appears to have perfectly sound reasons for hating existence, having been created in the image of a hydrocephalic TWIKI.

I dunno… the original concept for Marvin was that his body was designed by the marketing slugs at Sirius Cybernetics to match the idea of “your plastic pal that’s fun to be with,” and it’s just his catastrophic software problems that make him such a downer.

I can easily see that design as bubbly and cheery, bobbin’ along and animatedly delivering sacharrine “cutesy” GPP aphorisms – and then Marvin, with the same dimensions and design, in a permanent funk.

It’s only ten thousand times truer to concept than the BBC television series version.

[ISiddiqui]

@Larry Mudd

I dunno… the original concept for Marvin was that his body was designed by the marketing slugs at Sirius Cybernetics to match the idea of “your plastic pal that’s fun to be with,” and it’s just his catastrophic software problems that make him such a downer.

Yep, that’s the point a lot of people seem to miss. Marvin was SUPPOSED to be all cute. I think it makes him all the more miserable.

I LOVED the trailer (yes, I’m a fanboy ;))! It was definitely what I was hoping for. Yeah, it isn’t going to be exactly like the book, but I don’t care. The book wasn’t like the radio series, etc. I’ll be on line on the release date :).

[iamthewalrus_3]

I remember quite clearly reading the “dominant species” bit in the book. However, I didn’t get the joke for years, and only got it eventually when I reread the large leathery single volume. Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide or somesuch. I’ll check my copy when I get home.

It is possible that this bit was added to the story for the reprinting so we clueless 'Mer’cans wouldn’t feel left out? If so, I am disappointed.

[drewbert]

@gonzoron

Larger, downloadable, and completely different, unless I missed something. I combed through all the slashdot comments and only found links to the teaser trailer (which shows nothing much at all). Not the full trailer, which I got to work once on amazon, but won’t play again for some reason.

You have to dig deep. Set threshhold -1 and “flat”, and “oldest first” and go to page 7. One link there, several more on page 10.

Like I say, I’d post directly, but the big “DO NOT DUPLICATE” at the top corner of the video sorta kinda makes me feel like it wouldn’t be a good idea 'round these parts.

Mods, apologies if this is too far. Really, I can’t understand why it’s only public in a crappy miniature Flash version. It should be everywhere.