Douglas' typewriter on auction at Christies the 30Th November to save rhinos

The auction of the typewriter will take place at Christies Auction House in South Kensington (85 Old Brompton Road) on November 30th 2005. The typewriter is to be in the "Modern Firsts" sale (a book sale).

Nic Davies who owns the typewriter says that the money will be used 'to raise money for Rhino Recovery''

Rhino Recovery's web site is at http://www.rhinorecovery.org.uk/ . The typewriter seems to be authentic and is signed by Douglas. And Nic quotes a mail from Geoffrey Perkins (H2G2 radio series producer) : "Douglas actually gave me the typewriter he wrote the show on many years ago but it is exactly the same make as the one you have! I would say in all honesty that you therefore probably have ONE of the typewriters that the show was written on !". More details and pics of the typewriter here.

Jane and James will conquer the summit of mount Kilimanjaro in memory of their brother Douglas

I got a mail from James Thrift, Douglas' brother some time ago. As I was very busy I sadly didn't have time to update this website sooner but you must know that Douglas' sister (Jane) and brother (James) are going to "leave the UK on February 23rd 2006, our expedition will spend 6 days trekking the Rongai route to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at a heady 19,340 feet". Their aim is to raise money for Save the Rhino like Douglas did himself years ago.
Read James' letter and don't forget to go to their website (http://www.rhinoclimb2006.com/).
"Some of you may know that despite our brother Douglas Adams' meteoric success with the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the work he was most proud of was a book co-written with zoologist Mark Carwardine called "Last Chance to See", recounting their travels around the world seeking endangered species of animals.
It was the start of Douglas' fascination with the balance between animals and their habitats, and how that balance is becoming disrupted by the actions of one particulary invasive animal, man.
In 1994 Douglas became a founder patron of Save the Rhino, a charity that aims to do precisely that, save the rhino. This magnificent creature can be traced back 45 million years, but is one that man has almost eradicated in the last 30, why, because we covet the rhinos horn despite it already having one existing owner who is understandably reluctant to give it up without first being shot.
Douglas joined the first Save the Rhino Kilimanjaro Challenge, along with little Jane, to walk a part of the way from Mombassa on the coast to the summit of Kilimanjaro. Despite it now being an urban myth, Douglas never walked up Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume, sadly because of time restraints he never actually set foot on the mountain, which is why we are now going to do it for him.
Leaving the UK on February 23rd 2006, our expedition will spend 6 days trekking the Rongai route to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at a heady 19,340 feet.
The main hurdle to combat will be AMS, Acute Mountain Sickness, a symptom of the lack of oxygen at this height. Before you get worried, we must point out that we have a considerable amount of experience at these sorts of altitude, but quite how we will cope without the champagne, peanuts and in flight movie is yet to be seen.
For this challenge to be worth the considerable effort it is going to take we need your help. We need you to call up all your Yemeni friends and try and dissuade them from buying a new rhino horn dagger this year, then please go to www.rhinoclimb2006.com and sponsor us as generously as possible, finally, please tell all your friends to do the same.
Projects in Kenya have shown that Rhino conservation works, it is possible to maintain healthy population numbers, but the work is expensive, and without it the future of the Rhino is certain, they will disappear.
In Douglas’ words “Give now, or the game is up.”
Thank you for your support
Jane and James"

Restaurant : sign the petition NOW !

http://www.petitiononline.com/rateotu/petition.html

Talk about this petition to your friends, on other forums, everywhere!

And don't forget to sign it

“The Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy fans
TO
Disney, Spyglass and the Douglas Adams Estate
WE WANT RESTAURANT !
We are very pleased with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie and now we now we’d like a sequel based on "the restaurant at the end of the universe".
We'd love all the staff from the first movie to be back (Garth Jennings, Nick Goldsmith, Robbie Stamp, Joby Talbot...).
We think that we have here the opportunity for a wonderful sequel and it would be a crime to miss it.”

Pics of the DVD signing in London

While the Hitchhiker's movie DVD is first in all the DVD Top selling lists all over UK, the signing in London has obviously been a lot of fun for the guys who where lucky enough to be there.

Don't forget that even if you don't live in UK, you can buy the gift set DVD HERE on amazon.co.uk

Rare stuff on Ebay (for warchildmusic.com)

uctions are being held by warchildmusic.com, a not-for-profit company set up by the War Child charity who are currently working with children affected by war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The auctions end the 11th July. They've got some great stuff and it's currently not expensive so let's go ! ( I already made an anouncement about these auctions some days ago on the forums but I think a lot of people have missed it so here it is) :


- Marvin badge : Boxed, enamel badge of Marvin The Paranoid Android made for the cast and film crew of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'. No reserve!
- Consisting of shirt, shorts and socks, made for the Hitchhiker crew football team. Small grass stain on the shorts! Shirt has 'Panic' logo on front, '42' on back. No reserve!
- Vote Beeblebrox' crew T-shirt from 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'. Red T-shirt as seen in the film has 'Vote Beeblebrox' with a picture of his face printed on the front. Rare item retailing at http://www.propstore.co.uk/ for £55! No reserve!
- 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' towel signed by the cast including Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent), Bill Nighy (Slartibartfast), Zooey Deschanel (Trillian), Mos Def (Ford Prefect) and two unidentifiable scribbles! No reserve!
- Hardback copy of 'The Making Of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy – The Filming Of The Douglas Adams Classic' signed by director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith. Bk signed inside, can provide image of signatures if required. No reserve!
- Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' film mini poster signed by director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith. No reserve!

You can check all this stuff here :
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZwarchildmusic123

DVD is released today in UK / DVD review / 3 clips + chat with Garth Jennings on Wednesday 7th

The DVD has been released today in UK, celebrated with a special event at the First floor of the Virgin Megastore 14 - 19 Oxford St London W1D 1AR - Robbie Stamp, Warwick Davis and Martin Freeman are here to sign copies of the DVD from 16h GMT.

There are 20, 000 numbered special edition boxed set DVDs released in UK. Let's remember that it's a 2 DVD set. One DVD contains the movie (with a few extras, deleted scenes, a short making of, and the audio commentaries) and the other DVD contains the already famous "Don't Crash" documentary.
I've watched the whole stuff and I must say it' s good even if it's too short. I would have loved a four DVD set but it's no the case. The audio commentaries are nice and fun, but the best part is the "Don't crash" documentary which is fun and informative. Very different from the usual making ofs (well, you've got one of those on the first DVD). The two deleted scenes are very short but rather nice. No alternate ending. Garth Jennings said several times that he made the movie he wanted so he hasn't got much deleted scenes to show. The "really deleted scenes" include two fun clips created for the DVD. Marvin's hangman is a simple and well designed hangman game. Anyway the better part is of course the movie and it's really nice to see it on your TV or computer screen with great quality vid and audio. The DVD is obviously a must have for the fans.

Here are three extracts from the "Don't crash" documentary in high quality and mov file (quicktime needed) :

Zaphod's head The Slapstick The Improbability drive

We've got also great news from Douglasadams.se. Duke "has just recieved a mail from Garth Jennings, and we're all in for a treat on Wednesday, September 7, as he will press down his butt in our comfy VIP chair in the VIP Chatroom. If you want to join in on the occasion, log in to the chat from http://www.douglasadams.se/forum/chat1.php on Wedensday, at 9 pm UK time (8 GMT)!

Nice clip from the DVD + updates about european box offices

The DVD is soon going to be released in UK and US. So BVI/Disney has decided to show us some extracts from Grant Gee’s documentary "Don’t Crash" (which will be included on the 2 DVD set which will be released first in the UK)

Here is the clip published some days ago by H2G2.com about the whale : HERE

There should be another one soon (well it should be online already) but I won't be able to deal with it before next week (a few holidays at last!!)

First some good news from france. H2G2 is doing fine at the French box office. H2G2 has reached 240.000 viewers (with 25O prints) in one week which is quite good.

Sadly, we've got bad news from Italy. I thought that the movie will be released there in october, but I got a mail from Emilio, an Italian fan : "here in Italy was released on friday 12th of august! BUT the distribution was very bad. Only in 12 theater (all warner bros multiplexes) over the whole country :(( and no trailer on tv or before other movies in theaters. I think in Italy IS a flop :( but caused by the distribution. I can't understand why they have released it in mid-august...we can win the prize for worst earnings DNA's works are not very famous in Italy, this movie could be a very good starting point for new fans, but not with (no)promotion like this".

News from the International box office (pic)

Good news from the international box office. As you all know, the H2G2 movie has not opened yet all over the world. The big release this week was obvioulsy France. We had a French avant Premiere the 5th August with Garth Jennings, Nick Goldsmith and Robbie Stamp. It was a wonderful evening. One thousand persons was there to see the movie on French biggest movie screen. The audience laughed and applauded the movie.

Below you can see Robbie (and his lovely wife Sue), Garth and Nick at the French Premiere.



The movie was finally released Wednesday the 17th. For its first day, H2G2 is second right behind the Island which opened in 491 theatres (249 for H2G2). Typical french behaviour : the fact that The Island is a failure in US makes the movie even more attractive for French people! Encouraging results anyway for H2G2 as Douglas Adams is almost unknown in France. There are currently a lot of debates of french movie forums about H2G2. People are quite surprised by such a movie. Some love it and others don't understand a word about this movie. H2G2 had also good reviews from the french press.
French box office for wednesday 17th August

1 - The Island 2 - H2G2 3 - La cloche a sonné (french comedy) 4 - Mr and Mrs Smith 5 - Charlie and the chocolate factory

In Finland, the movie has opened last week and is still first. It grossed 330.124 dollars in two weeks.
1- The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy 2- Valiant 3- Sin City 4 - Fantastic Four
In Norway, The Hitchhiker's movie has grossed $566,668 dollars in three weeks. I don't have the figures for Sweeden but according to Totta (webmaster of a sweedish website about Doulgas and H2G2), the movie was 2nd (with Batman begins 1st) when it opened at the begining of August.
We should notice too that the movie was a good success in Germany where it made $7,730,678 in seven weeks (better than Batman begins). While it was rather a failure in Netherlands (it opened only 5th in the box office at the begining of August and have only grossed $336,702 in two weeks which is rather weeks in The Netherlands).

