Hyperspaced out

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', Douglas Adams' surreal odyssey through the stars, has finally made it to the big screen, four years after the author's death. Dave Calhoun rummages through the production notebook.

Apr 13 2005

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', Douglas Adams' surreal odyssey through the stars, has finally made it to the big screen, four years after the author's death, courtesy of two music-video-makers on a Hoxton barge. Dave Calhoun rummages through their production notebook.

It's a long way from Hollywood; and even further from the End of the Universe. Yet it was on a red canal barge in north London that music video directors Hammer & Tongs - aka Garth Jennings, 32, and Nick Goldsmith, 34 - hatched their plans to turn Douglas Adams' epic 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' stories into the movie that Adams himself was writing when he died in California four years ago, aged 49. It was an epic two-year journey for director Jennings and producer Goldsmith - a duo more used to rapid music video shoots for bands such as Blur, Supergrass, Beck and Travis. 'Spike Jonze was approached first,' explains Goldsmith, 'but he couldn't do it. Then he suggested us, completely without telling us. We were sitting on the boat and the draft of the script arrived by Fed Ex.'

'We spent eight months planning before we even got the go-ahead,' says Jennings. 'It was great. It's strange how much of that initial burst of energy defined the film. It was like an art school project - all hands on deck, a big mess, all our friends chipping in...'

The film united the talents of many of their friends from the worlds of design, film and music, as well as the actors Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Bill Nighy, John Malkovich and Zooey Deschanel.

Here (large image of notebook), Hammer & Tongs guide us through the planning of the film, complete with scrapped ideas (shooting in the snowy wastes of Iceland), bizarre visual references (Ian Paisley as an alien) and genius concepts (such as their solution to the problem of providing outlaw galaxy president Zaphod Beeblebrox with two heads).

1. The Hammer & Tongs barge
GJ [pictured with arms outstretched] It's funny, Douglas Adams' old house is only five minutes walk along the canal from our barge. Douglas tried for years to get his film made, moved his entire family out to America. Then, weirdly, when it got made, it was by two guys who live round the corner.

2. From Paisley to the Vogons
NG You can trace all our designs back through different references, different ideas... We found an eighteenth-century caricature by James Gillray, who did these grotesque political characters. It was very much along the lines of how the Vogons are: bureaucratic, political creatures. Ian Paisley was another reference point too...

GJ You try to design aliens and immediately you start to draw freaky things that could be from any sci-fi series or film. As soon as we went back to a different starting point, to these great swollen blokes, it worked much better.

3. Zaphod's two heads
GJ The idea of Zaphod's second head living in his neck originally came from Douglas. He thought that it wouldn't work having a twoheaded thing the whole time. Even if you have a trillion dollars, you'll be looking at a second head the whole time, thinking 'Oh it looks good there, it looks bad there...' Also, shooting it would be a pain in the arse. First and foremost, this is a comedy, not 'The Matrix'. It had to be funny.

NG This early test helped us get the film.When everyone saw it, they instantly got it. We called up a digital effects guru who we'd worked with before. We grabbed a studio space, shot it in half an hour and within a day he delivered us a little QuickTime movie of Garth with two heads!

4. The cast
GJ The cast was a weird thing for us. Although you cast for music videos and commercials, it's not the same. Our first thoughts were proved right, but we went round the houses. Martin Freeman [dressing-gown-clad earthling Arthur Dent] and Bill Nighy [planet designer Slartibartfast] were the first people we thought of when we read the script. Our casting director, Susie Figgis, spotted Mos Def [who plays Arthur's best friend Ford Prefect]. She saw him at the Royal Court, and she'd never heard of his music. Sam Rockwell first came to meet us for the part of Ford Prefect, but it was clear early on that he'd be wasted on that part and he became Zaphod. We wrote to Bill Nighy and never heard a thing. Then, one day Nick rings me up: he's heard Bill on the radio being asked what he was doing next and he said 'Oh, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" '. It was the first we'd heard of it!

5. Almost shooting in Iceland
GJ Shooting in Iceland is one of those things that we tried but failed to do. We were adamant that it looked amazing, and that when the characters get to the frozen planet, Magrathea, it had to look great. We'd already shot a music video for Bentley Rhythm Ace out on a lagoon there...

NG We're creatures of habit... But the problem with Iceland is that there are only certain times of year when it's going to be good; the weather is so unpredictable. In the end, doing it on a stage in Shepperton Studios was the best idea. It was over 90 degrees under all these blazing lights, but Martin Freeman [pictured with towel] had to stand there as if he was absolutely freezing! It was ridiculous!

6. Man meets Vogon
NG This diagram shows the communication that had to go on between all the different departments. Joel, our production designer, was building these sets that had to accommodate ten-foot high, six-foot wide Vogons. GJ In total, there were about 30 Vogons, of varying levels of sophistication.

NG Then, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, who were making the Vogons, had to liaise closely with Joel. Because everything was real and in-camera, Joel's sets had to hide puppeteers - in hollow tables, maybe, or by placing the Vogons on decks. These scale diagrams started off quite funny - that's Garth there - but they became essential.

7. Working with Shynola and other friends
GJ Shynola make the best music videos and we hired them to design the actual 'Guide'. ['The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' of the title is an electronic travel guide for which Ford Prefect is a contributor.] They're just amazing and we've known them for years. They made us books and books of different designs for the 'Guide' [one of which is pictured right]. It had to be universal, visually simple and funny. They invented this beautiful style.

NG Most people we brought on board had never done a movie before and so had to prove themselves - not to us, but to the people paying for the movie.

GJ What normally happens when a pop-video director or producer goes into movies is that you're given a whole bunch of new people to work with. All you ever hear are horror stories - whether it's the editor or the director of photography they've picked for you. But we were all so bloody keen, I think it won them over. The initial design and writing period was the best thing ever. We were working with Henson's and Shynola - and their studios are at either ends of our canal. We'd just pop down there on our bikes. The sun was shining, the Vogons were blossoming. It was brilliant!

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is released on April 28.

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