Hitchhiker convention the 11th october in London

As read on the bookseller.com "A “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” convention will take place in October to mark the 30th anniversary of the famous Douglas Adams series (11th October) and publication of the authorised sequel from Eoin Colfer, And Another Thing . . .
“Hitchcon 2009” is a highlight in a co-ordinated campaign being jointly organised by Adams’ publisher Pan Macmillan and Colfer’s publisher Penguin. Pan Macmillan is to reissue the Adams backlist on 1st September, 42 days before the anniversary date—as Adams fans know, the number 42 is “the answer to life, the universe and everything”.
The special editions, which include a “DIY” jacket for The Hitchhiker’s Guide that readers can customise with a sheet of stickers, will be available only for one year. They include new introductions from the likes of Russell T Davies, Neil Gaiman and Terry Jones, and previously unseen material from Pan Macmillan’s Adams archive.
This includes the original press release for The Hitch­hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and synopses of the novels written by Adams.
Macmillan senior commissioning editor Julie Crisp said: “We have such a history with him, and we wanted to focus on material that hadn’t been seen.”
Macmillan’s marketing includes a promotion with the magazine SciFi Now, and material for bookshops includes dumpbins, window stickers, posters and bookmarks. Meanwhile, Marvin the Paranoid Android will be Tweeting.

Hitchcon will take place at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank on Sunday 11th October, with appearances from Simon Jones, the actor who first played Arthur Dent, and other members of the original cast. Colfer will also do the first reading from his book at the event.
Meanwhile, Penguin is collab­orating with Universal Music label Island Records for the release of a tune inspired by And Another Thing . . . with Irish band The Blizzards. The song is to be released as the “official” single for the book in October.
Penguin is also to launch a website, www.6of3.com, offering competitions, games and ringtone downloads, in September. “Large-scale announcement advertising” is also planned, while a range of videos with Colfer will be seeded across the internet, and material also fed across TV and radio stations. ­
Colfer will do events from 11th to 17th October, including bookshop appearances in Glasgow, Birmingham and ­Manchester, Forbidden Planet in London (Wednesday 14th October 2009 - 6pm-7pm) and Easons in Dublin, and the Cheltenham and ­Manchester literary festivals."
We can add :

- The Official H2G2 fan club ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha will be having a slouch and party in London on the Saturday
- The upcoming publication of "The Rough Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" by Marcus O’Dair in October.

Simon Jones plays Magrathea Hologram

We already knew that Simon Jones (the legendary Arthur from the h2g2 TV and radio series) would play a role in the Hitchhiker's movie. But we didn't knew which part he would play. Finally, Simon Jones himself revealed the well kept secret in an interview with british SF mag SFX (thanks to MJ for spotting this). In this month's current issue, Simon Jones said he has recorded his part last august and that it was the Magrathea Hologram. The Hologram is already a well known part. In the TV and radio series, he coldly welcomes the Heart Of Gold when the spaceship approaches the dead planet, threatening the HoG crew with "fully armed nuclear warheads" guided missiles. Missiles, which, thanks to the Improbability Drive, will finally turn into a very surprised looking sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

According to Simon Jones, the Hologram speech will be "largely the same as in previous versions".
Simon Jones seems very enthusiastic about the movie (and here i quote again MJ) : "Robbie Stamp knew Douglas pretty well in the latter years and he has been very, very careful and pretty rigid in sticking to the spirit of Douglas' humour," says Simon. "I don't think people will be particularly surprised that the film has a little more narrative drive, but I think they will like it, and it will be a great success. I have already said that I want a bigger part in the next one."

Simon Jones in the movie + Empire photo with Ford and Arthur on line

Well, this sounds like a great news, doesn't it? Simon Jones, the original Arthur from the radio and TV series, will play a small part in the Hitchhiker's movie (but which one? That is the question). BBC apparently made an unvoluntary scoop on their Hitchhiker's third phase radio series website, in Simon Jones' biography, "Among his film credits are Privates on Parade; Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life; Brazil; Miracle on 34th Street (the 1994 remake); Twelve Monkeys; The Devil’s Own; and the forthcoming The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” MJ Simpson jumped on the news and here it is ! We can suspect that Robbie was speaking about Simon when Robbie Stamp wrote some weeks ago in his production update on the official blog that we should soon "look out for news about an old friend.".... Of course we're still waiting for the confirmation of Stephen Moore playing Marvin's voice. Come on guys!

British magazine "Empire" has scooped the first picture with Martin Freeman (Athur) and Mos Def (Ford). This picture could come from the scene where they are knocking down Arthur's house. Anyway the picture (thanks to Gusty who sent it to me) doesnt look like a picture from the movie, but rather a behind the scene picture taken while the actors were quietly chating just after a scene. of course they are dressed like the actual characters.