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Post by Ashe Raven on Jun 9, 2005 12:42:24 GMT
*Sighs*
If you actually read up on the film , Douglas Adams wrote it before he died, so everything in it and left out was due largely to him and his estate.
We could have this debate for a long time, but I could give you a huge list of difference between the Radio Shows, the books, the LP< the TV series and the film. The reasons he did this was becasue he didnt want people thinking they knew the plot.
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amber14
Full Member
Welsh Bunny
Posts: 72
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Post by amber14 on Jun 9, 2005 15:16:41 GMT
But he is human after all. We should give these people a break. They're just doing their job. If I made mistakes like that in my job I'd get the bloody sack! Speilberg should be shot for doing a nutsty version like he has, there is no way anyone should be allowed to make a modern version and as for Tim...just bad luck on the whole. I still want his version though. I'm just pleased I can read the book after all.
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Post by RustiSwordz on Jun 9, 2005 16:01:51 GMT
*Sighs* If you actually read up on the film , Douglas Adams wrote it before he died, so everything in it and left out was due largely to him and his estate. We could have this debate for a long time, but I could give you a huge list of difference between the Radio Shows, the books, the LP< the TV series and the film. The reasons he did this was becasue he didnt want people thinking they knew the plot. well in that case i thought it was a big FU to the fans...
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Post by theredweed on Jun 9, 2005 16:17:15 GMT
I have to admit I was peed off that The SS project had the rights to make a WOTW movie and decided to set it in the present. I thought he would have had some setimentality about him. I would have been happier if SS would have do the novel version and TH would have done the 2005 version, but hey nowts gonna change so.
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Post by Lensman on Jun 9, 2005 19:57:21 GMT
*Sighs* If you actually read up on the film , Douglas Adams wrote it before he died, so everything in it and left out was due largely to him and his estate. We could have this debate for a long time, but I could give you a huge list of difference between the Radio Shows, the books, the LP< the TV series and the film. The reasons he did this was becasue he didnt want people thinking they knew the plot. I simply cannot believe that Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay for that movie which pretends to be a version of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Adams wrote an absurdist satire of science fiction cliches in which there is no reason or order to the universe. It's impossible to believe he would have bastardized his own concept by turning it into a heroic adventure where True Love wins in the end. Adams may have written a screenplay, but I'll bet the third act (at least)was given major changes before filming. I've read the books and seen the BBC mini-series. Certainly there are differences, but not major ones, and the BBC production is true to the spirit of the books-- which the movie most certainly is not. The BBC serial is available on video, cleverly uses low-budget FX and simple but effective computer animation, and is light-years better than the travesty of a movie.
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ClaytonForrester
Full Member
This kind of defense is useless against THAT kind of power!
Posts: 112
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Post by ClaytonForrester on Jun 10, 2005 5:59:56 GMT
If these guys were doing their job,they'd have me wanting to see their movie;but so far the only thing they have done is make me cringe in anticipation of their lack of sincerity to the source material and it's creator.
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Post by Ashe Raven on Jun 10, 2005 8:13:57 GMT
Sorry to get of topic again, buth the books came after the Radio series, not the other way round, sounds odd I know. Bu Also Adams was very aware of cutrual differences and the need for epic ideas in different types of media, as he reflected so well in his writings. HGTG was about how different cultures couldnt realistcally work together whilst they continued to have a sense of self importance about them.
Yes, perhaps it was a snubb to the so called hardcore, but as you may have noticed on this very forum, you can never make a hardcore fan of anything truly happy. I've come to accept the medocre, not like like it, but the less I complain about it, the more I find the time to actaully get out and do something else with my life.
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Post by tinckelly on Jun 10, 2005 9:41:44 GMT
I know what you mean Lensman. I thought the same when I saw it the new film. But if you've listened to the final two parts on the radio recently (Quandary and Quintessential Phases), which were written by Adams, there is heaps of sentimentality very akin to what ends up in the film. There's also the sound of the whole enterprise being drawn VERY thin...
But life-long HHGTG fan that I am. I still quite enjoyed the film for other reasons. Very nice visual sense, and the directors really picked up the ball and ran with the whole Vogon beurocracy thing. Though I found Martin Freeman irritating, and not sympathetic, unlike the great Simon Jones.
