There's a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer available at the Amazon Trailers site containing actual footage of the film (unlike the official 'teaser').
It's difficult to judge it from what we see here and I've got mixed feelings about a few things, largely because some of the classic lines here sound different to the ones ingrained on my memory from the original radio broadcasts, records and BBC TV series. For example, Arthur Dent's 'what the hell is THAT!' is changed to 'what the hell are those things?' and, picky as I know it sounds, it's not... quite... right.
I have this dreadful feeling that I'm going to go and see this film and be reciting the script in my head and noticing all the changes :-(
Anyway, good points: looks good, Arthur Dent seems faithful to the original, effects shots are top notch, Magrathea looks like a sand pit in England (so faithful to Douglas Adams's experience as script editor on Doctor Who and the BBC's original TV series)
Bad points: maybe too slick to be truly ironic, Ford Prefect is American (that's not an anti-American statement, but it doesn't quite sit right with the parochial nature of the opening Earth section), Zaphod's second head is mostly hidden, Marvin - depite my early thoughts - doesn't look right (from the 2 seconds you can see him in this) and the music...
If you watch the trailer listen at the end - isn't that the Men in Black music? Now I know that trailers are often given fake scores because the music isn't ready, but this seems a bit odd. And for some reason, I think if they don't use the classic Hitchhikers theme it'd be a shame.
But I'm still looking forward to it. The books, radio plays, records and TV series contradicted each other dreadfully and that's part of the fun.
What with this coming out April/May, the third Star Wars film in May, and the new series of Doctor Who on 26 March I think 2005 is turning into a bit of a retro year...
(Update) According to SFX magazine, the theme music will be a remixed version of the original. And apparently it is the Danny Elfman Men in Black music on the trailer, but the final film will have music provided by the same composer who scored The League of Gentlemen TV series, so should be good...
There's also a better Quicktime version of the trailer available from what looks like a slightly dodgy source.
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