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22 July 2004 : THE VOGON ANNOTATED VERSION OF the “ Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy ” movie visit set report
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| On Friday 16th of July, I was very lucky to visit the h2g2 movie set. |
| --- WELL, WE'RE STILL WAITING TO BE OFFICIALLY INVITED BY THIS DAMN PRODUCTION (....) |
| The Great Day began with a brutal wake up at 5:30 am to catch the coach to London, then once in the coach station I saw that I misunderstood the departure time, and had to wait an hour for the next one in the cold British summer morning weather! |
| --- OH, POOR GUY! AND NOW HE'S GOING TO COMPLAIN!! |
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I finally arrived in London at 10:20, forty minutes late. I had to meet Jenz (webmaster of douglasadams.se) and Nick Webb (Douglas’ official biographer and friend) somewhere in Islington. Glad they didn’t kick me! WHY? COULD HAVE BEEN FUN! We had quite a busy day ahead. |
| CRYING OUT AGAIN! SOMEONE'S GOT A TEAT? |
| As soon as I arrived at our meeting point (I recognized Nick but not Jenz, and they had some difficulties to spot a French man amongst the morning London crowd), we took Nick’s car and drove off to Elstree. |
| HUMAN BEIGNS ARE ALL UGLY, AREN'T THEY? |
| We found the Mostly Harmless production office without too much difficulty |
| MMHH, FIRST DOOR TO THE LEFT?. |
| I was very moved when I saw Mostly Harmless and Hitchhiker’s To The Galaxy’ signs at the entry of the building and on the doors (with the names of the technical and production staff). |
| HE'S SO EMOTIVE, COULD WHINE EACH TIME HE SEES HIS OWN HEAD IN A MIRROR! |
| Robbie Stamp led us to his office to introduce us to the whole thing. We met Simon, a nice chap from an English university who lived in Devon and who was going to visit the set with us. |
| BLAH, BLAH, BLAH SORRY WE HAVE TO SHORTEN THIS NONSENSE A BIT... |
| Robbie is a friendly looking man who is indeed very friendly – rare enough to find. |
| OH, THIS BOTTI IS LOOKING FOR A JOB!! |
| He led us to the Treasure Room. You recognize this one because there is a sign on the door with “Don’t panic” written on it. Well we’re lucky, they could have put a “beware of the leopard” one! |
| OH, OH WHAT A BRIGHT JOKE! MUCH HAVE THOUGHT A LOT TO FIND THIS ONE |
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| Here, Robbie introduced us to the story thanks to a detailed and really nice storyboard pinned up on the wall. He gave us a lengthy presentation of the script, and my gosh, I have to say that fans are up for a big surprise. |
| WELL AS SOON AS WE ARE HAPPY WITH THE STUFF... |
| This version is really a new one, with a lot of new items, characters and events. |
| OH, OH, YOU'RE FRIGHTENING ME! |
| There is also a lot of stuff still there of course, but put in a different order and/or with some complementary unheard information |
| THEY CAN'T CHANGE THE WHOLE STORY WITHOUT FILLING THE FORMS! |
| The other good news is that 95% of it comes directly out of Douglas’ mind. YOU'RE REALLY FRIGHTENING ME! (...) Each time, Douglas has created a brand new version of the guide, and this time it won’t be any different. So this is very, very exciting. The movie will include an incredible amount of Douglas’ new stuff! Who could have imagined that!? |
| NOT US, FOR SURE! |
I’d like to add that the moviemakers have brought an incredible attention to each and every detail. I think it will be possible to see the film several times and still discover new subtle stuff. The DVD, including the making of, will be a very useful tool to have a full grasp of the film. |
| THE MOVIE IS STILL NOT IN THE THEATRES AND HE TRIES TO SELL US THE DVD! |
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As it was predicable, the character of Trillian, a weak point from all the previous versions of hitchhiker’s (excluding maybe the fifth book) has been expanded on a lot. She is now really one of the main characters, equal to Arthur, Ford, Zaphod and Marvin. |
| HEY, YOU FORGOT TO MENTION ME, PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTZ! I'M THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THIS STORY, DONT FORGET IT! |
