Androids and aliens

Director, robot-star of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy describe film

By KEVIN GARCIA

The Brownsville Herald

April 29, 2005 In the corner, the robots head swung up sharply, but then wobbled about imperceptibly. It pulled itself to its feet as if it was about 56 pounds heavier than the 77-pound actor inside the suit was used to.

Warwick Davis practiced for weeks to convincingly play paranoid android Marvin in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a film released today based on the wholly remarkable book by Douglas Adams.

The weight made it difficult for Davis to move, but he said the lethargic character would prefer it that way.

Being in a room and not being able to move would probably suit him better, Davis said.

The story revolves around a hapless human who survives the destruction of earth thanks to a group of strange spacefarers including the robot with the flat-topped triangular eyes.

His depression is caused by the fact that he is so clever and he knows the answer to everything and hes not surprised by anything, Davis said. Hes also depressed to be this lovely shape and being so pleasing to people.

Director Garth Jennings is proud of the satiric comedy.

I knew it would be big but it was colossal, the London-based director said.

To tell the story of the book it is best to tell of its history. Adams wrote the Guide as a BBC radio series in 1978, re-wrote it as a novel in 1979, again as a TV series in 1980 and once more as a video game in 1984. Each version added new situations and removed others. Adams died in 2001 while working on the theatrical script.

The Hitchhikers is always changing and Douglas would always invent new stuff for each medium, Jennings said. With all of these amazing ideas it becomes almost impossible to decide what you should keep.

Over the next 20 years Adams wrote four more Guide novels and worked towards a theatrical release.

One thing all of us die-hard fans knew was that Douglas spent most of his life trying to get this off the ground, Jennings said. It may not be word for word what was in the radio series or what was in the books, but this is genuine hitchhikers and it obeys all the rules.

The droll droid was one element that could not be removed, Jennings said.

Marvin is one of my favorite characters and was actually one of the first things I designed, he explained.

Its this idea of a robot with a brain the size of a planet that kind of ways him down, Jennings said. Hes probably the most human character in the film; hes kind of the antidote to the whole jolly madness. I find him incredibly endearing.

Davis, whose character will be voiced by Alan Rickman, enjoyed working on the film.

Its a very different type of film, but at the same time its refreshing I think, Davis said.

Adams added many new elements to the script, including a planet that has all of these wonderful paddles that hit you if you ever have an idea, according to Jennings, as well as Humma Kavula, a new character played by John Malkovich.

Hes the leader of a religion that believes that the whole universe was sneezed out of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure, Jennings said.

As strange as these concepts might seem, Jennings said their meanings are universal.

He was such a funny writer and it was always such a surreal spin on real life that we could always recognize that the Vogons (an alien race of bureaucrats) were characters from the world around us, he said.

Davis was proud to be part of the strange trip.

I was (a fan), just from the television series, the BBC series that I used to watch as a little boy, he said, adding that he didnt know hed be in the film version. I just sort of fell into it.

The 3-foot, 6-inch actor best known for roles in Willow, Return of the Jedi and Leprechaun had been asked by producers to represent of Willow Personal Management, a talent agency for short actors. Before Davis could suggest an actor to play Marvin, producers offered it to him.

It took a lot more work than I thought it would, he said, adding producers let him ad lib lines from previous Guide versions. Some of those lines are in the movie (voiced by Rickman), things that I felt were appropriate, and someone who really recognizes the radio play will recognize it.

Davis was most worried about how die-hard fans would react to the films changes.

Fans of the series are cautiously optimistic, explained MJ Simpson, author of The Unofficial Guide to the Hitchhikers Guide and Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, which has a new edition coming out this summer.

Simpson worked on production notes and press kits for the film, and initially spoke highly of it.

There is one scene where it was decided, at the last minute, that it would work better if (the character) Zaphod was eating a bowl of breakfast cereal, Simpson said. So they (producers) rang me and I was able to tell them that there is in fact a reference to cereal in the story and although the brand is not named, there is a packet seen in the 1981 TV series. So I checked the DVD and the cereal there was called Star-bix, and thats what got used. Its a little inside joke for the fans even assuming that you can read it on screen but I think it demonstrates the attention to detail in the film.

That was before Simpson saw the film. Upset by the changes made, Simpson wrote a lengthy article on his Web site PlanetMagrathea.com denouncing the work and describing in detail every line not included from previous versions.

Other fans and critics who saw the film disagreed, saying that Simpson was just upset he didnt make the film himself. In response, Simpson announced he would never write about the Guide again.

Daring to say that it has gone wrong has made me a pariah among the extreme fringes of Hitchhikers Guide fandom, Simpson said by e-mail. Not the real fans, the ones who join the fan club and wear the T-shirt and chat about the books and the radio show over a pint of beer, but the unwashed teenagers in their parents basements who never see daylight and know that, though they may be bullied at school, on the internet they can be Big Men and give anyone at all a hard time about something ephemeral.

Davis said since most changes were made by Adams before he died, that most viewers should enjoy the film.

I hope that the fans realize that he (Adams) did this and it wasnt just tampering from the studio, he said. I think he (Adams) really saw it as a different medium and the script definitely felt right.

kgarica@brownsvilleherald.com