According to boxofficemojo.com, The H2G2 movie has grossed 96,3 millions dollars already and has just been released or will be released in other countries in the next few weeks. The movie should reach the 100 millions dollars gross before the end of August.

The movie has also just been released in Belgium, French Switzerland and Argentina. It has yet to be released in Spain (2nd September) Japan (09th October), Italy (10th October)....

NEW informations about the upcoming H2G2 DVD !! England gets lucky once again (pic)

The DVD will be released in the UK on September 5th 2005. There is a UK exclusive, 2 disc edition (2nd disc only available if bought in the UK).

The Bonus 2nd disc is a making-of documentary called “Don’t Crash”, directed by Grant Gee. (it’s fantastic – I’ve seen it and it is like a film in itself!)

By the way, a reliable source has hinted that this 2nd disc won’t be available in the US for another 3 months…!!

There are 2 different packaged versions of the DVD going on sale:
1) Gift Pack version – This includes the 2 discs, the film edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book and 6 art cards 2) 2 disc DVD only

Keep an eye on www.hitchhikersmovie.co.uk an extra DVD section has just gone live!
Here is a great pic of the gift pack we will all want to get (don't talk to me about the 2 disc DVD only or the US one DVD set!!) :



Here is the content of the 2 DVD disc UK edition :

Don't Crash – Bonus Disc:
UK exclusive featurette of the making of the film and documenting the journey from the initial green light to the galactic premiere
Extras on Disc One (the film is also on Disc One):
Making of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Behind the scenes with interviews from cast and crew
Additional Guide Entry:
Learn all about the mind-bogglingly useful Babel Fish
Deleted Scenes:
EARTH: MOSTLY HARMLESS
Having hitched a ride moments before its destruction, Arthur looks Earth’s Guide entry up
WE’RE GOING TO WIN
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz motivates his bureaucrats
DELETED SCENE: IMPOSSIBLE FORCES
As the Vogons attack, Zaphod is re-acquainted with his vice-president
Really Deleted Scenes:
DO PANIC!
The Trillian rescue scene gets the full Hollywood treatment, but actors Martin Freeman and Mos Def have some concerns…
ARTHUR ESCAPES
Arthur realises Slartibartfast’s plans are wholly evil
Sing Along "So Long And Thanks for All the Fish":
The movie's musical opening number, sung by Earth's second-most intelligent species – and you!
Audio Commentaries:
Commentary by Director Garth Jennings, Producer Nick Goldsmith and actors Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy
Commentary by Executive Producer Robbie Stamp and Douglas Adams’ colleague Sean Sollé
Marvin's Hangman:
A simple word game with detachable results
Improbability Drive:
You never know where you’ll end up

Incredible French Premiere + on sale on ebay + looking for more infos about the mobile games

The French Premiere will take place Friday the 5th August at "Le Grand Rex" movie theatre in Paris on french biggest movie screen. And we'll get some incredible guests : Garth Jennings Nick Goldsmith and Robbie Stamp!! The movie will be shown in english with french subtitles. There should be a little exposition and some merchandising stuff to win also.
There is currently an oculas on sale on ebay. Disney produced 50 of these items. Most of them are still used in several countries to promote the movie in theatres. You can go inside, use the computer and see the trailer and get some infos about the movie. The auction began at 799 pounds and two days later the price was already 1751 pounds, so you'd better have a good amount of money on your bank account if you want to buy this one.
As you may know, in April 2005 Starwave Mobile released 2 mobile games to accompany the release of the film adaptation. The first, developed by Atatio, was called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Vogon Planet Destructor". It was a typical top-down shooter and except for the title had little to do with the actual story. The second game, developed by TKO Software, was a graphical adventure game named "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Adventure Game" . Despite its name the puzzles were new and different from the Infocom ones and the game followed the movie's script closely and included the new characters and places. The "Adventure Game" won the IGN's "Editors' Choice Award" on May 2005. But we don't have much more infos, and these games don't seem to be avalaible anymore. If you have more info, you can get in touch with me.

Box office report from Hungary & other central Europe countries

Thanks to Martin, an Hungarian fan of "Galaxis Útikalauz Stopposoknak" (The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy in Hunarian), here are the box office stats in his country.

The Hitchhiker's movie has been released in Hungary the 16th June

FIRST WEEK
1. Madagascar (2nd week) / 37 315 people / 163,462 USD (Total: 541,336 USD) 2. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1st week) / 83,508 USD 3. Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith...

SECOND WEEK
1. Madagascar (3rd week) / 23 814 / 101,570 USD (Total: 638,126 USD) 2. War of the World (1st week) / 11 626 / 54,796 USD 3. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2nd week) / 11 281 /51,661 USD (Total: 134,220 USD) 4. Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith...

Martin has a very good looking website about H2G2, and you can see it here : http://h2g2.uw.hu/
If you've got reports from box offices results from all other the world, don't forget to send them to me.
In other central European countries, the movie is also already on the movie screens. In Poland the H2G2 movie remains 5th after three weeks and it has grossed $262,540. In Czech Republic, it is fourth after three weeks and it has grossed $156,921.

H2G2 movie is 2nd in Germany for its third week + details about the dvd editions (pic)

As you already know, each country has his own release date for the movie and it's quite difficult to have the box office results for non US countries (and there are a lot of them!!!).

 The Hitchhiker's movie has been released in Germany three weeks ago, and it's still second just behind "Batman begins" and ahead of "Star Wars III". It has grossed more than 5 million dollars.

The H2G2 movie has got some not very good box office results in Brazil (fifth in the second week and it started just in the fourth place when it opened) but it is second in Slovakia (last week it was first).
You can't get much accurante infos about international charts on BoxOffice mojo but they report the movie has grossed 86,45 millions worldwide.

There are still a lot of openings in August in Europe (France, Norway,....) and all over the world (Japan...).

Meanwhile, in september the DVD will be released in UK and US. The UK version will be in shops from the 5th September. I personnaly don't like at all the DVD cover (hope they will change this one) but the good point is that it will include the movie (!!) and some extra. According to DVDanswers.com : "The two-disc set will feature a UK exclusive 'Don't Crash: The Making of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' featurette, behind the scenes interviews from the cast and crew, a 'Babelfish Guide Entry' feature, deleted scenes, 'really' deleted scenes, a 'So Long & Thanks for All the Fish' sing-along feature, audio commentaries and 'Marvin's Hangman' set-top game".

The region 1 DVD for US and Canada will be released the 13th September. The cover is far better but we have still no information about the extra material. According to Digitalbits "We've learned that Touchstone's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (due on 9/13) will include deleted scenes, a commentary track and a "making-of" featurette. We're guessing you can expect a more elaborate special edition at a later date. At least one would certainly hope. By the way, the film will street on UMD format on 9/13 as well". UMD disc is the PlayStation Portable (PSP) video system.

Dirk Maggs Webchat transcript + Don't miss the utimate episode + buy the CDs and scritps

First, I would like to apologize. This site has been offline during several days, the forum is no more avalaible due to a change of webhost, but nevertheless this site will grow in the next weeks and months to keep a memory of maybe the best Hitchhiker's incarnation : the radio series.

To celebrate the end of the broadcasting of the Hitchhiker's radio new series, Jenz had the great idea set up a webchat with Dirk Maggs, the director of the new Hitchhiker's radio series. "Dirk will relax with us in the VIP chat room tonight, Thursday June 16, at 9 pm UK time, which is 8 pm GMT. The room will open some time prior to start, in order for those who can't join later to be able to submit their question". NB : You can now read the transcript here.

Remember that the last episodes are broadcast right now. You can now listen to the ultimate episode online on BBC Radio 4 website till next tuesday evening.

The Quandary and Quintessential Phases are now broadcasted on Radio 4 since the 6th May. And they are even better than the tertiary phase. Dirk wrote some wonderful new stuff and the actors are unbelievably good.

If you missed the stuff, remember you can already buy Tertiary and Quandary Phase in shops and Internet. The Quintessential Phase and the new radio scripts will be avalaible at the end of June, begining of July. Here are the links and presentation from Amazon.co.uk where they are currently not expensive at all (40 to 50% off). But you can also buy them on many online shops in UK where they deliver worldwide.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase
The long-awaited, brand new third series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to audio on CD and cassette, with 25 minutes of unbroadcast footage. Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for this new six-part dramatisation of Douglas Adams's book 'Life, the Universe and Everything'. Amongst the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. Other famous names in these new productions include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and cricket commentators Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The original two series of Hitchhiker's were massively successful on radio and have continued to be bestsellers on audio CD and cassette. This new release also features 25 minutes of material not broadcast on radio.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase
Don't panic! The Hitchhiker's saga returns once again with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in Douglas Adams's famous trilogy in five parts. The Earth has miraculously reappeared and, even more miraculously, Arthur Dent has found it. Returning to his cottage after... well... ages, he falls in love with the girl of his dreams. But Ford Prefect is on to something which might well burst Arthurs bubble. There is, after all, something very fishy about his girlfriend's feet, and what has happened to all the dolphins? Perhaps, at last, all will be revealed in God's Last Message to His Creation. Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford and Stephen Moore as Marvin. William Franklyn is the Book, and there is a whole host of famous guest stars. This extended edition features 30 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quintessenial Phase
Panic! It's the last ever installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of Mostly Harmless, the final book in Douglas Adams's famous 'trilogy in five parts'. While frequent flyer Arthur Dent searches the universe for his lost love, Ford Prefect discovers a disturbing blast from the past at The Hitchhiker's Guide HQ. Meanwhile, on one of many versions of Earth, a blonder, more American Trillian gets tangled up with a party of lost aliens having an identity crisis. And just when Arthur thinks he has found his true vocation on the backwater planet of Lamuella, the original Trillian turns up with more than a little spanner in the works. A stolen ship, a dramatic stampede and a new and sinister Guide lead to a race to save the Earth...again. But this time, will they succeed? Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Sandra Dickinson as Tricia McMillian, and Stephen Moore as Marvin. William Franklyn is the Book, alongside a host of famous guest stars. This extended edition features 30 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases: v. 2
The remaining books in Douglas Adams's masterpiece are finally to be dramatised on BBC Radio 4, where it first began - and we're publishing the scripts! Twenty-five years after the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero Arthur Dent are being brought to life in their original medium. This dramatisation of the last three books, Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, features Douglas Adams himself, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, and includes new material written by him specially for the radio sequels. The original Hitchhiker's radio cast is returning; Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android. The late Peter Jones's great friend, William Franklyn, replaces him as The Voice Of The Book. Also involved are famous names such as Joanna Lumley, Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The shows will be broadcast in two series in Sept. 2004 and spring 2005. Publication of the scriptbook ties-in with the series climax.