When Robbie finished his half an hour presentation, we just applauded. |
| YES, HE'S DEFINITLY LOOKING FOR A JOB! |
| His presentation was great, and gave us a good insight of what the movie will be. |
| HEY, I WANT TO KNOW TOO ! |
| After that, Robbie showed us, still in the treasure room, on some tables, objects from the Vogon spaceship. |
| FILTHY THIEF! |
| There was also two real size Vogon heads |
| AND NO HUMAN BEINGS PRIVATE PARTS? WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! WELL, WE'VE GOT SOME HUMAN HEADS PINNED ON OUR WALLS AND WE'DONT MAKE A MESS ABOUT IT! (...) |
| This was really impressive and this is definitely the place where all the fans would dream to be right now. |
| OH, AND VOGONS TOO! IT WOULD TAKE US LESS THAN ONE OF YOUR EARTH MINUTES TO DESTROY THE WHOLE PLACE |
After a full hour of total bewilderment |
| GLAD HE HAS NOT FAINTED! |
| Robbie led us for a tour in Elstree studios. We entered the Vogon Spaceship and saw the marvellous work made by the Henson team. The Vogons are simply incredible, fully detailed from their shoes to their facial hairs |
| HEY, YOU DONT LIKE FACIAL HAIRS? THEY'RE QUITE GLAMOUROUS. WE LOVE THAT OUR WOMEN HAVE PLEINTY OF THEM LIKE IN OUR PLAYVOGONS MAGAZINES! |
| Touching the face of the Captain Vogon is an extreme experience I won't forget, should I live to be 199 years old! |
| OH YES, TRY THAT ONCE AGAIN WITH A REAL VOGON YOU COWARD! |
| Henson also made other things including a really amazing Vogon throne (but I wont say more should you read some Vogon poetry). |
| YEAH THAT'S A GOOD IDEA INDEED BUT I DONT THINK YOU REALLY DESERVE IT! |
| At last we also saw the Magrathean spaceship used by Arthur and Slartibartfast to travel inside Magrathea... Back to Robbie’s office, we discussed about the movie and our first impressions (which were quite good as you have certainly already guessed). |
| OH YES WE GUESS A LOT! |
| But it was time to leave for Sheperton studios where the crew was filming some blue screen action. I must say that the journey to Sheperton in car was the worst thing of the day. The traffic was dense and it took us quite a while to get at our destination. |
| WANT TO TAKE A LIFT? I'M KIDDING! |
There, while waiting for Robbie, we stole some nice sandwiches |
| OH TYPICAL HUMAN BEING BEHAVIOUR (...) |
| When Robbie came, we went to see Nick Goldsmith, the head producer of Hammer & Tongs, who is really a charming person. Well, he kept telling me that my website was great, fantastic, and that was the first place he checked on the web when he wanted to get news about the movie |
| OH, THIS NICK THING IS LOOKING FOR A JOB TOO? WE NEED SOME COOKS SINCE WE GOT RID OF THIS DAMN DENTRASSI |
| So, how could I complain after such kind words! |
| SAD, IT'S A LONG TIME THAT YOU'VE NOT WHINED! (...) |
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Robbie and Nick then led us inside a big studio. I can’t say exactly what I saw of course, but the scene being shot featured all our heroes: Arthur, Zaphod, Trillian, Ford and Marvin (it was Warwick’s last day of shooting). In this scene, I can just say that they had to pretend they were cold. It was a hard task, because under a very strong light we were all sweating and we had just t-shirts on. So I just can imagine how the actors suffered in their heavy clothes, and Warwick in Marvin’s suite! They all had quite a hard time, so when they finished we were not very keen to disturb them. |
| DISTURB? HOW COULD YOU DISTURB SOMEONE? EVRYBODY LOVES YOUR WHINING. |
| It was already late, and some guys (including Kevin Davies who made the TV series’ guide entries and The Illustrated Guide) were waiting for us at Nick Webb’s place for some drinks… and afterwards an Indian meal in Islington, where maybe, years before, Douglas went with the same purpose than us: eating some good curry with friends. |
| WE DONT HAVE FRIENDS, SO WE NEVER EAT CURRY!... EH ITS ALREADY THE END! BUT THIS ABSOLUTE CRAP. DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT VOGONS BEING THE HEROES OF THIS MOVIE. WHAT THE HELL! AND YOULL COMPLAIN IF WE TRY TO DESTROY YOUR LITTLE INSIGNIFIANT PLANET!! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE SOME VOGON POETRY FIRST! |
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