Coming from an Adams’ worshipper…
I have moved this post into another possibly more appropriate topic, and edited in some new info…
[i]HG-MTV for the pre-tweeny-bopper generation[/i]
It seems that in recent months we’ve been talking more about the HGttG film in the News section (articles and comments) than in this forum… Anyway…
The official Disney HGttG site was opened on the 13th, [url=http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/main.html]HERE’s the link.[/url] Here’s their [url=http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/hitchblog/blog.htm]News Blog for official updates.[/url] They started shooting the film mid-April.
I wonder how the screenplay will be, and how much of the books it will follow?
Adams wrote a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy screenplay for Hollywood way back in ’82 or ’83 which was delayed (and which, according to Adams, contradicted everything he’d written so far).
I see at IMDB.com Adams is listed in the writing credits for the initial screenplay, but two other writers are credited for the current screenplay: Garth Jennings — also acting as director (he’s a music video director, and seems to be best known as a director of a Blur one) and veteran Disney writer Karey Kirkpatrick who has written for numerous children’s movies — HIS best known may be The Rescuers Down Under (the sequel to the Rescuers) and Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, the lame sequel to Honey We Shrunk the Kids. Also worked on Chicken Run, which is one of my l[i]esser[/i] favourite Aardman productions (I love Creature Comforts, Wallace and Grommit, and Rex the Runt).
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2257599]Here’s an interview with Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith[/url]
Garth Jennings (director) and Nick Goldsmith (producer) have worked together in making music videos, which does not altogether bode well. Considering their background, guess the choice of hip-hopper Mos Def becomes a more obvious choice for this dynamic duo.
So, I’m not expecting very much… What I am kinda expecting is something that will have the aesthetic of a children’s music video, and I expect a movie sequel since Kirkpatrick has made a career out of them. Oh , and since Disney is producing it, expect Benjie Mouse and Frankie Mouse to be played by Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. 😉
Edit: Here’s an interview with Karey Kirkpatrick (the screenplay writer) [url=http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/hitchblog/interview.htm]CLICK[/url] where he interviews himself. Why? You might ask. Well, in his own self-deprecating words…
[quote=”Kirkpatrick”] because a) I think I’ll be harder on myself and know what sort of questions an interviewer might ask and b) no one has asked to interview me.
And why should they? Who am I? “Not Douglas Adams” is the answer that concerns most people.[/quote]
It really is a very and witty good self-interview and worth reading. Really, I feel much more positive about the project after reading it. One can see far more than a glimmer of Adams[i]esque[/i]’ humour there. 🙂
I won’t bother going into detail, but from reading the interview: Karey is a Python fan which is most promising; he reverently tried to remain true to Adams’ authorial vision – his spirit — he looked at himself as an editor in working with, and researching Adams’ material, but he developed concepts, brought in some new angles, and worked heavily on structure. He tried to stick with Adams’ screenplay as much as possible, but elaborated on some things and developed some new ideas (but tried to keep Adams’ tome). He developed more of a “middle”, and tried to develop the characters more (Hollywood expects more emotional characterisation and looks like he brought in a love story – hopefully not sappy). Aside from working from Adams’ screenplay, he brought in much other stuff that would fit the structure he was composing from the books, radio plays and Adams’ notes (he deliberately avoided the BBC series cause he didn’t want to imitate it). He hacked at his screenplay cause the bankrollers thought it was too long (expect more scenes in the DVD), and developed a structure for the whole thing that the Hollywood peeps would go for. He was wary about working with the director and producer as they had never made a feature film, but ultimately liked them for their creative “spark”.
It’s going to be tough to please the diehard Adams’ fans (i.e. you and me), Adams was brillant, but it sounds like he took the right approach to it. Hopefully the Hollywood/Disney contraints he had to work under won’t ruin the endeavour.
I was going to say we don’t need no stinkin’ Holloywood love stories, but I was truly touched by the love story between Arthur and Fenny in [i]So Long And Thanks For All The Fish[/i]. On a bad note: Sounds like he was expected to clarify more of the story than was necessary… Like how the Infinite Improbaility Drive works… We don’t need serious explanations, and we don’t need no stinkin’ technobabble. It would only detract from Adams’ zany humour – Adams was brilliant with making the insignificant significant and the patently absurd profound.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the film again.