Hitchhiker Keeps Trillian Smart
Zooey Deschanel, who co-stars as Trillian in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of Douglas Adams' SF book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that the film introduces a romantic relationship between Trillian and Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), among other changes. But Deschanel (Elf) added that Trillian loses none of the intelligence that marked her as the smartest character in the saga, aside perhaps from Marvin the Paranoid Android (Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman).
"Keeping her intellect intact was one of my main goals for the character," Deschanel said in an interview. "That's the main thing you get from her in the book, and the character is not very well developed in the book. It's sort of a very in-the-background character, and when Douglas was adapting the book [into a screenplay that would ultimately be co-written by Karey Kirkpatrick], that was one of his goals, to make the character of Trillian a little bit more fleshed out."
Deschanel added: "Keeping her intellect as strong as it was in the book and the radio series was important to me. It's played incredibly differently in the TV series. She's very funny, but she's a blonde. She's wearing a leotard. It's played a little bit more kind of ditzy. She's got tons of makeup. It was more like a Marilyn Monroe, but '80s [style], with crimped hair and stuff. But, it was important to me, because I think her attractiveness comes from her intellect. And you also see how different she is [from] Zaphod [Sam Rockwell]. Somehow he's attracted to her, and she's attracted to him [before the Trillian-Arthur sparks fly], but they're complete opposites." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens nationwide on April 29.
Jennings Guides Hitchhiker In-Jokes
Garth Jennings, director of the upcoming film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that fans of late author Douglas Adams' original book and other versions of the story should be on the lookout for in-jokes and homages. For example, Simon Jones, who played the main character, Arthur Dent, in the British television series, can be seen and heard briefly as a Magrathean announcer. "Simon Jones was just great as Arthur Dent, and we needed a face and voice for that sequence," Jennings said in an interview. "We actually shot it in 3-D, so if you wear red and green glasses, he actually jumps out. I haven't really told the studio that I did that. I thought it'd be more fun if we just did it. No one really knows. But I just couldn't resist doing it."
Jennings added: "The original Marvin robot that was used in the TV series, we managed to track down at the BBC studios. It was all in pieces, like this dismembered body. It was really grim. And they got him out and polished him up and made all his lights work and everything, and it was great. We put him on set in the queuing group, where Arthur [Martin Freeman] is queuing up to save Trillian [Zooey Deschanel]. He's just in there, volunteering up, and Arthur looks at him. He was quite an icon when I was growing up, that Marvin robot. He even had a record on the charts. He was a smash hit when you were a kid."
And there's more, Jennings said. Images of Douglas Adams are scattered throughout the movie. "He had cyberscanned his head for a computer game," Jennings said. "We had access to his data, so when we built the Temple of Deep Thought, which is this giant nose and nostrils, etc., it's actually Douglas' nose, perfectly rebuilt 30 feet [high]. Not that anyone is going to go, 'Hey, that's Douglas' nose,' but it just felt like quite a fun thing to do. And then one of the planets, as they're flying through the planet factory, is Douglas' whole head that just is this giant planet. It's quite lovely."
Jennings added: "At the end, the final improbability effect is Douglas' face. It disappears and says 'For Douglas.' His mom and family are in it. His mom is the old lady reading the newspapers who couldn't really care less as the Earth is being destroyed, and she's in it again at the end. Douglas' daughter and sister and everybody are around the table. There are tons of things crammed in there. Basically if we needed a prop or a name for something we just used the original material as a reference." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens nationwide on April 29.