Worldwide box office results now reach 82,7 millions dollars

ere is the list of countries where I was able to get some results mainly thanks to BoxOfficeMojo. The movie made a good start in Germany and I hope it will go on that way even if it sadly didn't beat the damn Star Wars III movie. In the center european countries like Poland and Czech Republic where the movie has just been released, the start is slow. But there are still a lot of countries where the movie has not been released and it should make more than 100 millions dollars worldwide anyway.


Domestic: $49,605,344 / 59.9% + Overseas: $33,183,000 / 40.1% = Worldwide: $82,788,344

GERMANY (release date : 9th June)
1- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Fox) $3,094,666 / -41% / 1,162 theatres / average $2,663 total $40,241,513 / 4th week
2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BVI) $2,382,367 / - / 545 theatres / average $4,371 1st week
3 - Monster-in-Law (WB) $973,184 / -16% / 369 / average $2,637 total $3,834,113 / 3rd week

AUSTRALIA (29th april)
6 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week end gross $194,301 -39% 174 theatres average $1,117 Total $6,373,269 in six weeks
UK (28th april)
12- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy $86,230 /-64% / 121 theatres / average $713 Total gross : $19,154,624 (7 weeks)

UNITED STATES (29th april)
26-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week-end groos $147,904 / -54.0% / 151 theatres / $979 average Total gross $49,605,344 (7 weeks)

NEW ZELAND (29th april)
11- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week end gross $23,944 / -36% / 31 theatres / average $772 Total gross : $983,451 (6 weeks)

CZECH REPUBLIC (june 5th)
1-Star Wars: Episode III ($106,195) 2-Román pro zeny ($52,604) 3-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week-end gross $50,631 / theatres 15 / average $3,375 Total gross $51,391 (1st week)

POLAND (june 12th)
1- Sin ciy ($255,339) 2- Star Wars III (gross $207,960) 3 - Robots (gross $202.288) 4- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week-end gross $96,892 / theatres 60 / average $1,615 Total gross $96,892 (1st week)

HONG KONG (June 1st)
6 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy week-end gross $12,852 / theatres 27 /average $476 Total $321,308/ 11 days

London Science Museum Exhibition mini website online + Debates at the Dana Centre

The London Science Museum has now a mini website about the Hitchhiker's movie exhibition. The mini website is funny, with a good design, and contains a lot of infos about the exhibition of course, but there are particularly two nice features : a game and online shop.

First, you can try the "42 games" designed as one flash game with 42 very short steps. This is quite addictive. And The player who will make the highest score will win a Hitchhiker's goodie bag including a real movie prop. Good news : you can try it as many times as you want. Bad news : the contest is for UK residents only.

Second, there is a fine online shop where you can find some nice H2G2 movie merchandising. And it seems they ship outside UK (but the shipping fees seem to be nice too!). Anyway you can buy there the Knitted Plush Characters, the action figures, Marvin's gun, the Rotocast Marvin, a special edition of the making of H2G2 movie book, ...

THE DANA CENTRE DEBATES : ABOUT SCIENCE (2ND JUNE) / SPACE TOURSIM (7TH JUNE) / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (14TH JUNE)
The Science Museum’s Dana Centre is launching a series of debates to explore the fact and fiction behind one of the nation’s best-loved sci-fi classics, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to coincide with the launch of the Science Museum’s Hitchhiker’s exhibition.
Since the 1950s science fiction has explored the weird and wonderful possibilities of science, including time-travel, teleportation, androids and aliens. But how much of this speculation has become science fact?

The forthcoming events at the Dana Centre – London’s only venue for adults to discuss contemporary and controversial science – feature experts from a variety of fields exploring artificial intelligence, space tourism and the science of Hitchhiker’s during three evenings of informal discussion.
Each event will raise a range of perplexing questions, such as: Which ideas in science fiction have been developed further by true scientific research and development? Could a robot eventually have human feelings and emotions? Should scientific developments like these be encouraged or suppressed? What would it feel like to be a space tourist?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition opens at the Science Museum on 28 May. The exhibition - specially created by the Museum and makers of the new movie – explores the fantastic voyage of Arthur Dent and some of the science which shapes our lives, the universe and everything.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to…Science… Space Tourism… and Artificial Intelligence Date: Thursday 2 June, Tuesday 7 June and Tuesday 14 June Time: 19.00-20.30 Venue: Science Museum’s Dana Centre, 165 Queen’s Gate, London SW7 5HE Events are FREE but must be pre-booked on 020 7942 4040 or email HERE

- Hitchhiker’s Guide to Science - Thursday 2 June
Could The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy inspire future scientific inventions? Which science-fiction creations could become science fact, and which are far-fetched fantasy?
Scientists are investigating the possibilities of interstellar travel, colonising other planets and to develop theories for concepts such as time travel, teleportation and alternate realities – all of which are alluded to in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Michael Hanlon, author of The Science of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss with the audience the possibilities of such future technological developments.

- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Space Tourism, Tuesday 7 June
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent was quite unprepared for his experiences of space travel, yet commercial space travel is fast becoming a viable possibility.
But what would it feel like to be a space tourist? Travelling into space can push the human body to its limits, making space tourism more like an expedition than a holiday. How dangerous are the physical effects of space travel and how does your body cope with them?
Mark Shuttleworth, the second tourist into space, will share his own experiences of space travel, Natasha Loder, The Economist aerospace journalist, will discuss the recent developments in commercial space travel and the expectations of future space tourists and Andrew Smith author of Moondust will provide an insight into the life-changing experiences of lunar astronauts and question whether space tourism would feel the same.

- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence, Tuesday 14 June

For more than 30 years, science fiction has predicted the existence of artificially intelligent machines that can think and feel like humans. Most of us use limited forms of artificial intelligence in our computer games, car navigation systems and internet search engines.

Now scientists are trying to develop computers and robots that seem to show human intelligence and emotion. But will science ever be able to create machines like Marvin the paranoid android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? What roles would such machines have in our society and how should they be treated? Could machines ever use their intelligence to rebel against their human creators, as in films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator and The Matrix?

Our panellists discuss what makes us ‘human’ and why these characteristics are so hard to artificially create. Lynn Hamil, University of Surrey will talk about human reaction to and interaction with AI. Professor Noel Sharkey, University of Sheffield, will argue that robots will never be able to express real emotions or human intelligence and Dylan Evans, a lecturer on Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the University of the West of England, will look at the positive side of creating human robots.

Hitchhiker's movie has grossed 73 millions worldwide + release dates + science museum exhibition + possible Hitchhiker's movie sequel + Robbie Stamp at the Hay Festival

The Hitchhiker's movie has now a total gross of 72,9 millions dollars including 47 from the US and 25,5 from other countries in the world. In fact in most of the countries, the movie has still not been released. There are a lot of release dates in June, July and August.
(LAST UPDATE OF THE LIST THE 29TH MAY WITH OFFICIAL WEBSITES) :
Austria - 2nd June Czech Republic - 2nd June Brazil - 3rd june Greece - 3rd June Argentina - 9th June Germany - 9th June Swiss (D CH) - 9th June Poland - 10th June Austria - 16th June Finland - 22nd June Netherlands - 30th June Sweden - 27th July Norway - 29th July Netherlands - 4th August Denmark - 12th August Belgium - 17th August France - 17th August Swiss (F CH) - 17th August Spain - 2nd September Italy - 9th September
If you know other release dates and/or if I made a mistake, or you know about other official international website, please mail me.
SCIENCE MUSEUM EXHIBITION AND POSSIBLE HITCHHIKER'S MOVIE SEQUELS
Don't forget that the London Museum Exhibition about the H2G2 movie will begin this Saturday 28th May and will close the 27th November. More details here?!
DaveH was one of the lucky ones who was able to go to the press preview of the exhibition today. Garth Jennings, Nick Goldsmith and Robbie Stamp were there. He posted a report of the Hitchhiker's Exhibition on Douglasadams.se forums.

I'll post my own report soon on this website. I'll probably visit the exhibition next week.
DaveH also talked to Robbie Stamp about a possible Hitchhiker's movie sequel : "NO decision made on the sequel yet, but Robbie is hopeful with 50m USD and 10m GBP and most of the rest of the world and DVD etc. to come. It would be a lot of work to sort out script / storyline eise, but he said it was the sort of problem he would like to wrestle with. In view of that IF it does go ahead we would be looking at summer 2007 rather than Christmas 2006."

