Opening May 6, 2005 – Let the countdown begin – but don’t panic!

As one of the most original, laugh-out-loud while-thinking how-odd-the-universe-really-is type-of-books, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, has finally made it to the ‘wrap’ phase of production. Douglas Adams, taken from us at far too young an age, unfortunately died without knowing that his beloved novel would go on to become a motion picture after over ten years of heartbreak at the hands of the Hollywood machine. Head on over to the official movie site to see the teaser trailer. Or click on the image above to download some spiffy wallpaper.

Along with some of my other geeky high school friends, I found HHGTTG an amazingly refreshing piece of fiction ten year before that. Funny, thoughtful – and very *real* despite being sci-fi. I used a quote from Marvin the Paranoid Android in my senior year high school yearbook. ‘Life! Don’t talk to me about life….’ Funny – that quote still holds water today.

My only hope is that the film doesn’t suck – the directors, known as ‘Hammer and Tongs’ made up of director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, have some interesting work in their past, but not much in the way of feature films. Jennings was an actor in Shaun of the Dead, and has directed quite a few music videos ranging from Blur to REM – so that’s all promising. Arthur Dent seems to have been cast well – Martin Freeman from Love, Actually steps into Simon Jones role from the BBC Series. Mos Def play Ford Prefect – an interesting call there. Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod, and Zooey Deschanel (from Elf and The Good Girl) plays Trillian. Another alum from Love Actually, Bill Nighy, plays Slartibartfast. Here’s to keeping your fingers crossed…

For more background on the trials and tribulations of getting this film made, read this note from Roger Birnbaum, the co-chairman of Spyglass Films who bought convinced Disney to buy the right to the book back in 1995.