Saturday, April 24, 2004

First week of shooting has ended

Robbie Stamp, exclusive producer on the movie, sent us an email about the first week of shooting : "I have just got back home after our first week having seen my first edited pieces. There is something very cool brewing over here. It was a very moving moment for me on Monday and the sense at the end of the week was pretty wonderful too. "

Still regarding this first week of shooting, we can find some informations on Martin Freeman's official Website, managed by his brother Jamie : "Filming – which doesn't follow the cronology of the script – got under way with the party scene where Arthur meets Trillian.Filming – which doesn't follow the cronology of the script – got under way with the party scene where Arthur meets Trillian."

Monday, April 19, 2004

MJ Simpson and Jim Lynn scoop a long interview with Hammer & Tongs dream team !

MJ Simpson promised us a major exclusivity for today (first day of shooting in London) on his site, and here it is : a long interview with Nick, Garth and Robbie Stamp ! Notice that the Interview has been recorded at the end of january.

Here are a few extracts :

Martin Freeman : "He has just been extraordinary. He has reinvented it so it’s still Arthur but it’s a very new, fresh take on it" (Garth)

Mos Def : "You wait till you meet him, you’ll love him. He’s perfect for Ford. We didn’t know much about Mos before we went to meet him; since meeting him and investigating everything he’s done, it was almost no question – it had to be him." (Garth)

Zooey Deschanel : "The last thing we wanted was the token female, and Zooey more than fitted the bill" (Garth)

Sam Rockweell : "He’s the only man I know who can go from a high karate kick, straight into the splits without pulling a muscle and still look cool!" (Garth)

Bill Nighy : "Bill’s just perfect for Slartibartfast and we never bothered even considering anyone else" (Garth)

About the script : "We thought that it would be the typical, Hollywood, ruin-everything thing and we actually told our agent not to send us the script... I went into the toilet to read it, expecting to come out quite quickly, and 45 minutes later I appeared, saying to my wife, ‘This is actually rather good." (Garth)

"There’s an awful lot of new Douglas stuff. There’s some wonderful inventions – characters and creatures and devices. I don’t think we’ve put anything in. Karey’s main role has been ordering and editing and making sense of it. We never once had to invent something."

About h2g2 : "both Nick and I were fans when we were younger."

Budget "It’s a very, very decent amount of money to make this film but it’s not necessarily up there with the Harry Potters and the Batmans and things like that' (Nick)

Character's design : "All our thoughts as far as designs of characters go, we always go to the book, go to Douglas for reference. We read a lot of the descriptions and also the ethos behind some of them" (nick)

DVD : "I don’t think there’s ever been a film more suited to the DVD format"(garth)

Their hope : “The most important thing for us is that we’ve captured the spirit of the work, that we’ve captured what made it so special to all of us. And that they just enjoy it. We hope it’s a really great film for everybody. Is that too little an answer for such a big question?” (garth)


You can also read a slightly different script on h2g2 : : CLICK HERE !!

Friday, April 16, 2004

New names for the movie. Malkovitch to star in « Hitchhiker’s guide » !

According to Los Angeles’ Hollywood Reporter, John Malkovitch will star in the h2g2 movie. This has been officially confirmed. He will play a brand new character, « a religious cult leader called Humma Kavula, created by the late author especially for the long-gestating film ». Robbie Stamp, executive producer, told me that John will play a “crazed missionary” now living on the planet Viltvodle". The character could have something to do with the Great Green Arklesiezure story.
This is of course great news, and a funny coincidence too. Let’s remember it’s « Being John Malkovitch » director, Spike Jonz, that recommanded Hammer & Tongs to Disney. Maybe Spike has helped his protégés to convince the american actor to thumb a ride on the h2g2 movie.



A british actress is also due to star in the h2g2 movie according Bill Nighy who let slip the info in a recent interview. Her name is Anna Chancelor and is best known as « Duckface » in « Four weddings and a funeral ». She also played parts in Heart, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Staggered... She has been confirmed later today and we know she will play Questular, the vice-president of the galaxy... which is also a new part!



It's also great to think that Douglas have created a new version of the Guide before he died, with brand new characters, rather than just a too faithful adaptation.

Karey and Martin enjoy the movie thing!

According Martin Freeman's offcial website runed by his brother Jamie, Martin is very happy with the reharsals. Listen to what Jamie says : "Work has started on rehearsals for the movie. Martin is rehearsing his role as Arthur Dent in London along with other cast members. It's actually happening, people! :-) Martin has told me he's really enjoying the rehearsals, heaping praise upon his fellow cast members".

In the meantime, MJ Simpson on his own site, tell us that "Kirkpatrick was in fact at Elstree Studios this week and flew back to the USA only yesterday. “The film was in fantastic shape when I last left it on Wednesday evening,” he told me, “with the cast sinking into their roles really nicely. I saw Vogons practising their marching in formation. Awesome. I think people are going to be very happy.”

So if the main actor and the script writer are happy with what is going on we can guess everything's fine. ;)

Monday, April 5, 2004

Steve Pemberton will play Prosser

Casting goes on! The new actor officially casted in the movie is british actor Steve Pemberton who will play Prosser, employee of the local concil, who wants to destroy Arthur Dent's house. He's also a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Kahn, though he has no idea of this.

Like Martin Freeman, Steve Pemberton is a british actor mainly known for being one of the main actors of a famous BBC TV series. He plays several parts in "The league of gentlemen" series, which he also directs and writes for. As said on imdb, it's a "Bizzare comedy sent in the fictional English town of Royston Vasey, whose inhabitants include a transexual taxi driver, a family obsessed with cleaness that despise masurbation, an apathetic priest, a gypsy who kidnaps women to be his wives and a psychotic couple who run a local shop for local people....". And for the BBC "The League Of Gentlemen - the comedy troupe of the same name - are Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, an exceptionally talented team who created, write and (with the exception of Dyson) play all the major roles, male and female. (This is one reason why the different characters play out their stories in serialised sketches, rarely crossing into each other's storylines.) Theirs is a gothic-comedy, inspired (in places) by horror films in general, especially the work of Hammer Studios, and by The Wicker Man (1973) in particular.

Steve is now working on the movie adaptation of the "league of gentlemen" and will play in "Life and death of Peter Sellers" and "Churchill : The Hollywood years".`

And here is Steve in "the league of gentlemen"! Very sexy. He could play Trillian too for sure!