ROBBIE STAMP AT THE HAY FESTIVAL

Executive Producer Robbie Stamp will be speaking at the Hay Festival in UK this Sunday AND revealing some never seen before behind the scenes stuff! More details here : http://www.hayfestival.com/2005/index.html he’s on at 11am.

Box Office in US + Details about the DVD and the upcoming Science Museum exhibition in London

The last week-end has been a difficult one for the Hitchhiker's movie in US. According to this week-end box office published by Box Office Mojo, H2G2 is now 7th (last week he was 3rd). But it is not surprising and too disappointing if you compare H2G2 to other movies. Last week Number One, Kingdom Of Heaven, has lost 51% of his gross, and it's now only fourth."House of wax" (with Paris Hilton) is now 6th after just two weeks. And I won't ever say a word about XXX2 which is one of the biggest flop of this incredibly bad year.

The Hitchhiker's movie has now grossed 43 millions dollars after its third week end. And it should gross around 60 millions dollars in the US box office. Really a good score in this context.
Next week-end will be a big one with the release of the last Star Wars movie. And maybe it will be the end of a very bad begining for the 2005 US box office.

DETAILS ABOUT THE UPCOMING DVD

Great news about the upcoming DVD. MTV published a good article on their website about the upcoming DVD : "We shot a lot of stuff for the DVD, like, 'Now we're doing a DVD moment,' " producer Nick Goldsmith said. No deleted scenes ("Of course they're deleted, they're awful!" director Garth Jennings laughed). We'll see instead a lot of scenes made especially for the DVD like the one when the Vogon guard tries to throw Arthur and Ford out of the spaceship, a cooking TV show made by the Dentrassis,...

Bill Nighy and John Malkovich made some quite bizzare stuff (Bill plays an evil Slartibartfast and John sings the famous religious Hymn about noses). Of course, Grant Gee has been commmisioned to create a making of piece for the DVD = "It's a weird little film, and hopefully it'll get a release of its own. It would be a shame not to" (according Garth Jennings).

There is also on MTV an in-depth feature on the movie HERE.

THE SCIENCE MUSEUM EXHIBITION

Peter Bowles from the Science Museum sent us details about the upcoming Science Museum Exhibition which will open in London on Saturday May 28th : "Since we announced that we were building the world’s first and only Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition we’ve had hundreds of emails from H2G2 fans and sci-fi enthusiasts alike asking for more information. So, breaking with tradition, we thought we’d pull back the covers early and show you how the exhibition is coming together and give you a sneak preview of some of the object’s we’ll be getting.

We worked with the film’s executive producer Robbie Stamp to take visitors on a journey through 10 different zones which tells the story of Arthur Dent, the destruction of the Planet Earth and the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Having originally built a 3-D digital fly-through to map things out which you can see at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/corporate_commercial/press/hitchhikers/3dexhibition.asp, the museum’s team of designers, fabricators, electricians and builders are now working at an intergalactic pace to turn these ideas into reality. All the main structures are in place, including Arthur’s house (in pre-demolition mode), the world of the Vogons, The heart of Gold Spacecraft, Viltvodle Zone and Slartibartfast’s planet factory - complete with Earth II.

We’ll have around 200 props from the film on show and we’re delighted to announce that that we’ll also have The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book, as used in the film, on display. Vogon Calculators will be with us next week along with the Infinite Improbability Drive.

Deep Thought’s giant microphone is also on its way, and we have something special in mind for it: visitors will be able to ask Deep Thought their version of the ultimate question – they’ll have to wait to see if the ultimate answer is what they expect…!

The exhibition launches on Saturday May 28th, but please remind your web users that tickets are selling fast. To book tickets please call 0870 870 4868 with more details on http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/hitchhikers

The Hitchhiker's movie has probably covered its budget + Shynola interviewed + H&T site hitched

The Hitchhiker's movie has a decend second week but has lost the first rank in UK and US. In US H2G2 is third behind "Kingdom of Heaven" and "House of wax". Anyway it seems that after less than two weeks after its opening, H2G2 already earned 37 millions dollars in US plus 17,9 millions overseas (UK, Australia and New Zealand). It has already covered its budget estimated between 45 & 55 millions dollars. It's good news because H2G2 is not a typical US movie and noone could say if was going to be a success or not. And don't forget that the US box office is quite weak right now (in fact "Kindgdom of heaven" which costed three times more than Hitchhikers had a less good opening week end).

SYNOLA INTERVIEWED

Chris Harding, one of the great guys from Shynola who made the wonderful Guide entries for the Hitchhiker's movie have been interviewed by Iain Failes from Vfxblog+. You can read the interview here.

HAMMER & TONGS WEBSITE HITCHED

Nick and Garth have made a new version of their Hammer & Tongs website called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Tongs". A lot of great links and still some good content from their old website. Don't forget to visit Tong City (it's been updated with some great hitchhiker's stuff)

OH AND WHILE YOU'RE HERE DON'T FORGET THAT THE NEW H2G2 RADIO SERIES ARE ON THE AIR... NOW! YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE EPSIODES ONLINE HERE

The Hitchhiker's movie props on Ebay / Hitchhiker's movie also first in UK, Australia and New Zeland

Some original props from the film including Arthur’s towel are now up for sale on ebay with all proceeds split between Save The Rhino International and The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund… Click on this link to have a look and a bid if you fancy it!! http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=hitchhikers_charity 

HITCHHIKERS MOVIE FIRST IN UK, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

In UK, the film zooms also to top box office. And it has grossed £4.2m in its opening weekend. According to the Guardian, a spokesman for Buena Vista said the £4.2m figure was "a delightfully improbable coincidence" (and you can also notice that the US box office result for the first week end 21 millions dollars is also half of 42)!!

Reuters spoke of "2.8 million pounds over the weekend in Britain" but maybe for Reuters and Guardian the week end didn't end at the same time! Far better anyway than XXX2 (less than 1 million pounds in the week end).

It seems that Antipodeans share Britons' sense of humor and lapped up Hitchhikers. In Australia audiences handed over $2.1 million, more than double "XXX's" $920,000 (No. 2). In New Zealand director Garth Jennings' absurdist outer space comedy made $450,000, more than double "XXX" in the third spot.

Simon Jones and Geoffrey Mc Guivern and Simon Jones chat + Simon Jones interviewed

To celebrate the broadcasting of Hitchhiker's radio series last installment, Simon Jones and Geoffrey Mc Guivern (Arthur and Ford in the radio series) joined the BBC radio 4 website for a live webchat. And of course it was a nice chat because these guys (that I had the pleasure to meet during the recording of these last radio series in january) are incredibly froody.

You can read the full transcript of the webchat here. Simon Jones was also interviewed by Julia Hankin on BBC radio Newcastle the 29th April about returning to his famous role as Arthur Dent. You can listen to the interview online here.

Don't forget you can still listen to the latest episode on the web during one week after the broadcasting on the Hitchhiker's radio 4 website.

The Hitchhiker's movie is First at the US box office + You've seen the movie, now vote for it

It seems that the hitchhiker's movie is doing well for its opening week-end in the US. I found two different websites which claims that the Hitchhikers is now first in the US box office and would finish its opening week-end with $22 million dollars... far better than its opponent XXX 2.According to Box office prophets which analyses the results of the opening day Friday = "A $8.1 million opening night is a very good start for the Douglas Adams adaptation. The only caveat here is that it's a film with a small, but loyal, built-in fanbase and that could severely impact the internal multiplier over the remainder of the weekend (sorry, a 4.2 multiplier is not terribly likely). We'll give Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a conservative 2.7 multiplier and a $21.8 million weekend."

Here are their projected estimates for the top ten :

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 21.8
2. The Interpreter 15.6
3. XXX: The State of the Union 11.2
4. The Amityville Horror 7.8
5. Sahara 5.7
6. A Lot Like Love 4.9
7. Fever Pitch 3.4
8. Kung Fu Hustle 2.9
9. Guess Who 2.2
10 Sin City 2.0

UPDATE : AND THEY WERE RIGHT!!! The Hitchhiker's movie is right at the top of the US box office with a cumulative gross of 21,7 millions dollars. The Interpreter is second with 14,2 millions dollars, and XXX2 is only third with 13,7 millions!

YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE? NOW VOTE FOR IT!
If you've already seen the movie and it wouldn't be a surprise now that the movie is in the movie theatres in US, UK and other countries like Australia, you certainly want to share your point of view about it.

You can vote for the Hitchhiker's movie on several websites : IMDB, Yahoo, and The Guardian. You can also post on this forum and others. Notice that the Hitchhiker's movie is rated B- by the critics and B by the users on Yahoo (the user note is based on 1700 votes). And the Hitchhiker's guide was the web favourite on yahoo at 4 o'clock GMT on saturday. Meanwhile, The Hitchhiker's movie was rated 7.4/10 on IMDB (for 988 votes). Finally on the Guardian website, the movie is rated 8.7/10 (400 votes).

Of course you can now find a lot of reviews online. Fraser, from the australian website from Fallingrocks, has even published an answer to the now famous MJ Simpson critics. You can read it here.

Disney considers two sequels + other reviews + BBC mini website about the movie

Disney considers two sequels !

Today's Financial Times reveals that "Walt Disney is considering production of two multi-million dollars sequels to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the cult satire due to be released today". They quote Robbie Stamp who said to them that a triology was being studied following positive preview responses to the movie : "There are more books in the series and we believe there could be a really good trilogy".

The Financial Times estimates the movie budget between $55-65m, and says it has already raised "a seven figure sum" for the estate of Mr. Adams". Stamp also told the FT that this first movie has already "broken new grounds in online marketing" with tie-ups with Nokia, Apple, JC Decaux and interactive outdoor advertising sites.

