We’re pleased to confirm that the City of London, along with the rest of planet earth, was destroyed between 7am and 6pm on Saturday 17th July.”
The official Douglas Adams website is not often updated but it can be very informative sometimes. Yesterday, the guys who update douglasadams.com gave us a little report of one fascinating day of filming. The Movie’s second unit was at Moogate tube Station in London from 7am to 6pm, to film the destruction of earth! A group of former employees of The Digital Village (the former dotcom company founded by Douglas Adams and Robbie Stamp) was here with Douglas’ family (including his brother James).
Confirming what i’ve seen the day before in Elstree Studios, and told you in my own set visit report, the TDV guys report that “the production team was determined that everything had to be perfect and packed with detail – from familiare faces rushing for the not-so-safety of the Underground station, to posters in tea-shop windows and street signs.”
Of course, i’m really disappointed. I missed this bit of anthology though I was in London that day and spent the day before in the studios. But, well, we cant see everything.
If you want to read the whole report, it’s here!
A NEW MOVIE SET VISIT REPORT FROM MARTIN FREEMAN’S BROTHER
Jamie Freeman, who runs his brother’s official website, have already been on the set months ago. And around the 22th of july, Jamie was again on the movie set, this time in central London, at the Masonic Hall just off Covent Garden. “The scenes being shot were related to new character Humma Kavala, played by the inimitable John Malkovitch…This particular plot development, while not in the earlier books and series, is very interesting, and makes great play of the inner struggle that Zaphod faces – and just how far he will go to get what he wants, for that matter.”
And like everybody who has been on the set, Jamie was quite impressed by the attention to details : “But there are superb little references to HHGG lore everywhere; the entire production is completely steeped in it….. And there are tributes to Douglas Adams literally everywhere in this scene, if one knows where to look. It’s these sort of touches, which might mean nothing to lots of viewers, that are keeping the film grounded in his original vision and will give us (ie, the crazy ones) something to talk about for years to come. It’s simply not being diluted; it’s the real deal.”
Well, anyway you can read the full report here
PRODUCTION UPDATE FROM ROBBIE STAMP
An other website have been updated with info and it’s no less than the official blog. Executive producer, Robbie Stamp, wrote a production update. It is online now but it is apparently from the 28th july. He tells us about his emotion to see the movie coming alive. He also adds that, as we could guess from the douglasadams.com update, some members of douglas’ family will appear in the movie. His mother and sisters and brother and his daughter are all extras in the scene when earth learns of its impending destruction!
He remembers fondly the recording of Humma’s hymn, reason why this update is illustrated with a new picture from this special day.
We learn too that the movie staff is currently working in Elstree on the Vogon’ poetry scene!
And he announces aldready the next official blog’ updates : “Keep an eye on the photo gallery in the coming weeks – look out for news about an old friend and we may just be providing an insight into what the HHGG crew eats to keep its energy levels high, courtesy of Garth Jennings’ Mum”!!!
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THIS WEBSITE
I’ve launched this website ten months ago when the movie was greenlit by Disney. It grew a lot, and is now, I hope, a rather not too bad looking website. I know the weak points : this website is a lot smaller that my french douglas adams website, the design is rather poor, as my english. But i’m going to work a lot, as much as i can, to improve it.
This first ever h2g2 movie website begun its life with around a 50 visitors per day. It rose to 500, then 2000, and it already attracted more than 4000 visitors in one day. And without even one single picture of a naked girl!
I think that the excitement around the movie will grow a lot till summer 05. And I’d really love that this website is not going to explode when 2000 visitors try to connect at the same time. Last sunday, a few hours after I posted the movie trailer, this website was out of service. It’s easy to understand. I’m hosted freely by my Internet provider.
If I want to make a solid website, I will have to choose a professional web hoster. And of course it’s not free. I will have to spend about 150 euros per year just for that. And even if it’s not that expensive, I can’t afford to pay this amount of money for this website. I already spend a lot of time to run it. So for me, the problem is this one. If I dont find the money, my website will stay here, but will remain fragile OR I find some money and buy some webspace. To find some money, there are not one thousand ways. Pulicity and Donations. So I’ve decided to launch a “Support us” section. You can help me, if you wish and if you can, by clicking on the amazon.com banner and buying some stuff there, or by giving me a few quids thanks to Paypal.com. Of course, it’s not a matter of life and death, and you can decide to support Save the Rhino or The Dian Fossey Gorilla fund instead!
