A Little Background
About a year before he died, Douglas completed his last draft of the screenplay. The script had taken many steps forward, containing some brand new characters and plot elements. As we all know Douglas was always ready to reinvent H2G2 through its various incarnations, and although everybody loved the new elements, some of the structural challenges remained to be solved. Things therefore ground to a halt again, to the natural frustration of Douglas, and months passed.

After Douglas passing the script was handed to Karey Kirkpatrick, a screen writer whose claim to fame involves James and the Giant Peach as well as Chicken Run. Karey revised the script, working very closely with Jay Roach and Robbie Stamp, and just before Christmas 2002, there emerged something that has since been regarded as the ultimate H2G2 script. Things got back on it's feet again. However, feeling that he could no longer promise himself to the project, Jay Roach had got up out of the directors chair and decided to try out a producer one instead. But not before production teams attention had been pointed to Spike Jonze, who gently declined the offer but in his turn pointed the aforementioned attention to a little production company named Hammer & Tongs, consisting of two bright and funny fellows named Nick Goldsmith and Garth Jennings. A successful production team they have been making videos for bands like REM, Supergrass and Fatboy Slim, and also had a lot of attention for their commercials. And, also important; their studio is located not far from Douglas' house in Islington! They were approached with the question "We're making this film. Would you like to come with us to produce and direct it?" and, almost instantly, they replied "No thanks."

No, wait! That's right, they accepted. They went through the script together with Karey Kirkpatrick, made a few structural changes and making it yet stronger, and so finally the project got green lighted and was officially in pre-production as of October 5 2003.

Filming started on April 19, 2004, at Elstree studios in London and will continue through to late August, when CGI/FX and voice overs will commence. There was an early rumour about some of the filming, namely the Magrathea scenes, was going to be shot on Iceland, but that is not the case. Magrathea reported that they went off to shoot those scenes in Wales instead.

What should we fans expect?
We should expect a movie that quite differs from the books, the radio show and the TV show. The script has a new angle to the story, there are new plot elements and even a few new characters. So if you get in line on the day of the premiere and is eager to see a film adaptation of the books/Radio/TV-show, you are most likely bound to become disappointed. The story is mostly reinvented, but rest assured that it's all still Douglas Adams.

Offical and unofficial sites
The official movie site launched on May 11, 2004. They chose the date as a mark of respect for Douglas, who passed away that date in 2001. The address to the site is http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com. Go explore.

Some of the actors in the movie have sites of their own, but only one of them has a section devoted to the film, namely Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent). The other actors with personal sites are Zooey Deschanel (Trillian), Mos Def (Ford Prefect) and Warwick Davis (Marvins body).

Set visit report
I visited the set on July 16, 2004, and my report is right here.

Cast:

Arthur Dent Martin Freeman	Ford Prefect Mos Def	Zaphod Beeblebrox Sam Rockwell
Trillian Zooey Deschanel	Marvin (Body) Warwick Davis	Slartibartfast Bill Nighy

The role of portraying Zaphod was initially discussed with Robert Downey Jr, but in the end the part was not offered to him, and he decided to embark on other projects.