It's great news even if it's not completely surprising. The three first books could indeed be a great trilogy and the last two books are probably a little too strange for Hollywood. Of course, we'll have to wait yet to have confirmation and see if the Hitchhikers meets his audience in UK and US in the next few days.

OTHER REVIEWS

The Financial Times also publishes a critic of the movie. Martin Hoyle from the FT is hard to pleased but he gives a 3/5 to the Hitchhiker's movie. He thinks that the reactions to the movie will form four main categories : purists, enthusiasts, sceptics and haters (the journalist includes in that last category the ones who already hated Hitchhikers). According to him, the purists will have one big regret : "it's not funny enough". He adds that "the film crams in almost too much of the original leaving little time to relish the dry wit.". Martin Hoyle likes the casting but is a little annoyed by Stephen Fry ("an avuncularly donnish form as The Book in comparison with Peter Jones' deader pan for radio"). And regrets Stephen Moore : "Alan Rickman simply doesn't do it". Martin Hoyle concludes his critics saying that Douglas would have been "pleased at the respect shown to his barmy brainchild".

There is also a good review on the World of KJ website. And you can find a list of other reviews here thanks to the Movie Review Query Engine here. You'll find some very enthusiastic movies from Movie vault, good but more critical reviews Hollywood Reporter,... You can also read this review from an Australian website Falling rocks (thanks to Fraser for this one).

BBC MINI WEBSITE ABOUT THE MOVIE

It's online now for several weeks, but if you've still not seen it here is the BBC mini website about the movie.

The Quandary Phase begins the 3rd May. Incredible cast. Trailers online

Above the title and the BBC radio series website have both heavily updated a few days before the broadcast of the last instalments the utterly famous Hitchhiker's radio series = the Quandary and the Quintessential phases.

The Quandary Phase will begin at 6.30pm on 3 May. Each of the four weekly episodes will be repeated at 11.00pm on Thursdays (with the exception of 5 May). The Quintessential Phase will start on 31 May.

On the Above the Title website, you'll find a great video trailer and a video making of made by Kevin Davies. They have also an audio trailer and lot of pics.

As you certainly know, the cast for the two last phases is incredible. Sandra Dickinson and David Dixon (Trillian and Ford in the TV series) both appear in the new series. Jane Horrocks (Absolutely fabulous) is excellent as Fenchurch. Johnatan Pryce comes back (the famous english actor well known from "Brazil" already played in the second series). Stephen Fry (the Narrator in the movie) is also here. And there is even a Hollywood star Christian Slater ("Interview with a vampire") who plays Wonko the Sane in the Quandary Phase.

See the movie 42 minutes before the release day + articles and interviews

The very first paid for a UK screening will be 42 minutes before midnight on Wednesday 27th i.e. 42 minutes before the official day of release. The screening will be at Empire Leicester Square and the link for info and to book tickets is: http://www.uci.co.uk/index.php?page=confirmation&perf_id=138230&tbx_site_id=39

This is definitely one to dress up for and it will be a real occasion (plenty of time for a couple of pan galactic gargle blasters beforehand to get in the mood).

But remember that tomorow plenty of people in the UK will have already seen the Hitchhiker's movie thanks to free screenings all across the UK tomorow. We should have a lot of reactions and reviews from now on.

ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Jenz spotted some great long interviews on filmfocus : Robbie Stamp (executive producer), Garth and Nick (director and producer of this movie ), Bill Nighy (an excellent Slartibartfast), Sam Rockwell (Zaphod), Zooey Deshanel (Trillian) and at last Martin Freeman (Arthur)

On the other side of the ocean, Jake (from HHGTTGonline.com) in his news blog have listed a lot of interviews and articles about the movie.

Hitchhiker's movie exhibition will open on the 28th May at the Science Museum in London + DVD release date the 05th September? + an other great movie premiere report online

That's great news for the Hitchhiker's fans. The Science Museum in London will soon welcome an exhibition about the Hitchhiker's movie. And they will have some great stuff. The exhibition will run from 28 May to 27 November 2005.

"The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition’ has been specially created by the Science Museum and the team behind the film to link with the forthcoming major motion picture. It will recreate the fantastic voyage of Arthur Dent, and along the way take a look at some of the science which shapes our lives, the world and the universe.

This family exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the powerful narrative of Douglas Adams’ iconic story against a backdrop of large scale and richly designed sets from the motion picture. In order to create a deeply immersive experience it will be supplemented with the real props, costumes and creatures that were used in filming.

From Arthur Dent’s kitchen to the far reaches of outer space, visitors will come face-to-face with characters such as the Vogons, Ford Prefect and Marvin. However the exhibition will not only focus on Douglas Adams’ intriguing and irreverent creations, but also provide a fun and engaging exploration of the science featured in his work.

‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition’ has been developed by the Science Museum in partnership with Silver Knight Exhibitions part of MICE Group Plc, in association with Buena Vista International and Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment. The exhibition will feature information about the filmmakers themselves and will take visitors behind the scenes of the production to see how the hugely-ambitious film was created, including insight into the work undertaken by Henson Creature Workshop.

Visitors will learn about Douglas Adams and the heritage of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which originally appeared as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. Since then it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a television series, records, cassettes and CDs, a computer game and several stage adaptations.

A phenomenon of science fiction culture, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is set to inspire a whole new generation to think about science in a more creative way.
In addition to the exhibition the Science Museum will also be running a series of events for visitors linked to the science in the exhibition.

Now as it becomes a feature film with Buena Vista International, Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment, the Science Museum brings you the only opportunity to journey through the magnificent world of Douglas Adams.

“Of all the things that we are doing in addition to actually, finally, making the movie, I think that the idea of an exhibition about Hitchhiker’s at the Science Museum would have pleased Douglas enormously. He loved the company of scientists!” said Robbie Stamp, Executive Producer of the film and the Science Museum exhibition."

DVD RELEASE DATE THE 05TH SEPTEMBER?

The DVD should be released in UK the 05th september 2005 in a two DVDs box. I think the US release date should be about the same.

AN OTHER GREAT MOVIE PREMIERE REPORT ONLINE

Nick Loven won a competition months ago to play a small part in the Hitchhiker's movie. And now he was invited to the movie premiere and afterparty! He made a great report with a lot of details and pics here.

Movie premiere reviews and reports + three new clips

Yestderday evening it was the world premiere of the Hitchhiker's movie. Some fans have been lucky enought to sand outside the movie theatre in London. Other ones like me only tried to watch the thing online, but with not much success in my case. Indeed they chose a windows media player streaming and it was not compatible with the last mac windows player version!!

Johnatan Cobb posted a link on the DAC forum with a lot of great pictures from the movie premiere. Getty Images took also some great pictures you can see on their website here. And Dave H has posted still on the DAC a long and very detailed report of the movie premiere. He has even been to the party afterwards with Kevin John Davies. Lucky bastards! I'm depressed now! well, anyway it is here

THREE NEW CLIPS

Movieweb features three new clips from the movie. One with Humma Kavula, an other one with Zaphod watching a tv spot about himself, and a last one where we see Marvin picking up two Hitchhikers. You can find them here. Look in the Video Spotlight section.

Movie premiere online + Planet Magrathea site shuts down + analysis of the Hitchhiker's movie box office potential

MOVIE PREMIERE ONLINE

Here’s a chance to watch the HHGG premiere - not the film itself unfortunately ;-) – from the comfort of your own computer. Action from the red carpet at the Hitchhiker’s World Premiere will be here: http://redcarpet.thefilmfactory.co.uk/redcarpet/ from 18:15 this Wednesday 20th.

MJ SIMPSON CLOSES PLANET MAGRATHEA WEBSITE

It's very sad but MJ Simpson has decided to shut down his Planet Magrathea website : "As of today I have decided to just say 'sod it' and pack the whole thing in. This is partly because I have recently been adding ten or more news items every day and it is becoming too much hassle. It is also partly because I have for some time been fed up with the negative attitude of the Douglas Adams estate who for four years have been happy to make money from projects that I have worked on or even initiated but have otherwise been thoroughly unhelpful and antagonistic towards me.... Now I have a similar antagonism from Disney/BVI who, it seems, are unable to accept negative criticism of their product. And my views on the quality of the product they have created do not need repeating here."

He has also decided to stop writing about Hitchhikers : "I may occasionally lurk on Hitchhiker's Guide-related sites or forums if I'm bored, but as of now I will never write another word, in print or on-line, about Douglas Adams or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
it's a very sad decision and I really hope he will change his mind.

Of course, we'll miss such an important source of information online about Douglas and Hitchhikers. But making his own website requires a lot of work, and we all have lives outside of Hitchhikers.
Jake Russel "has announced that HHGTTGOnline.com will be taking over as best as possible for the recently deceased Planet Magrathea". Good luck for him.

DOES THE HITCHHIKER'S MOVIE HAS A BOX OFFICE POTENTIAL?

Here is a good and long article talking about H2G2 and its box office potential, the pros and cons of the movie, and how it may fare in the US market (OFFLINE now sorry).

You can also read my own analysis on this blog (28th March 05 entry), that I wrote some weeks ago but it's not as good.

Movie premiere ticket on sale on ebay for charities + BBC loves the movie + free tickets and book in The Observer this sunday + whale clip

HITCHHIKER'S MOVIE PREMIERE TICKET - CHARITY AUCTION

If you live in Europe and you want to win a ticket to the movie premiere the 20th April In London, you can bid for a charity auction on Ebay. The auction ends on monday at 12:45 UK time. 100% of the proceeds will be split between 2 of Douglas’s favourite charities, Save The Rhino International and The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.... This auction, for a pair of premiere tickets, is the first of several auctions of HHGG film related items to benefit these charities.

