You can read a bit about it here:
Douglas Adams was directly involved in the project before his untimely death, so maybe it’ll actually be worthwhile. Shucks, if it’s even as good as Galaxy Quest, I’d be satisfied.
Anybody out there know anything else about this? If so, why have you been keeping it from me? Why leave me out of it? I mean, I’ve got my towel and everything.
What? No Jim Carey or Jude Law? Bah!!!
No voice of the book listed.
Hmm.
I’m having difficulty imagining this without Peter Jones - or Simon Jones, for that matter. But no animated book segments at all? I hope I’m wrong.
OK, good, wrong on one count - he apparently gets a cameo as a magrathean announcer.
The teaser is already in theaters now as well. I saw it before “National Treasure.” There were no actual scenes from the movie yet, though.
I’m guessing that’s not a complete cast list. It’s very heavy on Vogons, but not much of anything else, aside from the main characters, and cameo extras. For instance, what about Majikthise and Vroomfondel?
So, as Arthur Dent, we’ve got Martin Freeman, the porn-movie lighting model from Love, Actually. I could see that.
As Ford Prefect, we have Mos Def. The racial twist is a bit hard to reconcile with the mental image I have of Ford Prefect, but if he dos a good job, I could certainly see that as well. I haven’t seen enough of his other work to judge his acting capabilities, so I can’t comment on that. Could be good.
Zaphod Beeblebrox is Sam Rockwell. I’ve only seen a couple of his films, and I can’t remember him at all from those, which spells trouble when playing a character as much larger than life as ZB is. Hmmm.
Trillian is Zooey Deschanel, who was the sister in Almost Famous, and Roz’ cousin on Frazier (I didn’t see Elf). Even Douglas Adams couldn’t seem to decide who the hell Trillian was throughout the series, so I suppose she’s no better or worse a choice than anyone else.
Slartibartfast is Bill Nighy, the aging rocker from Love, Actually. He’s a very good actor, but I fear his casting is a reflection of his status as a flavor of the week. Hopefully he brings something interesing to the part.
We seem to have lots of Vogons, so that’s obviously going to be a big part of the plot. Then we have John Malkovich as a character named Humma Kavula, and someone else listed as an uncredited Hummer Worshiper (I’ll assume a misspelling on the part of a computer-savvy extra who created an IMDB page for themselves). I wince a little here, but it’s in keeping with Adam’s strict devotion to the idea that the various versions of HHGTTH be mutually incompatible, so I cautiously let this one go. I assume some episode between the Vogon ship and Magrathea.
Then we get to the dealbreaker: Marvin the android is played by Warwick Davis. Not that he’s a bad performer. It’s just the principle of the thing. Marvin as a dwarf robot. Why? He’s got a built-in following just from the cynical character. Why make him a dwarf? In order to Ewokize him and make people go “Awwww!” And that is just sickening to me.
I think I’ll be skipping this one, as it is likely to make be beg for whatever horror George Lucas has in store for the Star Wars finale.
Have you seen “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”? Not a great movie, but Sam Rockwell’s performance as Chuck Barris is very entertaining, and definitely larger than life. Based on this alone, I think he can easily handle Zaphod.
Also, the John Malkovich character was created specifically for this movie by Adams when he was writing the screenplay.
Ah.
Only saw half of that film. Didn’t like it, but i agree he was a forceful presence within it. Must have overlooked that one in his IMDB filmography.
The script was finalized from Doug Adams’ drafts by Chicken Run’s Karey Kirkpatrick :
IMDB says Jack Davenport was considered for Arthur Dent, but they chucked him because he was too good looking.
Personally, I think Jack Davenport would have made and excellent Arthur. What I’ve seen of him on Coupling suggests just the right temperament.
Mos Def and Warwick Davis? Sorry, no. I’ll watch it on video, but with low expectations.
If you’re seeking congratulations on making a bunch of assumptions and then coming to a conclusion based on them, you’ve got mine. Fine job!
Maybe Warwick is playing the part because he needs to fit in a cavity of a robot suit. I dunno. He is a fine actor, and I think he’ll be fine as Marvin. I need to see it before I pass judgment.
I was really excited to see the previews for this movie at The Aviator, and I was whispering to my girlfriend about it. She called me a geek. :eek:
Yeah, there is the possibility that Marvin is mostly thin metallic rods for legs and arms and they needed an actor that can fit into Marvin’s chest and head.
Warwick Davis is not the voice of Marvin. He’s just the guy in the suit.
There’s a good chance that Stephen Moore will be Marvin’s voice again.
Here’s a picture of how Marvin looks in the movie, which you can verify by looking at the image in the lower right hand area of the official movie website
How wrong am I?
If a tiny, “adorable” robot plods around and tells everyone to piss off, it’ll be just that much more amusing.
And in keeping with Sirius Cybernetics belief that a robot is “Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with”, having it “cute” could be S.C.'s original idea.
i remember reading some HHGTTG book/suppliment describing Marvin’s actual design as swoopy and dynamic, an extremely attractively and futuristically designed robot, it’s just the way Marvin carries himself, he tries to make it look as if he’s not put together properly, that his parts don’t fit well together, in fact they fit perfectly well together, but something in the way Marvin carries himself makes the viewer think they could fit together better
or this description from HHGTTG;
“The robot’s head swung up sharply, but then wobbled around imperceptibly, it pulled itself up to it’s feet as if it was about five pounds heavier than it actually was and made what an outside observer would have thought was a heroic effort to cross the room, stopped in front of Trillian and seemed to stare through her left shoulder”
“with a series of grinding and groaning noises he’d learned to simulate, Marvin trudged across the room”
<non-spoilers>
I’ve been following this movie’s production off and on, and the only thing that bugs me (so far) is the look of the Heart of Gold – let’s just say that it ain’t no “sleek running shoe.”
And I’m not entirely sure about the fundamental change to Zaphod, but I’ll defer final judgement until I see the movie, since it could still work for comedic purposes.
What fundamental change are you talking about?
His second head is inside his nose
