Don't Hold Your Breath

We went to the movies tonight, Sideways, with Paul Giamatti. I went to school with him, and at a dress rehearsal even appeared on stage during some audience participation thing.

Before the feature they ran a teaser for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now, one would think that since this is one of my favorite all time books that I would be excited, but I'm not.

They've been trying to get this film made for what must be 20 years now. It always fell apart. I can't think it bodes well for the project that it came to fruition, finally, just after Douglas Adams passed away. The casting looks interesting, with Mos Def as Ford Prefect.

Some other tidbits from imdb:

• The movie was first optioned in 1982 by producers Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck and Michael C. Gross. Douglas Adams wrote three drafts for them per his contract. During this time, Medjuck and Gross were considering Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd to play Ford Prefect, but then Aykroyd sent them his idea for Ghost Busters (1984) and they did that movie instead.
• This film has been in "Development Hell" for over twenty years. At one point, Douglas Adams insisted it would be made "sometime before the last Trump". Just prior to his death, a deal was almost in place with Jay Roach directing and staring Hugh Laurie (Arthur), Jim Carrey (Zaphod Beeblebrox) and the late Nigel Hawthorne (Slartibartfast).
• John Malkovich's character, a religious leader, was created especially for the movie by Douglas Adams.
• This will be ninth version of the "Hitchhiker's Guide". It previously appeared as a radio series, a record album, a novel, a television series, a computer game, a stage show, a comic book and a towel.
  After Jay Roach decided to pass on directing the movie, he brought the property to Spike Jonze. Jonze also passed, but suggested Nick Goldsmith and Garth Jennings (also known as Hammer and Tongs, also soon-to-be former music video directors), who accepted.
• Jack Davenport was considered for the role of Arthur Dent, but in the end it was decided he was simply too good-looking for the role of the ultimate everyman Dent.
• The movie's teaser features Louis Amstrong's "Wonderful World". The song featured in the end of "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (1981) (mini).
• Cameo: [Simon Jones] [, who played Arthur Dent in "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (1981) (mini).]
• The hymn sung by the Jatravartidian followers of Humma Kavula was recorded at St. Martin's Church, Highgate, London on 19 June 2004. The hymn was sung by several hundred untrained members of the public invited to the recording via a call for singers circulated on the internet.
• In a chaotic scene shot in London, fans can spot Douglas Adams's brother James Thrift, sister Jane Garnier and daughter Polly rushing about in the general panic, as the earth is destroyed by the Vogons.

I guess it doesn't automatically have to suck. Adams is credited as screenwriter, and I think many of the past problems have been over adapting a screenplay.

Still, I'm not holding my breath. There's a fairly good chance that this will be the middle of a trio of books I loved ruined by movies: Starship Troopers, Hitchhiker's, & Ender's Game.

But maybe I'll get lucky and be wrong.