THE BBC REVIEWS THE MOVIE

The BBC has published a short review of the movie online and they love it : "t's hard to see how this could have been better. Reserve us a table at The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe now, please." .

FREE TICKETS AND BOOK IN THE OBSERVER THIS SUNDAY

I have been told that "In 'The Observer' this Sunday there will be a free copy of 'The Restaurant at the End of The Universe'. Plus there are 10,000 free tickets to (UK) national preview screenings of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to be won."

WHALE CLIP ON MAXIM SITE

According to MJ Simpson, "Men's mag Maxim has the whale monologue (introduced by Mos Def) as a video clip on its site. It's a very heavily truncated version and I honestly can't recall if it is that short in the film or whether part of the middle has been cut to keep this clip down to a reasonable length." Well I can't watch the clip, it doesn't work for me, but it's true that the whale speech is shorter in the movie even if I wouldn't use the words "heavily truncated". This is a two hours movie, so there are a lot of things in the movie which are shorter than in the books and radio series. Surprising? Not really.

Win tickets for movie premiere + first and exclusive clip on moviefone.com + Nick and Garth' interview in Time Out + transcript chat with Robbie Stamp

The guys at h2g2.com have a great competition on their website. You can win one of 20 tickets for the movie premiere in London next week the 20th April. Of course, the competition is open only to UK residents.

Moviefone.com scoop the first clip from the h2g2 movie. You'll see how Zaphod, Ford and Arthur can have painful ideas.

Garth and Nick are interviewed in this week "Time Out". The interview is also online here. They say interesting things about Zaphod's second head and Vogons... There is also a good pic of Rob Greig Hitchhiker's production notebook.

Jenz, from Douglasadams.se kindly published a transcript from the chat with Robbie Stamp a few days ago.

Chat with Robbie Stamp this evening on douglasasdams.se + 4 exclusive online docs + other movie reviews

CHAT WITH ROBBIE THIS EVENING ON DOUGLASADAMS.SE

Robbie Stamp, executive producer and friend of Douglas, will chat with you on douglasadams.se website tomorrow evening, at 7.30 UK time. To join the chat, simply go to the login page and enter the VIP chat, which is now open to submit questions.

4 EXCLUSIVE SHORT DOCS ON IFILM

There is an exclusive feature on ifilm.com docs and interviews with Garth, Robbie and the actors talking different things in the movie. The first doc is about the guide. Along with some footage of the guide in action. (Thanks to Nick Moresco and Denis Gray for the news): There is also now a doc about aliens in the Hitchhiker's movie with a lot of interviews and footage. And another doc about the Universe. And finally another one about the robot MARVIN. These are great short docs with a lot of interesting footage. In fact the only annoying thing is the FM rock music you can hear during the doc.

OTHER MOVIE REVIEWS

MJ Simpson, one of the best known Hitchhiker's fans in the universe has published on his website an incredibly bad review about the Hitchhiker's movie. There were "extraordinary laudatory reviews" (to quote MJ) and now there is an extraodinary butchering review ;) MJ has published a long review here; a shorter one (& spoiler free) here.

Maybe you'll feel a little depressed after this review so I invite you to read other reviews about the movie : Jim Lynn and Sean Sollé (both from h2g2movie.com) or this one on my forum. Kevin Davies, an Hitchhiker's legend already interviewed on this website, also loves the movie. There is also a long and more balance review here.

You all know that i like very much the movie if you've read my review; but please remember that there is no definitive review of the Hitchhiker's movie; and that you'll soon be able to make your own judgment. Reviews published are right now about 80% positive so there is not much to be depressed about.

ARTICLE IN VARIETY

At last, according to MJ, there is an article avalaible online on Variety website, entitled "Comic vision picks up 'Hitchhiker' Cult classic puts less hi-fi in its sci fi to keep quirky Brit tone" here.

articles in The Guardian & L'écran Fanstastique + win tickets in UK and US + reviews on Douglasadams.se and Floor42 + official polish website

MORE ARTICLES

The British Daily The Guardian has published today a good and long article about the Hitchhiker's movie. The article focuses on the struggle to get h2g2 on the screen (thanks to Perkin Jones). You can read it online here. You can also find a long interview with Robbie in this month' Starbust. (Thanks to MJ Simpson for this news)

I also wanted to spot the first french big article about the movie. It has been published in this month' "L'écran fantastique" (the oldest fantastic movie mag, it's been created in 1969). It's four page long, rather good, has quotes from Gart Jennings et Nick Goldsmith. Of course there are a few mistakes and the picture is introduced like a crossover of "Time bandits", "Winnie the Pooh", "Men in black" and "Galaxy quest". It has been writen by an english journalist Andrew Osmond and the translation is sometimes erratic.

WIN TICKETS IN UK AND US

If you live in the UK you can win tickets to a preview of Hitchhiker's guide movie the 27th April. You can win one of 200 pairs of tickets in one of 10 selected cinemas across the UK thanks to Orange. All you have to do is to answer to a very difficult question : "which author has created the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy"? If you answer Arthur C. Clarke or JK Rowlins you'd better get our of here!!
If you live in the US, thanks to Matchflick, you can win passes for a promotional screening (NY only), tickets, posters, t-shirts,...

REVIEWS ON DOUGLASADAMS.SE AND FLOOR 42

Jenz (from Douglasadams.se) and Beeline (from Floor 42) were at the same movie preview than me. And they wrote their own reviews about the movie.

Jenz says that "Did I like it? Yes I did, very much. Did I laugh? Oh, yes indeed I did. Very much so.... So, was there anything disappointing about the movie? Yes, there are one or two details that I thought did not come across or should have been reconsidered in the movie, and that's a bit sad.... In relation to this fans anticipations and hopes, which have been huge and demanding since the beginning of this project, and also considering that it was an unfinished rough cut and not the final product, I give it 3,5 bordering to 4 out of 5".

According to Beeline ""It was simply mind-blowing! I can honestly say that I have never seen a movie that is anything even remotely approaching a similarity to Hitchhiker's .... I won't pretend it's perfect (I couldn't anyway - it was very much a rough-cut edit that the nice people at BAFTA showed us), but it would be hard to imagine how much better it could possibly be given the kind of thing Hitchhiker's is."

OFFICIAL POLISH SITE ONLINE

There is now an official h2g2 movie website for Poland. It's here. And don't forget to visit to the first Polish Hitchhiker's website

Character's blogs+ Empire review online + Vogon poetry at the BBC + stills on ING

ARTHUR, ZAPHOD AND MARVIN HAVE THEIR OWN BLOGS

That's a pure marketing operation but three of the h2g2 main characters have now their own blogs. Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin will certainly post some stuff on a regular basis till the movie release date and of course you can react to their posts like in a typical blog thing.

EMPIRE REVIEW ONLINE

The UK magazine has published online its review about the Hitchhiker's movie. It's got 4 stars out of 5 (in fact the only one movie to get 5 stars this month is not a brand new movie - it's Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a murder"!) : "Mostly harmless. A very British, very funny sci-fi misadventure that's guaranteed to win converts. Want to go to The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe now, please'. In the paper version, you've got also a six page feature about the movie. The only one mag till now to have such a feature about the Hitchhiker's movie is US mag Starlog (and if someone has got it, it would be great if he could email me and tell me what's inside).

VOGON POETRY AT THE BBC

Stephen Fry appeared a few days ago on the BBC chat show Parkinson. And we saw a good scene with Jeltz reading his poem to Arthur and Ford.

NEW STILLS ON ING

It's always a good time when ING publishes pics from the movie. Because they are high rez and well chosen. Here are the three new ones. It would even be better if there was not that many ads on the damn site!

02nd April 05 : Hitchhiker's movie soundtrack is now on Itunes ! + Free screening of the movie in UK + other news

HITCCHIKER'S MOVIE SOUNDTRACK IS NOW ON ITUNES

Incredible but true : the CD will be avalaible at the end of the months, but Itunes (Apple online music store) already features the complete soundtrack record with 33 songs. Joby Talbot has wrote of course most of them and you've got other songs by Betty Wright and Al Green. You've got instrumental music and vocal songs. The more amazing one is "Reasons to be miserable" sung by Stephen Fry! This is a reprise of one of the old Marvin's songs sung by Stephen Moore (the original Marvin in the radio and TV series) which were released in 1981.

You can go on Itunes and listen to extracts of all the songs. Or download some tracks or the whole record for a good price. To go on Itunes, you need to download the free program on Apple (for Apple OS X and Windows 2000 and XP). Then go on the online shop once installed and search for 'Hitchhiker's guide" in your local online shop (there are several versions of Itunes store according the country you live in).

