Amazon.com is showing the trailer for the forthcoming film of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As is usual with such things, the trailer has a manic feel and seems to focus on special effects, but there are quite a few elements which I can't place at all in the story. I'll reserve judgment. (What the hell; I know I'll go to see it, but I have an anticipatory pain in the diodes all down my left side.)
Speaking of HHGTTG, I see they've just published a Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition of the book. Now I think that this is a wasted opportunity. Some maker of PDAs should have taken the cue from Apple's U2 Edition iPod, and produced a HHGTTG PDA, with preloaded multimedia Guide and Encyclopedia Galactica applications, e-books of Douglas Adams works, MP3s of the radio show, etc., etc. Naturally there would be a flip-down (peril-sensitive?) screen protector with the immortal words "Don't Panic". Maybe PalmOne could produce an SD card for their PDAs....
Posted by geoff2 at February 17, 2005 08:16 AMSaw the trailer. Not thrilled with the fact that (it appears) everyone but Dent is American. Not all that impressed by the way Zaphod's second head is *underneath* the first. I want to reserve final judgement until after I've seen the film, but it's getting harder and harder.
As for the HHGTTG PDA, that's a brilliant idea. Wish I'd thought of it.
Posted by: Mark J Musante at February 17, 2005 09:03 AMCheer up, plenty of non Americans in the film, check out the cast list:
http://snipurl.com/cury
the Voice is Stephen Fry!!!!
That makes me want to listen to the old radio shows again. I have them MP3'd somewhere on a CD... I'm not sure what the licensing/copyright is on them.. any ideas? I'd like to post them on my blog to share.
Posted by: steve at February 19, 2005 12:11 AMThe radio shows are almost certainly copyrighted. I know that the BBC has been talking about providing access to much of its archive under a Creative Commons license, but IIRC the focus is on factual (news, documentary) material rather than drama, comedy, and so forth. (Google for "BBC Creative Archive" to see press releases, commentary, etc.) The original radio production of HHGTTG is available as a CD box set from the BBC.
Posted by: Geoff Arnold at February 19, 2005 11:41 AM