RE: [CPF0000] H2G2 movie

[Jim Damato <jdamato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not sure where this thread started so forgive me if I'm repeating
information.

HHG started as a radio show, and it was adapted into the books and
television show.  The TV series was really only a handful of episodes (six?
I think) which made it to the end of the second book.  By that time Douglas
Adams was writing the books as books instead of adapting the serialized
radio show.  I think that working out each episode in the serial contributed
to the quality of the story initially -- he had a vague idea of where he was
going, but there was opportunity for terrific oddness as he pulled together
each show in a hurry.

Writing the last books as novels forced Douglas Adams into a more formal
story structure, which contributed to the (IMHO) crappiness of third and
fourth books in the trilogy.  It didn't help that there was no way to end
the stories -- the pursuit of the question to the ultimate answer (42) of
life, the universe, and everything can't really be concluded well.

I'd rather see an updated TV series or serial than a movie.  They should
probably get through the third book if they want to have any sort of
conclusion, and that's too much story for a movie.  The coolness of the
story is in the individual segments and absurd details.  Anything that gets
cut out would cause the movie to suffer.  I was introduced to HHG by a PBS
rerun of the TV series.  It was fun to watch the episodes once a week and
get excited for the next part of the story.

To me it's kind of like Tales of the City.  The original TV show, based on
stories written for a newspaper column, presented its strange plot twists
week by week.  The later incarnations were released all at once and often
shown as long cable movies.  And, like HHG, the TotC story ran out of steam
in the later novels anyway.

-Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: rick.baird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rick.baird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 4:26 PM
To: jbrusling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; cpf0000@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [CPF0000] H2G2 movie



John,

I replied off list - this is really off topic for RPG - cross posted to
cpf0000, in case anyone else was interested.

you're a real hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is!

The movie has been greenlighted by spyglass/disney, is currently in casting
and pre-production for release in 2005. After only 25 years of effort by
DNA and others.  It's about time!

they've been throwing around budget numbers in the $40m range.  not enough,
imo, but if done right, it really wouldn't need a big budget.

the BBC did the tv series on a shoestring, and i absolutely loved it.

Its going to be interesting to see how they turn the book(s) into a movie
comedy.  It just doesn't play out right in my mind in only a 100 minutes.

this guy:  http://hitchhikermovie.free.fr/  usually has the latest poop on
the movie.



Rick


--------original message----------
Rick,

I hope one day they'll put the time and money for a movie into HHG like
they
did with LOR.

John B.