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Post by mctoddridesagain on Jun 10, 2005 10:07:40 GMT
Lensman, I agree about the TV series, cheap but cheerfully done, and superbly acted. I always tell people that coinsidering the radio origins of the H2G2, if they can't stand the cheapness of the TV version, play it through your stereo and turn the TV off. BTW, the computer graphics on the show (which are still superb) were good old-fashioned hand-drawn cel animation!
Tinckelly, I agree about the way Adams changed H2G2 as the years rolled on. I can quite believe that he did write the love element into the movie screenplay.
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Post by tinckelly on Jun 10, 2005 10:34:21 GMT
I still LOVE the cell animated guide from the TV show. They was a triumph, and I didn't think the guide graphics from the new film were a patch on them. The new ones were sweet and clever, to be sure, but just slightly too flippant and slight to stick in the mind properly.
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Post by Ashe Raven on Jun 10, 2005 11:45:04 GMT
I found the TV series rather bland compared to the radio show, in which Ford is just perfect, and the TV version of Trillian was just dire compred to Susan Sheridon's radio version.
Didnt stop me from enjoying it though, but the Radio show will always remain my favourite
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Post by mctoddridesagain on Jun 10, 2005 12:41:57 GMT
Much as I enjoy the TV show, I do agree that, on the whole, the radio series is superior. However, ignoring the 'look' of the TV series, there are elements of the TV script and/or performances that improve upon the radio show, such as:
Prosser's confrontation with Arthur - it always made more sense to me for Ford to bamboozle Prosser (TV), rather than Arthur (on the radio).
I preferred Martin Benson's TV Jeltz to Bill Wallis's radio version; Benson brings a gruff Northern authority to the Vogon captain, whereas I always feel Wallis is too peevish.
The Dish of the Day.
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Post by Mr Kellogs on Jun 10, 2005 13:09:57 GMT
oooh, you can almost smell the swastikas
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Post by Mr Kellogs on Jun 10, 2005 13:11:26 GMT
well, he did. your god is flawed. deal with it.
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Post by Ashe Raven on Jun 10, 2005 13:39:52 GMT
Even the masters make disasters
*hey that rymes*
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Post by lanceradvanced on Jun 15, 2005 3:11:35 GMT
Even in Victorian times Mortlake was a town. A suburban town. This isn't from the book. Its from the 1953 film. Just shows how much they do their research. I think it shows more, of where Pendragon could afford to shoot... i.e. the farm... down the road from the place they got their riders -on the spur of the moment
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alabaster
Full Member
Watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's...
Posts: 112
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Post by alabaster on Jun 15, 2005 7:00:57 GMT
A few things:
1. I have stated my opinions on the adaptation of War of the Worlds many times, and no matter how often I get shot down I still feel that a carbon copy of the book will always be a bad idea. War of the Worlds is not a Victorian novel; it is a work of contemporary futurist speculative fiction that happened to have been written in 1898. To make it a period piece would be to annul one of the principal reasons Wells wrote it. He WANTED it set in the near future; that's why he went as far as citing the latest scientific discoveries and most up-to-date news in his prologue- to make it as real and as meaningful, and thus as frightening, to his contemporary audience as possible.
2. As far as H2G2 goes, citing the complaints of MJ Simpson, a man who singlehandedly alienated Adams's entire fanbase by saying "The trolls are right," in a thread on IMDB (the equivalent in stupidity of giving a Nazi SS squad the keys to your house and maps to any dissidents you may have in your basement) as "proof of argument" is just ludicrous. The film may have been bad, but trolls are NEVER right. Much of his complaints had little to do with the overall quality of the movie and were really just nitpicking. Eventually, realising what happens when you unleash a storm on the web and aren't prepared for the consequences, he shut down his site in a huff and, after deleting any comments in his guestbook that happened to disagree with his point of view, disappeared, saying he will never discuss Adams again. Given the fact that Adams gave him a noteriety and respect he never would otherwise have had, this was a profoundly egoistic decision to make. I'd like to see how many panel shows he gets invited to now.
Douglas Adams was not infallible; he wrote some bad material later in his life- look at Mostly Harmless- and I can fully believe he is responsible for the mess that the movie became. Does that diminish my respect for him? Not really; he was never really that into writing anyway, and I think by the end of his life he just didn't have the patience anymore.
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