Infinitely Improbable? Not so.

[evenwolf]

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/news/news.asp?story=4816

So maybe this has been in the works for a while.  However, the odd coincidence is that I read the bulk of Hitchhikers Guide just tonight and actually get the references to towels and panic and so forth... and thought it highly improbable to come across this article on Ain't It Cool News just now.  I would calculate the probability of this situation as: two to the power of five thousand and falling...

How fast one becomes a fan, pouring out in-jokes..

[Andail]

This is pretty amazing. The last couple of days, I've re-read the Hitchhiker's Guide and once again become pretty into it...so today I thought I could find some news regarding a film-making of the books on the internet.
But hey, let's first check the forums, I thought.

I think we're up in an impropability that would impress the makers of The Heart of Gold now

[LGM]

Jeeze.. Guess I really need to read the series..

I found the first and fourth book at the thrift store.. But I didn't buy them because I'd rather have the whole collection than searching forever for the other books.

This'll be a sweet movie if everything I've heard about the book is translated well into film!

Rock on

[Barcik]

Gut feeling: Movie will suck.

[SSH]

The TV series sucked, but there was one good thing: the excerpts from "The Book". Both the graphics and the late Peter Jones' excellent voiceover were great.

It's essential that everyone involved in making the film "gets" the book. And I really hope that they only give Zaphod one head.

I always thought that the Dirk Gently books would be much more filmable.

[Trapezoid]

I'm not sure how a movie would turn out... The books never followed any sort of Act structure as far as I can tell. They were adapted from a radio series, so there's a one-thing-after-another feel to them that doesn't usually work too well in film. When it DOES work, however, it's a lot of fun.

[Shattered Sponge]

The TV series sucked

BLASPHEMY!!!  The TV series was fantastic - it combined the fast wit and clever concepts of the original radio series (not to mention many of the original actors) with fantastically campy Doctor Who-esque production values; it was the series that turned me (and many others) onto Adam's work in the first lpace, and rightly so.
 As to the movie, my gut feeling is that there's no way that they're going to be able to adapt the original work 100% faithfully to the big screen, but I've got my fingers crossed that it will still turn out to be an intelligent and humorous film - though I will reserve judgement until I've heard more about the production, or maybe even till I've *gasp* - ACTUALLY SEEN IT!

[TheYak]

I can pretty much predict how this will turn out.  The film taken by itself with have nice special effects, abstract/random comedy and be a fairly entertaining movie.  It will probably be rated PG.  The only sections in the book that would warrant an adult rating will probably be cut.  I find it very probable that they will remove the word, "Fuck" from the movie all together.  I will enjoy the movie simply for itself but will prefer the book (of course).  It won't be as good  a conversion as Lord of the Rings but will be better than Stephen King's lawnmower man story to movie, at least as far as faithfulness to the novel.  

If I am wrong and the movie surpasses my expectations, I'm fully prepared to relinquish Army of Darkness as my current favorite movie to watch and re-watch.  

It's a true shame Adams is dead.  I think they ought to get a group together comprised of the Monty Python team, Terry Pratchett (I assume he's still alive), and Mel Brooks.  Then they ought to be given a huge budget, lots of resources and then be told to be faithful to the novel or face castration.  Then it'll be a wonderful film.

[SSH]

You guys do know about the official online Guide (Earth Edition), don't you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/

[Helm]

This thread is on a sure way to become Somebody Elses Problem, so keep it down, fellow hitchhikers.

[undergroundling]

A movie from the Hitchhiker's Guide could really only go two ways: wicked cool or terrible piece of shit.

Hopefully this one would be wicked cool.

Personally, I thought the TV series was good, even though it did drag a bit in spots.

- Bryan