Movie News from Robbie Stamp
Created | Updated Jul 14, 2003
So will there be a film version of Hitchhiker's? The Editorial team put the question below to man in the know, Robbie Stamp.
What are the latest developments with regard to the movie and is it going to be something Douglas would be proud of?
I have been involved with the movie now for getting on for seven years, but as many people will know, the saga of the Hitchhiker movie goes back almost 20.
Douglas had so wanted there to be a movie and it required some careful thought before the Estate and I decided that we should press ahead and see if we could still get it made, despite Douglas' tragic death. The team at Spyglass had always been supporters and Jay Roach, although he in the end decided that he would not direct the movie, found Karey Kirkpatrick and Karey working with material that the Estate had made available from Douglas' hard drive, wrote a new draft. It is early to say but I have been very heartened by everybody's determination to make this a movie that Douglas would have been proud of. The irony is that the Directing and Producing team, Hammer and Tongs, work from a houseboat, ten minutes down the canal from Douglas' house in Islington, so in many ways Hitchhikers has come home. I think we now have the best of both worlds; real Hollywood support with all the power that brings and yet a team responsible for the 'vision' who are firmly rooted here. Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith are a very talented pair and I have been very reassured by just how determined they are to allow the wit and intelligence and humour in the books to breathe.
The project most definitely has the blessing of Jane, Douglas' wife and I know that Garth and Nick and the team at Spyglass are very keen to keep the community at h2g2 in particular informed at key stages in the process.