1 "The Dolphins"(1:00) Joby Talbot
2 "So Long & Thanks for All the Fish" (2:26) Hilary Summers, Kemi Ominiyi & The R'SVP Voices
3 "Arthur Wakes Up" (2:53) Joby Talbot
4 "Shoo-Rah! Shoo-Rah!" (2:51) Betty Wright
5 "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" (4:13) Al Green
6 "Destruction of Earth" (1:31) Joby Talbot
7 "Journey of the Sorcerer" (1:15) Joby Talbot
8 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (1:14) Joby Talbot
9 "Inside the Vogon Ship" (2:46) Joby Talbot
10 "Vogon Poetry" (0:48) Joby Talbot
11 "Space" (1:00) Joby Talbot
12 "Vogon Command Centre" (1:00) Joby Talbot
13 "Trillian & Arthur Reunited" (1:45) Joby Talbot
14 "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster" (1:40) Joby Talbot
15 "Tea In Space" (1:08) Joby Talbot
16 "Deep Thought" (2:06) Joby Talbot
17 "Infinite Improbability Drive" (0:55) Joby Talbot
18 "Viltvodle Street Music" (0:45) Joby Talbot
19 "Huma's Hymn" (1:02) Joby Talbot
20 "Capture of Trillian" (4:27) Joby Talbot
21 "Vogcity" (1:02) Joby Talbot
22 "Love" (1:44) Joby Talbot
23 "The Whale" (1:53) Joby Talbot
24 "Planet Factory Floor" (2:29) Joby Talbot
25 "Earth Mark II" (6:29) Joby Talbot
26 "Magic Moments" (2:37) Perry Como
27 "Shootout" (3:23) Joby Talbot
28 "Finale" (1:50) Joby Talbot
29 "Blast Off" (0:16) Joby Talbot
30 "So Long & Thanks for All the Fish" (Reprise) (2:54) Neil Hannon
31 "Careless Talk" (1:42) Joby Talbot
32 "Vote Beeblebrox" (3:27) Andy Dunlop, Chuck Norman, Douglas Payne, Fran Balke, Hannah Thomas, Miggy Barradas & Neil Hannon
33 "Reasons to Be Miserable" (His Name Is Marvin) (3:37) Stephen Fry

EMPIRE OFFERS FREE SCREENINGS IN UK

Empire offers free screenings of the Hitchhiker's movie on Tuesday, April 26 at Vue Cinemas around the country, two days before the official nationwide release. If you live in UK you can miss such an offer ! All details here

ROBBIE STAMP INTERVIEWED ON AOL

The incredibly hyperactive executive producer Robbie Stamp has been interviewed by AOL. You can read AOL's article with a lot of quotes from Robbie here. There are a few new details about the movie which you certainly want to discover.

DOUGLAS ADAMS DOCUMENTARY ON HITCHHIKER'S MOVIE DVD?

Duke of Douglasadams.se reports that the documentary "Life, the Universe and Douglas Adams", a very good documentary made two years ago by Rick Mueeler and Joel Greengrass, and narrated by Neil Gaiman, could possibly be included on the future Hitchhiker's movie DVD.

Zaphod to have two permanent heads after all! + Robbie Stamp to make a cameo as Wowbagger the Infinitely prolonged!

ZAPHOD TO HAVE TWO PERMANENT HEADS AFTER ALL!

It´s official: The movie makers have decided to give Zaphod Beeblebrox a permanent second head - the artificial head from the BBC series! This was confirmed last night by Robbie Stamp, executive producer and long-time friend of Douglas Adams, during the Q&A at Popcorn Taxi in Sydney, Australia. "After getting so much negative feedback from old fans we have seen reason", he explained this unexpected move. "Apparently people like things to stay the way they once were, so we digitally added Mark Wing-Davies´ false head to Sam Rockwell´s shoulder. It wasn´t hard to do and the effect is as good as in the TV series. That should please even die-hard fans!"

ROBBIE STAMP TO MAKE A CAMEO AS WOWBAGGER

This exciting bit of news was revealed last night during Robbie Stamp´s presentation and Q&A at Popcorn Taxi in Sydney, Australia. The executive producer and long-time friend of Douglas Adams revealed that he´d make a short appearance as Wowbagger, an alien with the task to insult the whole population of the galaxy, one by one and in alphabetical order. "Wowbagger has a short scene during the destruction of the earth scene where he´ll appear to insult a Disney executive.", Robbie Stamp explained. This sequence was apparently added recently after Disney insisted on keeping the rights to a "Hitchhiker´s" ride in Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

The Guide to the guide" live on yahoo.com + Robbie Stamp online chat + Empire six pages features

As you all know, the movie will open on the movie screens in UK, US, Australia and New Zealand at the end of April, and afterwards all over the world in the following weeks and months. For this movie, the guys at Disney chose to communicate a lot on Internet to create some buzz around the movie. During the last weeks, they have made an Internet trailer and they have launched great versions of the US and UK official websites.

Now, they show online a great interactive version of the Book only on yahoo! Movies. Lucky bastards! Anyway, this flash version of the Hichhiker's Guide is great and will provide you a lot of fun. You will be able to enjoy some (too short) extracts of the Guide read by Stephen Fry voice, and see some of the graphics made by Shynola for the guide entries.

So come on, I know you can't wait anymore CLICK HERE

ROBBIE STAMP ONLINE CHAT

It's a little late to announce that, but I just spotted the news on MJ Simpson's Planet Magrathea! Robbie Stamp will be taking part in an online chat Wednesday the 30th for the australian website incinemas.com.au The chat will begin at 4 PM Australian Est. The Hitchhiker's guide chat page will become active thirty minutes before to allow people to begin entering their questions

SIX PAGES FEATURES IN EMPIRE

Still according to the Big MJ, Empire features a six pages article about the Hitchhiker's movie which is one of the biggest article printed till now about the Hitchhiker's movie.

One month before the long awaited release date in US and UK. One big question : Can we expect a blockbuster?

We now know for sure that the h2g2 movie will be released the 28th April in the UK and the 29th in the US. These are undoubtedly the main markets for Hitchhikers, and the ones which will allow us to say if Hitchhikers is a success or a failure.

So did Disney choose the good release dates? Well some says that in recent years the first weekend of May has been the first biggest pre-summer weekend ( "Mummy returns" opened the 4th May 2001 with $68 millions). It was the release date that Disney first announced before deciding to release one week sooner. But the 6th May 2005 there is already a big movie which will be released in the US and UK. It's Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of heaven". This history/war/drama stars Orlando Bloom (Legolas in the "Lord of the rings") and is about a man who fights for his people during the 12th century crusades.
So what about the 28th-29th May? The Hitchhiker's movie will struggle in UK and US against "XXX : State of the Union". This is the sequel of 2002 spy movie XXX who made $141 millions in the US.

But Vin Diesel (main actor) and Rob Cohen (director) will not be in that sequel. The movie stars instead Ice Cub and Samuel L Jackson (who was already in the first movie) and is directed by Lee Tamahori ("Die another day"). It is a potential good commercial success, even if I don't think it will make more money than the first. This kind of big budget action movie (Vin Diesel was paid $20 millions for the first movie) could achieve $200 million dollars in the US but the first XXX didn't make it so.... Besides the absence of Vin Diesel annoys a lot the fans of the first movie. And Ice Cube is still much more popular as a singer than an actor and is regarded as a poor substitute (a point of view shared by Samuel L Jackson). - Let's notice however that "Fast and Furious" also with Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen made $144 millions in the US and that "2 Fast 2 Furious" the sequel without them made nevertheless $127 millions.

The Hitchhiker's movie has no big name but it's obviously more original than XXX, and the critics will for sure be better for Hitchhikers. Hitchhikers will attract a broader audience (for the US market, Hitchhikers is PG and XXX is PG 13) but teenagers and young adults are the main audience for both movies. SF comedy against Action Movie. Well that's a tough struggle.

Anyway, Hitchhikers has got his chance against XXX. But we have to see also what kind of movies comes before and after the 28-29th May.

In the US, the week before (22th April), several movies will be released. "The Interpreter" (a drama thriller directed by Sidney Pollack, with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn) is a big release even if Sidney Pollack didn't direct a big success movie since "The firm" (1995) with Tom Cruise. There are also several other movies like "A lot like love" a british kind of comedy directed by Nigel Cole (Calendar girls, Saving Grace), "The Sandlot 2", a family comedy and childhood movie directed by David M Evans. It is the sequel to the 1993 movie already directed by Mr Evans (Beethoven 3 & 4). At last maybe we can forget "King's ransom", a big fat Crime comedy directed by Jeff Byrd with Anthony Anderson?

After The Hitchhiker's release date, the biggest movie to come on the movie screens is Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of heaven" which will open the 6th May. Let's remember that the next big SF movie "Star Wars III" will only open the 19th May, three weeks after the release of the Hitchhikers, which is quite a good thing. "War of the worlds", the other big summer SF movie will open the 29th June.
So I think that these release dates in US and UK are a good choice for the Hitchhiker's movie which is rather a risky bet for Disney.

Now, how many million dollars the Hitchhiker's movie must earn? Well I think a succes in the US market would mean at least $80-100 millions. But I think we can expect a better result, depending on the first week-end results (at least $20 M please !!) and the word of mouth. Such a good movie should become at least a $150 M hit, but the best movies don't get always the biggest success.

Of course, the movie could miss the US and UK markets and be a big success in other countries. A movie like "King Arthur" made a lot of more money overseas than in the US. Let's remember than in several other countries the movie will be released several months later during the summer.

Robbie Stamp's presentation in Brussels

Robby (Stuck Chocolat) has seen Robbie Stamp in Bruxells. He kindly sent me his report - There are indeed several interesting informations (don't forget to read five and six) :

"Today I went to Robbie Stamps presentation in Brussels. Since it was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon there were only about 50 people as audiencee; I know that's not really much, but giving we're a tiny country and the fact that decent Belgians have to work on 4 o'clock on thursday; I thought 50 was a reasonable number.

I didn't learn much new, but I think Robbie said some things we didn't know up till now. I'll keep it short.

1) Robbie showed us a 360° view of the HOG escape pod. These 360° views should be available on the internet in a few weeks 2) Robbie watched part of the movie yesterday. Some pieces are completely finished now: the soundtrack has been recorded completely is and now being mixed.

3) We got to see a rough cut of the demolition of earth. No CGI, and the score not completly finished in that part. After the Earth exploxed we got to hear the first notes of the Yourney of the Sorcerer. The video clip was than stopped. I think we can be sure though, that the Yourney of the Sorcerer wil be there after Earth is demolished

4) To the question if it was Douglas' idea of the way the arranged Zaphods 2 heads Robbie didn't give a clear answer. He said Douglas wanted it done differently from the TV-series since the 2nd head was horrible. Robbie said Douglas was "higly involved" if it came to the way they've arranged the heads now.

