Expedition 42 ISS Crew Embraces Douglas Adams 39
SchrodingerZ writes: In November of this year, the 42nd Expedition to the International Space Station will launch, and the crew has decided to embrace their infamous number. NASA has released an image of the crew mimicking the movie poster for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a film released in 2005, based on a book with the same name by Douglas Adams. Commander Butch Wilmore stands in the center as protagonist Arthur Dent, flight engineer Elena Serova as hitchhiker Ford Prefect, flight engineer Alexander Samokutyayev as antagonist Humma Kavula, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti as Trillian, and flight engineers Terry Virts and Anton Shkaplerov as two-headed galactic president Zaphod Beeblebrox. The robotic "Robonaut 2" also stands in the picture as Marvin the depressed android. Cristoforetti, ecstatic to be part of this mission stated, "Enjoy, don't panic and always know where your towel is!" Wilmore, Serova and Samokutyayev blasted off September 25th for Expedition 41, the rest of Expedition 42 will launch November 23rd.
Re:Ugh that awful disney movie (Score:5, Funny)
" based on a book with the same name" (Score:1)
Geek culture is dead.
The film sucked; the miniseries before it was grea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The film sucked; the miniseries before it was g (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The film sucked; the miniseries before it was g (Score:5, Funny)
That was really the best version, in my opinion.
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Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The film sucked; the miniseries before it was g (Score:5, Informative)
Each medium was made with the author
Except for the movie [douglasadams.eu]. They had to wait for Adams to die so he would no longer be able to stop them from mutilating it.
Some fun quotes from various points it the movie's development:
Reitman thinking that forty two is NOT a good answer, and that instead the movie needs a big finish, Douglas understands that he is trapped.
"It's the worst script I've ever read. Unfortunately, it has my name on it... whereas I did not contribute a single comma to it.... I'm appalled to think how much harm that script have done my reputation over the years."
And after Adams died:
Jay Roach has hired Karey Kirkpatrick, the guy who wrote or re-wrote the screenplays of "Chicken Run", "James and the Giant Peach" and "The Little Vampire" to rewrite douglas adams draft.
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Each mediam was made with the author who was well aware that they are different mediums, so the stories were adapted to each medium.
Bah! You are all wrong! For the REAL die-hard fan, get a hold of the radio scripts [google.ca]. They add a lot of commentary on how different things came about, how he was busy scribbling details right until air time, how he grabbed the janitor at the last second to play a part he just added in. The commentary is almost as funny as the script itself.
It describes how, at the end of one episode, he threw our heros out of a space lock and had the floating in open space with seconds to live.
He then goes on the disc
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My first exposure to HHTG was around 1980. It was available on this thing we had back then called "radio", which was kind of like wireless multicast audio streaming, only with a very limited selection of content streams.
Here's the thing: a film is never going to compete with whatever you imagined reading the book or listening to the "radio" plays. At best it can show you what you've already imagined. And when you see what you've imagined it's getting a pleasant hit of external validation. Why else would a
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Yes, but that's not the whole story (sorry about the pun).
Douglas Adams once said that every new medium he adapts to is a rewrite for him. He, quite deliberately, did not repeat the same story in a different medium, but rather wrote a new story loosely based on the same plot and characters.
Some of the differences between the movie and other adaptations were clearly not a dictation of the medium, but rather an artistic decision. Two random examples: in other portrayals Zaphod's heads were side by side and th
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The film did its level best to condense a really great book into 90 minutes. The actors were genuine, they really got into it and they took some of the themes and made them poignant yet not overly so.
While it will never be among the worlds best movies, it really did better than I have ever seen trying to take a book like HGTTG and give it cinematic life.
And their use of actual costumes ( created by the late Jim Hensen's company ) was so MUCH better than CGI. All in all it was a good film.
Who the hell is Humma Kavula? (Score:3)
Re:Who the hell is Humma Kavula? (Score:4, Informative)
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Plus the character gave off a distinct "Elton John" air (or is it just me?)
Shachar
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The character's look gives me a Christopher Llyod vibe.
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As a huge fan of the books, I have to ask- what movie?
Oblig. (Score:1)
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"and in the end they grumpily announced that such a machine was virtually impossible.
Then, one day, a student who had been left to sweep up the lab after a particularly unsuccessful party found himself reasoning this way: If, he thought to himself, such a machine is a virtual impossibility, then it must logically be a finite improbability. So all I have to do in order to make one, is to work out exactly how improbable it is, feed that figure into the finit
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (Score:4, Interesting)
Is represented by...?
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Is represented by...?
Microsoft of course.
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No, it's Apple. When it comes to marketing they are the king....and the first against the wall when the revolution comes :)
OK kill this article NOW (Score:2)
anything that references that Disney movie and not the BBC version must die a horrible death.
Towels (Score:1)
Supplying each ISS astronaut with a towel would be a nice touch, not too late to arrange this if any NASA types are reading Slashdot.
Let them have their fun (Score:3)
You can't blame them for having their fun when the number "42" came up. And you don't have to have liked the movie to acknowledge the photo shoot as a testament to Douglas Adam's creative genius.
Though I'd like to see a journalist interview them to see how many of them actually know where their towel is.
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I thought it was brilliant as well! Although, the slashdot link to the poster they're mimicking is incorrect, it's this one: http://moviesinn.net/wp-conten... [moviesinn.net]
Besides, all the haters are missing a very important point - they even fixed Zaphod's second head, putting it where it belongs!
(But seriously folks, lighten up... it's a bit of fun. Sheesh.)
Original Radio series (Score:2)
Wonderful fun at the time. The characters were recognizably like us. It had great music. The science was logically correct though largely imaginary, the shoe event horizon has for example not moved in social science from a theory to a measurable process. One of the main protagonist drinks tea, and the infinite improbability drive is driven by the random information from a realy hot cup of tea; one wonders how much tea Adams drank writing it. At the time it was completely unique, it had stereo sound and even
Quite Amusing (Score:1)
And working at a contractor for NASA just outside the JSC, I'll see a few of these posters show up. And try to creatively snag a few of them.
"A film released in 2005" (Score:1)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a film released in 2005...
...and Slashdot falls another notch in EVERY SINGLE *SUBSCRIBERS* OPINION. This is basic shit, relating to the actual audience you're targeting and having a fucking clue what you're talking about.