Hitchhiker's Guide Teaser out! (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

Thanks Matt. It looks good. Not sure if I'll see it in the theater but I'll buy the dvd.

 

[clayton b]

Man, what a great trailer. I'm not sold on Zaphod's second head however. That's a minor bitch though.

 

[Edwin-S]

I was really looking forward to this movie, but after watching the trailer I'm beginning to think I'll stick to the books and the TV series. The TV Beeblebrox may have a fake rubber head and the effects may be low rent, but the show had a warmth and book-like feel that is entirely absent from the trailer. The movie version, judging from the trailer, is just more Hollywood sci-fi flash and bang trash.

The Arthur Dent character had some kind of "English accent", but the opening felt like it was somewhere in middle America.....not England.

Did Adams really have a hand in writing the screenplay for this thing? I hope not, because at this point in time it looks awful. I hope future trailers will change my initial feelings, because right now I feel hugely disappointed.

Edit: I looked at the trailer again and it does look like England after all.

 

[Chris Harvey]

HITCHHIKER'S is no more a Hollywood production than LOTR was (which is to say, Hollywood money but largely talent from the outside).

 

[Edwin-S]

Really? It sure looks, feels, and sounds like a typical Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Let's say you're a studio trying to market a science fiction comedy with a cult following amongst smart people -- do you market it as a sci-fi cult comedy, or do you play it up as a sci-fi action extravaganza to try to pull in the popcorn crowd?

To judge that a film lacks "warmth", based on a thirty second long trailer, is really silly.

Personally, I found the stuff with Ford Prefect and the giant woman to be screamingly funny, and very Hitchhikery. I'm looking forward to the actual film.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I went back to watch the trailer again -- Edwin, what shots look like middle America to you?

 

[Bryan Ri]

I re downloaded the Flash player, I can't this trailer playing for the life of me.

 

[TheLongshot]

Really, the only thing you can judge from this trailer is the look of the film. We don't have any complete scenes, so we don't know what the chemistry or writing is like.

And of course it looks like "hollywood sci-fi flash". Trailer makers don't know anything but cliche anymore.

Jason

 

[Chris Farmer]

I still love that trailer for Comedian which made fun of exactly that. Never saw the movie, but a fantastic trailer.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

I have to echo Edwin's sentiments - the trailer hasn't done anything for me other than make me apprehensive about the final product.

The first 20 second are good. As soon as Zaphod appears though, things go to out into left field. From reading the books (over and over and over), I always got a sense of indifference from Zaphod & Trillian to Arthur (and to a lesser extent, Ford's) presence on the Heart of Gold. Kinda like a "oh hey, hi, nice to see you... can you pass the salt please" attitude other than this complete other vibe I'm getting from Rockwell's take on the character. Don't get me wrong - we've only seen mere seconds of his involvement, but if what I've seen holds true for the rest of the movie, I fear that a significant characteristic & appeal of the book will be lost... the dry & indifferent "british" flavor that made it so appealing to all of us in the first place.

Remember, Hitchikers is absurdist sci-fi. HHGTTG is to Science fiction as Napoleon Dynamite is to serious Drama.

A couple of other gripes:

1) Marvin didn't utter a word in this trailer. I would have liked to hear his voice - the meloncholy thoughts of a paranoid android. Marvin the Paranoid Android is ESSENTIAL to the film. Marvin the walking commercial for Apple iPod is not, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

2) The heart of gold is a big white ball. Looks kinda like the decapitated head of a snowman. I seem to recall that it was described as a big golden sneaker in the book? That always gave me a very funny mental image (and imagery was very important). Frosty the snowman's head in space is not funny to me.

3) Trillian has one line. "Arthuuuuur!". Since when was Trillian ever described as the kind of woman who ever asked Arthur (or anyone else for that matter) for help? She was always written as a strong, independent, savvy and intelligent woman in the books. The one memory I have of her after watching that trailer is of her dressed in baby blue P.J.'s being carried away and screaming Arthur's name.

I have no problems with Mos Def's portrayal of Ford, and I'm impressed with the way the production department has chosen to represent the Vogon's.

Here's hoping another trailer is released that gives me more positive vibes.

Moe.

 

[Gary->dee]

Trailer 2 streaming Windows Media Player format links:

Highspeed and Dial-up.

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Thanks Gary!

 

[Matthew_Def]

Personally, I'm glad about Zaphod's head, it would awful the other way, the second right next to it would be too distracting, it looked awful and creepy in the TV series. I'm glad Adams decided to get a bit creative and come up with a different way to do the other head.

Anyway, Martin Freeman is perfect casting. Mos Def seems like a pretty good choice from the trailer. I really dig Rockwell's portrayl of Zaphod so far. Trillian we got no real impression of, and I hear her character is pretty different from any other version. If it works for the movie then great, if not well, poop.

The rest looks like it has the right amount of weirdness to evoke the spirit of the stories, so I hope it all comes together in the end.

 

[hanson mat]

I like the way Marvin looks, and I think that once we hear him talk, everything will come together.

Overall, I really like the trailer. It is still funny without giving everything away.

 

[George See]

That's just the way I read it though, i'm sure it's open for interpretation.
I think we really got too little meat in the trailer to really say how the vibe is gonna be in those scenes though.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Moe, did you check out the IMDB entry on this film?

Marvin's voice is none other than Alan Rickman. That's just PERFECT, at least in my opinion.

 

[Francois Caron]

Oh man! I can hear him now in my head! Yep! Just the right intonation!

 

[John Garcia]

Yep, great choice for Marvin.

I've grown acustomed to the voices from the radio broadcast (BBC?) though. I have them all on CD and feel they did a great job of conveying the personalities, and Marvin in particular was exactly how I had imagined he would sound. Very monotone and dripping with that sarcastic, manic depressive gloom. Rickman should still be able to do a great job. I like the way he looked in the trailer, but I didn't picture him looking shiny and new.

I don't really like what they've done with Zaphod, but we'll have to see.

I don't think the trailer makes it look at all like a sci-fi action flic. It definitely shows that it's a comedy and has a MIB vibe to it. As someone noted, they have to appeal to the masses, especially those who have not read any of the books (or even heard of them for that matter).