The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Short description
Arthur Dent is an ordinary Englishman whose day begins badly: a bulldozer is about to tear down his house. Things get considerably worse when it turns out that his friend Ford Prefect is not from around here, and that the planet itself is scheduled for demolition by an alien construction crew clearing room for a hyperspace bypass. Ford pulls Arthur off Earth just in time, and the two begin hitching rides across the galaxy, joined by a two-headed ship's president, a woman Arthur once met at a party, and a deeply depressed robot. The most useful thing Arthur carries is a towel; the most useful thing anyone carries is an electronic book of unreliable advice.
The film adapts Douglas Adams's novel, with a screenplay by Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick, and was the first feature directed by Garth Jennings, who went on to make Son of Rambow and the Sing films. Martin Freeman plays Arthur, Yasiin Bey plays Ford, Zooey Deschanel plays Trillian, Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod Beeblebrox and Alan Rickman voices Marvin. Around sixty credited cast and 160 crew members worked on the production.
Made for about 50 million dollars, it took in roughly 105 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 6.3 from 195 reviews, while on TMDB audiences give it 6.7 from more than four thousand votes, a slightly warmer reception than the critics'.
What's left behind the scenes
- After the mouse-killing, the curtains on the windows are found drawn, although they were open before.
- In one frame, on the casing of the supercomputer “Deep Thought”, you can see an “Apple Mac” logo. Douglas Adams was the owner of the first two “Apple Macintosh” computers in Great Britain, and the third was owned by Stephen Fry (he voiced the narrator and the “Guide”).
- Arthur Dent's dressing gown was the most expensive and complex piece of props made for the film, including the heads of Zaphod Beeblebrox and the eyes of Humma Kavula. The fabric for the dressing gown was imported from Turkey, and the gown itself was cut and sewn directly on set.
- John Malkovich plays the religious leader Hummu Kavula; this character is not in the book and was specifically created for the film by Douglas Adams himself.
- Garth Jennings' directorial debut.
- The author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has an unusual, small cameo in the film. When the design engineer gives Arthur Dent a tour of the assembly line, the planet in the background has the face of Douglas Adams, the book's author. His face is visible around the twenty-third minute of the second hour of the film.
- When the robot Marvin picks up the miracle weapon, all the shadows change direction to the opposite one.
- Jack Davenport could have played Arthur Dent.
- At the very beginning of the film, Arthur Dent manages to move further away from the bulldozer scoop, to which he was lying very close.
- When Arthur, Ford, and Zaphod arrive on Vogosfera and queue at the window to obtain Trillian’s release form, they pass a robot that is a reference to the 1981 television series of the same name by Alan J.W. Bell. Specifically, Marvin in Bell's series looked exactly like that.
- When the mouse-like device approaches Arthur's head, all the balls in the background change position.
- The screenplay for the film was started by Douglas Adams and completed by Garth Jennings and Cary Kirkpatrick after Adams' death in 2001.
- The writing on the train cars is actually Pitman shorthand, one of the stenography systems for the English language, created by Englishman Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) under the name "phonography." At one time, hundreds of thousands of office workers were trained in it.
- In one of the episodes, Douglas Adams' mother, the screenwriter and author of the novel of the same name (1979), which served as the literary source for the screenplay, appeared on screen. It's about an old woman sitting at a cafe table set up outside, oblivious to the chaos around her. She simply sits and reads a newspaper. Director Garth Jennings gave no instructions to her or the other actors involved in the scene.
- The bridge of the starship "Heart of Gold" was decorated with light bulbs, so many in fact that they could not be kept lit for more than eight minutes, otherwise the set would simply catch fire.
- The scene featuring the elaborate costume party contains several references to the celebration of Douglas Adams' 42nd birthday, which took place in 1992. It was at this celebration that Adams introduced evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to actress Lalla Ward, resulting in her becoming Mrs. Dawkins. In the film, the main character is shown reading a book by Dawkins in the scene where he meets the character played by Zooey Deschanel, who in turn is dressed as Charles Darwin. Adams and Dawkins were friends.
- Douglas Adams's relatives – his daughter, brother, sister, and mother – appeared in the film.
- The film features Louis Armstrong's legendary song "What a Wonderful World." It was also used in the radio adaptation and the television series.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
