To update a previous post, in Hitchhiker’s casting news Ford Prefect is to be played by… Mos Def. Quite how the Brooklyn-born rap star will be mangled into the role of eccentric ale-supping Englishman/alien from Guildford/Betelgeuse is open to conjecture and violent argument.
I recall the TV-series Ford – David Dixon – actually looked quite extraterrestrial which helped immensely.
Slightly less controversially Marvin will be physically animated by Warwick Davies. You may remember him from such roles as Wicket the Ewok and fantasy’s greatest shorty* Willow. Surely though the impact of his acutely depressive character will be nullified by the squeaky voice? Or perhaps the producers don’t want to bring the audience down and will rework Marvin into a hilarious comedy sidekick.
In fact I wonder if the whole thing will be an embarrassing and upsetting failure.
* though not in the hiphop sense.
30-Mar-04 at 10:54 am | Permalink
At best, this could be a faithful but slicker remake, which sucks the personality out of the original – c.f. Psycho. Because I’ve heard it argued that the special effects were shoddy in the original. Give a shit?! They might have horribly mis-cast the new Doctor Who, but at least they haven’t given it to Eddie Murphy. Dose crazy Yanks. They took the appendix eating scene out of Men Behaving Badly. They took Basil Fawlty out of Fawlty Towers. As for Zaphod: casting a funny-faced brown (rather than Sam Rockwell) in an Alan Clarke meets Fonzie role is about as appropriate as casting John Malkovich to play Prince George in Blackadder. In other news, I’m off to see the Furries tonight.