Comment Re:On the subject of a Hollywood rewrite.. (Score 1) 541
I fear that with the absence of Douglas Adams, the results of the rewrites will be far more significant then the lack of 6 pints of bitter in the first 15 minutes of the movie.
Adams has been floating the script around Hollywood for a very long time; The preface in the '93 Hardback (A Trilogy in Four Parts) has him suggesting that he started work on a screenplay shortly after finishing Life, The Universe And Everything (3rd book, '82), suggesting the 4th book (along with Mostly Harmless) could be a sequel (or give a clue where the movie will end in the book series -- the original TV series ended with the 3rd book after 2 hours). In '98 he commented "Disney is the studio which is making this movie, which is financing it, which will be distributing it. [...] The important issues as far as I'm concerned is - who are the individual people I'm working with? The director, the producer, the studio executive etc."
Screenwriting credits go to Kary Kirkpatrick who's previous work includes Chicken Run and The Little Vampire. Directing credit go to Garth Jennings, an unknown who's stepping up from the music video scene (who's also listed as a screenwriter by IMDB). Art Direction comes from Frank Walsh (Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life). Spyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense; Shanghai Noon) is Disney's controller in this endevour.
It seems to me that Disney is handing production over to a group which will create something which is pretty much guaranteed to at least break-even in the long run, even if it does lousy on innitial release. If the story is strong enough to survive the first movie they can hand sequels over to the trendy film makers to bleed the story dry.
It would be unfortunate to see the move adaptation turned into a PG-13 practice vehicle for Hollywoods search for new production talent.
Adams has been floating the script around Hollywood for a very long time; The preface in the '93 Hardback (A Trilogy in Four Parts) has him suggesting that he started work on a screenplay shortly after finishing Life, The Universe And Everything (3rd book, '82), suggesting the 4th book (along with Mostly Harmless) could be a sequel (or give a clue where the movie will end in the book series -- the original TV series ended with the 3rd book after 2 hours). In '98 he commented "Disney is the studio which is making this movie, which is financing it, which will be distributing it. [...] The important issues as far as I'm concerned is - who are the individual people I'm working with? The director, the producer, the studio executive etc."
Screenwriting credits go to Kary Kirkpatrick who's previous work includes Chicken Run and The Little Vampire. Directing credit go to Garth Jennings, an unknown who's stepping up from the music video scene (who's also listed as a screenwriter by IMDB). Art Direction comes from Frank Walsh (Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life). Spyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense; Shanghai Noon) is Disney's controller in this endevour.
It seems to me that Disney is handing production over to a group which will create something which is pretty much guaranteed to at least break-even in the long run, even if it does lousy on innitial release. If the story is strong enough to survive the first movie they can hand sequels over to the trendy film makers to bleed the story dry.
It would be unfortunate to see the move adaptation turned into a PG-13 practice vehicle for Hollywoods search for new production talent.
