Hitting stands right about now is the May issue of Wired Magazine featuring George Lucas on the cover. Inside, yours truly has a one-pager all about the upcoming April 29th release of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Movie.
The piece, which addresses how fans of the book are “panicking” that the movie won’t live up to Douglas Adams’ literary vision breaks down what’s changed and what’s remained the same between the book and the movie.
For me, it was a pretty great opportunity to interview the Director — Garth Jennings. Garth, whose previous work involved directing short films and commercials through his company Hammer & Tongs, got the Hitchhiker’s script and let it sit on his desk for two weeks before reading it. He had said that he was worried that there was no way it could live up to the original writings of Adams. But of course, since Adams wrote the screenplay himself, there was less danger of that.
Die-hard fans are going to be frustrated at some of the changes in the movie, like a romance that was never there, and characters created just for the flick — but in reality, these were all done by Adams, and as the Producer Robbie Stamp and Director Garth Jennings say (which could be true or not true) — none of the changes were motivated by the studio (Walt Disney Pictures).
In the end, what I’ve seen of the movie is visually stunning, comically realized, and when you check out this month’s Wired Magazine you’ll see just how it all breaks down.