Hitchhiker's Guide Teaser out! (3 Viewers)

[George See]

I agree perfect casting, I can just hear him saying. "Life don't talk to me about life"

 

[Kwang Suh]

I wonder if the whale will be in this one...

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

There's a listing for the actor playing the whale's voice at imdb,com, so I'm guessing yes.

 

[Kevin M]

Hasn't he been dead for some time now?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Yes, but he wrote a number of drafts of a Hitchhiker movie. According to the poster, he's getting both a shared screenplay credit and an executive producer credit.

 

[Edwin-S]

The trailer did give me the MIB vibe and that is what worries me. Douglas Adams's humour was not MIB-like. His humour was gentle, dry, and sometimes little sardonic. His writing had wit and intelligence. MIB was okay, but it is far down the scale in intelligence compared to Adams. The MIB-like influences in this trailer do not fill me with confidence. The MIB overtone makes me think that Adams's writing has been dumbed down in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Other trailers may change my impression but this first one did not leave me with a favourable impression of the impending film.

 

[TheLongshot]

It doesn't mean that the movie doesn't have those qualities. One thing I do know from experience is that there is nothing more deceptive than hollywood trailers. Most of the time, they make the movie look better than it is, or don't really capture the true feel of the film.

As I said, there isn't enough here to judge anything but the look of the film. I don't see enough interaction in context to judge anything.

Jason

 

[Kwang Suh]

I've always thought that HHGTTG was extremely sci-fi. There are a lot of very creative, very original, very large sci-fi concepts that, heck, I don't mind seeing with today's technology.

It's also incredibly funny. But I'm not sure how much of that humor one could convey in a 30 second trailer. The humor is very contextual, sometimes sublime.

 

[Chris Harvey]

I've also been very heartened by reading the various interviews from the producers, the writer, and the director. They have a genuine love for Adams' work and seem to be in the same ballpark when it comes to humor (see the screenwriter's interview with himself for a perfect example).

There also doesn't seem to have been a ton of Suit Interference, though of course that sometimes can be hard to tell.

Remember, too, that the trailer is designed to sell the film to as wide an audience as possible.

 

[John Garcia]

Well, they will probably HAVE to, or the "masses" won't get half the humor in the books...

 

[Marvin Richardson]

But that's the thing...the "filmmakers" usually have zero to do with the trailers. Judging the movie in any way shape or form on the trailer is a waste of time. There have been movies in the past that I hated because of the trailer before I decided to stop trying to prejudge the film on it. Prime example: Fifth Element. Great movie, but it was marketed as the next Star Wars, and it was about the farthest thing from that you could imagine.
Of course, the movie could be a POS, but I'm staying hopeful.

 

[George See]

Both reviews that are on Aint it cool news make it sound like the movie is very much in the spirit of the books/radio/tv material.

I agree that this trailer likely wasn't made by the film makers. Not only that this trailer was not made for fans of the work...fans of the work are going to the theater to see this anyway, so why waste advertising on us? This trailer was very much made for J6P and included all material that appeals to J6P namely site gags and explosions.

 

[John Garcia]

As with nearly EVERY translation to screen, it will never be as good as the book(s). Just look at LOTR - I have many issues with that series. It was well done, and captures most of the essence, though it departed (heavily at times) from the books. The movie has to appeal to, and make sense to, those who have not read the books.

I personally don't want to watch another version of MIB either, but as long as the sardonic humor and character interaction is there, I think it will be fun.

It's also quite common to have scenes in the trailer that don't make it to the movie...happens all the time.

 

[George See]

Of course this one is much more complex then your average adaptation considering it started out as a radio play long before the book. It's hard to talk about departures from the book, when the book itself departed from the radio play. I think to consider this movie a success to make Adams proud they'll have to capture the spirit more so then capturing scene for scene specifics from the book.

 

[hanson mat]

I agree George... The whole story isn't really that tangible. It is more of a loose script, and the character's personalities are the steadfast principles. As long as the characters are correct, the story can vear on and off course in my - and most hitchhiker's fans - opinion. I think it looks pretty on target.

 

[TheodoreQ]

what is this movie about? i remember seeing a quick trailer before, but it was vague.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Just an idea.

 

[Chris Harvey]

Malkovich's cult revolves around
the Great Green Arkleseizure (sp?) and Viltvodle Six, apparently.


Note: official high-res Quicktime versions of the trailer are available at the official site: http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com

An extra large version (52 megs) is here:
http://bvim-qt.vitalstream.com/Hitch..._0197_3000.mov

(I found these links at the Douglas Adams Continuum forum)

 

[John Garcia]

The trailer is now playing on TV, saw it last night.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Chris - Really? But they don't even feature in any version of the story we've seen so far. They're just one of the many worlds discussed by the guide. It'll be interesting to see how they fit in.

And also, thanks for the links. I'm starting on the extra large, but on dial-up I suspect it'll take a while...