A DIRK stage play in Southern California

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY by Douglas Adams was adapted into a stage play by James Goss and Arvind Ethan David and is in production to open September 29th 2006 in Los Angeles, CA. It is the first profesionnal theatre production of Dirk Gently in the US.

I'll try to get soon an interview with the guys. Here is anyway their press release :
"Following on the success of smash hits such as NAPOLI MILIONARIA, THE WOMAN IN BLACK, OUROBOROS, and BUNBURY, the Ovation Award-winning Road Theatre Company will produce the professional US Premiere of DIRK, a quirky, witty and highly entertaining offering from the mind of Douglas Adams, directed by Jeff Griffith. A perfect way to begin the Road’s 16th season!
...
Director Jeff Griffith has been with the Road Theatre Company the past 3 years, where he has stage-managed the critically acclaimed and award winning productions of NAPOLI MILIONARIA and THE WOMAN IN BLACK. Jeff has also assistant directed with Deborah LaVine for SEVENTH MONARCH and Michael Michetti for OUROBOROS. DIRK marks Jeff’s Road Theatre debut as director.
The production is supported by producers Helen Harwell, Amy Buffington, Scot Burklin, and Julie Quinn with multimedia elements produced by Tye Beeby; digital scenography Anaitte Vaccaro; sound designer David B. Marling; publicist Marci Hill; and production stage manager and multimedia director Matt Kaiser. DIRK will play September 29 to December 3, 2006, playing Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The production will be dark on November 24 for Thanksgiving."
MORE INFOS ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE

Another chance to see Blog : relaunch and fundraising for Save the Rhino

I got an email from Gareth Suddes who is webmaster of one of the best Douglas related websites. His blog keeps you updated with news from endangered species, one of Douglas favourite subjects. At the end of july, he heavilly improved his website.

"I relaunched my Another Chance To See website this morning - http://anotherchancetosee.blogspot.com
A couple of layout glitches that I hadn't anticipated but I think I just about got it now. I was able to improve the categories feature too.
I've started a fundraiser for Save The Rhino because Douglas Adams was a patron of this charity of course, and I hope to raise a good bit of money for it over the next year."

The boys are back : H&T are shooting their next movie

Hamer and Tongs (Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith) are begining the shooting of their next movie on monday 31st July. Of course it won't be the sequel of "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" but a brand new and original project "Son of Rambow" they wrote before making the H2G2 movie.

"The stunts have been tested, the actors rehearsed, the locations discovered, the hair, make-up and wardrobe teams have loaded their trucks and after 3 months of pre-production at Elstree Studios Hammer & Tongs are all set to start shooting "Son of Rambow" on Monday 31st July. All we can do now is pray this glorious sunshine continues. Good luck everyone!"
Son of Rambow is "the name of a home movie made by two little boys with a big camera and even bigger ambitions. Set on a long summer in the early 80s, Son of Rambow is a comedy about friendship, faith and the weird business of growing up".
You can get more news on the movie website here

Babel fish is now on yahoo!

If Altavista was the first to put online a Babel fish to help internauts to translate web pages, they are no more the only ones. The all new Yahoo introduces now a translation tool, called... Babel fish. Well most of the Yahoos do anyway. The american, english or australian yahoos don't seem to have one. Well, they all speak english, so they don't need anything else ! At least the canadian yahoo have a babel fish tool, but a part of the canadians speak french.

On all the Yahoo Babel fish help pages, you can read : "The Babel Fish is a creature in the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. When placed in a person's ear, it allows him or her to understand any and all languages spoken"

Anyway here is : - the french Babel fish - the brazilian Babel fish - the italian Babel fish - the spanish Babel fish - the german Babel fish

Is Disney going to sharply reduce the release of live-action films?

Disney could reduce the release of live-action films. Of course they will still make movies like "Narnia" and "pirates of the caraibes", but according two seperate recent news accounts, they could stop or reduce the release of adult-oriented films. This is of course bad news for the H2G2 fans who still wait for the movie adaptation of The Restaurant at the end of the universe! The H2G2 movie came under Touchstone banner and was not the expected huge success even if it didn't lost any money.

Here are extracts from a good report on MarketWatch :

"This week, two separate news accounts reported Disney will announce plans for reductions at its Buena Vista studio operations. The trade publication Variety was first on Wednesday, saying the studio would reduce its annual film output to eight from 18. Then on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times followed up by saying hundreds of jobs would be lost in a mass layoff throughout Buena Vista, and its film output would be cut to 10 from a range of 14 to 21. Most films would come under the Walt Disney Pictures banner, which produced the company's latest hit, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," as well as the June animated release, "Cars," the Times said. Disney's animation operations and the newly acquired Pixar film group are likely to remain untouched. But Disney is looking at sharply reducing the live-action films released by its Touchstone division, in years past the company's primary source of such material and the group that catapulted Disney into adult-oriented films during the tenure of previous CEO Michael Eisner. Touchstone has had a hand in virtually all of Disney's major live-action hits of the past, including "Pearl Harbor," "Armageddon" and "Pretty Woman," but the list of breakout Touchstone hits is relatively short. That list has gotten shorter in recent years. Such films as "Annapolis," "Casanova" and "The Alamo" did not catch on with audiences as the production firm had only modest success with "Flightplan," "Ladder 49" and "The Ladykillers." Touchstone puts out about 10 films a year, roughly the amount that would be cut if news accounts prove accurate. If Disney cuts its film output by more than half, the studio will be the first (and could be the only) one to make such a drastic move in light of rapidly rising costs. "

H2G2 movie exhibition at Blackpool zoo (UK)

The H2G2 movie science museum exhibition is at the Blackpool zoo (UK) since last february. There have not been much informations about it. But this is good news for the guys who missed the science museum exhibition and are going to be in UK this summer. Don't miss the exhibition. You can see pictures of the event here (thanks to Ol' Peculier on douglasadams.se forums ).

There is also a merchandise shop online where you'll be able to buy some funny stuff (including some exclusive stuff i've seen nowhere else) HERE You can also buy there some Dian Fossey Gorilla merchandise (as you know Douglas Adams supported this association).

Stephen Fry involved in a Dirk Gently movie or LCTS TV series ???

here has been a nice chat with Stephen Fry on Douglasadams.se. Lot of nice questions and witty answers from Stephen Fry.
There was quite an interesting answer about a possible Dirk Gently movie :
"Well Robbie Stamp, an old mucker of DNA's who ran Digital Village with him and exec prodded HHGG wants to make it as a movie and has tentatively asked if I would be interested in either playing Dirk or writing-directing or all three, or both or any permutation thereof.... Am currently rereading DG with this in mind...."
Rumours about a Dirk Gently's movie or a DG TV series is no new stuff but it's still great news to know that it's still alive in the mind of such guys as Robbie Stamp whose implication was decisive to make the H2G2 movie after Douglas' death. Let's remember too that a Dirk Gently radio series is still being considered.
Another nice answer about a possible new implication of Stephen Fry with Douglas Adams' universe (Last Chance to See to be accurate) was this one :
In reply to "anotherchancetosee" question : "I am in discussions with Mark Carwardine about doing a TV series with your handle as its title. Using Douglas's audiobook version of ACTS as a guide for us as we investigate how the various species are doing nearly 20 years on. The Yangste River Dolphin now officially extinct, for example.... ".
It would be great to have Stephen Fry involved in such projects. Well we can still cross our fingers and hope... Meanwhile read the chat transcript HERE