5) the HOG will have speaking doors as it should be. The voices of the doors are not done by famous people but just by the audio crew. The voice of Eddy the shipboard computer will be "Tom Lennon". I don't know who Tom Lennon is, but could it be this guy? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502073/

6) Since the internet trailer seems to be such a big success, also in the USA; it has been decided that not the USA international, but the internet trailers will be played in the cinemas in the US...
For the rest I thought it was a very interesting afternoon. We've seen a lot of footage which could be part of bonus material for the DVD (behind the scenes, the actors talking, ...). Most of the time Robbie spoke so we actually didn't got to see a lot of pieces of the movie...

UK official website now online !

The Hitchhiker's movie opens now the 28th April in the UK and we were still waiting for an official UK website. Here it is now. And it's quite different from the US official website we know. A lot of new contents and new stuff to discover. The design is great. The music is quickly boring but you can stop it. So come on : GO NOW !

Sorry about any inconvenience + official website huge update + other news

I'm sorry about the mess with Marvin. In fact it seems that someone thought it was very funny to attack my forum on a Sunday. I had a bad time with this phpBB stuff, couldn't repair it straight away so I asked Marvin to deal with the website during a few hours. My mistake! Well, everything is back online now. It's not the first time that a Hitchhiker's fan website is being attacked by fools.

DouglasAdams.se and Planet Magrathea got problems too. Why this damn bast***s attack amateur websites? Isn't it too easy for their huge brains?

And now for something completely different... As you sure all know already, the official website has been updated. And it's not the usual small kind of update but a brand new website featuring a lot of goodies (360 views of sets, games, characters and their voices,...) and a great design. So, go here and have fun!

DarthBastard (from Douglasadams.se forums) has spotted an interesting article by Craig Hill, managing director with Digital Outlook. The guy is in charge of the Hitchhiker's movie Internet buzz and he talks about the Hitchhiker's movie case study here.

You can also watch small size new pics from the movie. You can discover them on http://www.incinemas.com.au/ (Coming soon/Hitchhikers) - thanks to Nikki Green and Jenz for that one.

You can also see a great big size new pic with Marvin and Arthur on IGN Filmforce (thanks to MJ for this one)

UK opening date the 28th Apri

In the UK, the movie is going to be released one day earlier on April 28th!! So the movie will now open the 28th in UK, Australia and New Zealand. Right now the movie is still opening the 29th in the US.

Also 11 new official websites should appear soon (the first one should be launched next week)!! In fact, these 11 websites are localized versions of the same website for 11 European countries. They "will have lots of information about the film and its heritage as well as games and curios for everyone to get excited about". It seems that Tim Browse, former member of TDV (the digital village created by Douglas Adams and Robbie Stamp), has worked very closely with Disney on these websites.

Hellen Mirren is Deep Thought + New US unofficial movie website on the way

Deep Thought will be finally played by a woman. So no deep voice for the second most intelligent computer in the Universe. Fans of the TV and Radio series will maybe be quite upset by the news. But anyway the great news is that it's the english actress Helen Mirren who got the part. Helen is a big movie star and a very talented actress. She has played in many american and english movies (like "Gosford park", "the Mosquito Coast", "2010", "Excalibur"...) and many TV series.

There is also a new unofficial website about the movie. Now an american guy Jake Russell is going to launch his own website the 20th March. Right now it's difficult to tell how good his website will be but it is promising even if there are maybe too many links right now to actual things on other websites. But his site is still under construction so Wait and see. If you want infos about the movie you can also check the official website of course, but also the excellent Planet Magrathea (run by MJ Simpson) and Douglasadams.se, an excellent website about Douglas run by sweedish fan Jenz. You can also check of course imdb. And if you speak sweedish, Totta, an other sweedish fan, made an excellent one (in sweedish only sadly for the non sweedish guys including me).

London Premiere the 20th April + UK Students contest to win tickets to the premiere + Robbie Stamp still tours the world (with Zaphod?)

MJ "eagle eyes" Simpson has spotted (on Save the Rhino's website) the movie's World Premiere date which will be the 20th April in London. So, let's face the horrible truth, some lucky ones will be able to see the movie nine days before everybody else.

Buena Vista and Easy Jet have launch a contest for the UK Students. The winners will get tickets to the UK premiere and an EasyJet Freedom Passes. Of course you will have to do something to win these prices. Your challenge as a team (a guy and a girl) will be to Hitchhike back to the UK from a mistery European destination with only £100 and a pair of pyjamas ! My gosh, poor UK Students! The rules don't tell if they will be alowed to bring their towels, and it seems that dressing gowns are definitly not allowed.

On the other side of the galaxy, executive producer Robbie Stamp is still touring the universe to talk about Hitchhikers. Robbie Stamp will be in Belgium the 17th March (for the Brussels International Fantasy Film) and in Melbourne, Australia, the 29th March.

Zaphod Breeblebrox' presidential campaign site announced some days ago that the real Zaphod (not the fake one played by Sam Rockwell !) could appear in Melbourne with Robbie Stamp.

The Hitchhiker's Adventure Game on Radio 4 wins BAFTA Best Online Entertainment Award.

This year's Interactve Bafta Awards gave the award of Best Online Entertainment to "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Adventure Game - The 20th Anniversary Edition". The original Hitchhiker's Adventure game has been created by Douglas and Steve Meretzky in 1985 for Infocom. It has been a big commercial success for a text only adventure (250.000 copies sold) and remained a quite popular version of H2g2 during all these years (for more infos about the original game check this place).
Douglas, who was quite proud of the game, had an online playable version of the game on his official website. And when Radio 4 decided to launch a big website for the upcoming broadcasting of the new radio series based on the last three books of the Hitchhiker's series, they chose to work on a new version of the Hitchhiker's Adventure Game which would be playable on their website.

But Radio 4 did not just put the old version of The Adventure Game online. They asked to Rod Lord (the guy who created the guide graphics in the TV series) and to Sean Sollé (from Douglas' company The Digital Village) to work on a brand new version to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the game (if you want to learn how they made such an exploit check here).

In fact, the new version of the Hitchhiker's adventure game is one of the reasons why the Radio 4 website is so succesfull. The graphics are great, and Sean made a wonderful work to update it and attract new players to this wonderful game.

You can notice that there is now two versions of the game with some new graphics from the young artists Nolan Worthington and Andrew Wyld.

The new version of the game is excellent, has well deserved this prize and we all hope that Radio 4 will let it online after the broadcasting of the new series this spring.

The UGO trailer is now on the official website ! + winners of the Dentrassi contest announced !

Well, this is a little complicated but as you know there have been an official UK trailer shown on Sky Movies news Saturday the 27th February. This one has got a narrator and it is much funnier and better than the US one shown on Amazon some weeks ago. It should be still avalaible in a poor quality version on Sky Movies website. I think it should appear on the UK official movie website soon once it will be ready to be launched.

Some guys found an other version, slightly different, on UGO website. This one is also introduced by The Narrator but this time there is a girl in bikini, a joke about the voice of the guys who usually speak on trailers, and there is no more "Journey on the Sorecerer" song at the end. This one should be called The UGO or better the Internet Trailer. It seems to be the one Robbie Stamp, executive producer of the movie, shown at Wondercon the 19th February, in San Francisco. This new exciting trailer (and not only for the bikini bit) is avalaible now in different formats and full screen quality on the Official Website !

DENTRASSI CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The 28th January, I launched a Dentrassi contest with the help of those kind guys at Random House. You had to answer to two easy questions and find a good recipe for the Dentrassi. SIX of you have won a prize. Those who have won something and didn't send me their adress are welcome to do it now. The prizes will be sent to the winners as soon as they are released (let's remember the lucky winners won some h2g2 movie tie in editions of the first Hitchhiker's book with Robbie Stamps exclusive introduction). ALL THE WINNERS' RECIPES WILL BE SOON PUBLISHED IN THE DENTRASSI SECTION OF THIS WEBSITE.

The answers were (and almost everybody found the good ones) : 1. which songs Douglas Adams played on stage with Pink Floyd? "Eclipse" and "brain damage" 2. when was first broadcasted the first episode of the Hitchhiker's radio series aka Fir the First ? Wednesday 8th march 1978

WINNER (all five Hitchhikers books + the US movie poster) : The Hitchhiker´s Supremo Cake – Emily Crabtree

These other guys made some nice recipes too and won an Hitchhiker's book (the h2g2 tie in edition of the first book with Robbie Stamp 92 bonus pages about the movie) :

- Pound Cake – Michael Walker - "The Pain – The Soup That Will Kill You" – Supercharlie/Charles Campbell - Vogon Ill-Tempered Stew – Tom Condor - Puddeling-grand forum – Thomas Krohn - A College Gals Recipe for Freshman Year Chilli – Summer Sparacin

The Science of Hitchhikers in the shops at the begining of May

"The science of Hitchhikers" will be published the first week of May according to UK publisher MacMillan. The book is written by Michael Hanlon, a british sience writer (you can still read his interview on this website here). The book wil be a 256 pages hardback book full of explanations about Science in Hitchhikers : "Adams was a science and technology enthusiast and his books were inspired by - prefigured even - many of the great scientific debates of our times. The Science of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a light-hearted, accessible and informative tour of the real cutting-edge research behind the corner-stones of a much-loved classic, including space tourism, parallel universes, instant translation devices, sentient computers and more."

You can pre-order the book on amazon UK and US and also on MacMillan Science website here.
Also, Mike Hanlon is giving the following talks :

He will be speaking at the Cambridge Science Festival at 1pm on Saturday 19 March.
He will be also speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival on 12June.
He will be spaeking at the Royal Institution of Great Britain with Robbie Stamp (executive producer of the Hitchhiker's movie, friend and business partner of Douglas in The Digital Village) on 30th June.