Here is what it has to say on the subject of movie trailers:

[barrington]

The third trailer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy features the Guide's entry for movie trailers, voiced by Stephen Fry, and containing a number of things not previously seen or heard, including Alan Rickman providing the voice of Marvin.

I still say Zaphod's "second head" (featured briefly, accompanied by silly cartoon sound effect, in both full trailers) is very, very stupid. I mean, forget adapting book or television to film, forget dramatic license...it just makes little to no sense, at least in its current context, to bother having a man with two heads if this is how you implement it. Why not just have him with one head? I'll reserve final judgement until I've seen the film, but... Ah well. At least he's played by Sam Rockwell.

Comments

[p-cat.livejournal.com]

punctured_lung showed me one of the previews and I had to leave the room. They cast Americans! There is no good reason to cast Americans! _Ford Prefect_ with an American accent! Did they ever even release the Ford Prefect in America? And Trillian! American!

I haven't seen Zaphod's second head and, after your assessment, I daren't.

[spunkart.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think Trillian works well as an American.

[barrington.livejournal.com]

She wasn't so bad in the TV series, though Douglas Adams seemed to regret having Sandra Dickinson use her own accent when interviewed about it 20 years later...

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

You reckon? She always came across as a bit bimbo-ish to me. I always pictured her as a more worldly brunette. Not to mention with a voice a leetle closer to the radio portrayal.

[franno.livejournal.com]

I agree that Zaphod's second head it bloody stupid!!!

[sad-fountain.livejournal.com]

On a positive note, Stephen Fry as the voice of The Guide and Rickman as Marvin's voice were inspired casting decisions. I must admit I was a little put off at first by Mos Def as Ford, but he's actually a damn fine actor and I think he'll do a good job. This is coming from a girl with a mad crush on David Dixon. And I agree with you, Benny, I love the idea of Sam Rockwell as Zaphod, though the second head is lame.

[barrington.livejournal.com]

I think Mos will be cool. I think him being American is somewhat...well, it's not really important, I mean the man's from Betelguese and just behaves like an Englishman. I think he's cool, and I'll be happy as long as he's good and the performance keeps the true joy of Ford, which to my mind is that he just doesn't care about the Universe (and certainly not Earth) nearly as much as he does having a good time (really brough home by Geoffrey McGivern's triumphant return to the role in the recent third radio series).

I think it's within Mos's range to pull off odd, selfish and blase.

It's All Just Talking-- Isn't It?

[sad-fountain.livejournal.com]

I guess my apology for Ford having an American accent in this particular version of the film is that Ford is posing as an out-of-work actor. In the minimal research that yielded the name "Ford Prefect" he might have watched a few Earth movies as well, just to get an idea about Earth actors. Seeing as how the vast majority of popular films produced on a large scale have tons of Americans in them, perhaps that's why Ford assumed an American accent. Or maybe they all sound like that around Betelgeuse, which explains Zaphod's accent as well.

I never claimed it was a good explanation, just an explanation. Anyway, a good movie is a good movie, all accents aside. ;)

Re: It's All Just Talking-- Isn't It?

[barrington.livejournal.com]

...that's genius. After all, what's he going to be looking at? Transmissions, which will be overwhelmingly in American accents (well, okay, they're probably overwhelmingly in Indian and Chinese languages really, but it depends what he's looking for).

[shnetti.livejournal.com]

Ant showed me one of the trailers the other week. Unbeknownst to me he was watching me watching it the entire time, because when it finished and after two or three seconds I just said, "Hmmm...", he immediately said, "I KNEW you were going to do that!"

As Mr Horse would say, "No sir, I don't like it."

Arthur seems about acceptable. A black Ford Prefect isn't acceptable (no crush on DD here, but he IS Ford). Zaphod didn't grab me, nor did Trillian. The Vogons I could cope with. Marvin absolutely horrified me (haven't heard him speak yet -- Rickman might help that cause).

I don't even know if I'm going to get as far as reserving judgement on this one...

[morganjaffit.livejournal.com]

I've heard lots of people complain about Marvin. I tend to think they're missing the point - and excuse me here if I go off on the wrong assumptions.

He's SUPPOSED to be cute. That's the entire point of the gag. He's your plastic pal who's fun to be with! Doesn't he *look* much more that way now? Add in the voice of Rickman and you get the ideal (and intended) cognitive dissonance. This Marvin is THE Marvin, if you ask me - far, far, more accurate than any other portrayal, ever.

But you know, horses for courses.

[sad-fountain.livejournal.com]

Good point!

[bas-nylon.livejournal.com]

I don't know if any film version would ever top the book or radio play, it's that iconic. And everyone has different ideas on how the characters would play on screen. I think I will reserve my judgment until I see the film, though I don't know if I like the idea of English characters having American accents...