Taglines for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005):

• Don't Panic

• Don't leave Earth without it.

• The most astonishing adventure in the universe begins when the world ends.

• Everything you need to know about out there, is in here.

• The answers to what's out there are in here.

• Losing your planet isn't the end of the world.

The Office Star Caught Hitchhiking
By Ethan Alter
Insider - [TV Guide Online]
May 3, 2005

"No, I'm not sick of talking about The Office," sighs Martin Freeman, who played the lovelorn Tim on the beloved British series. "I really do understand people's fascination with it. To do one of the most-talked-about shows in the last few years this early on in my career... that opportunity doesn't come along very often. It's definitely a thing to beat."

Freeman shouldn't be too concerned about equaling past triumphs. After all, he's currently starring in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which topped the box-office charts this past weekend in America, Australia and Freeman's home country, England.

Based on Douglas Adams' classic book, the movie casts the actor as Arthur Dent, one of the only human survivors left after Earth is destroyed to make room for a hyper-space bypass. The book's sizable fanbase has been waiting for the movie for more than two decades, and its members were more than a little concerned when Hollywood got involved. Freeman, for one, knows where they're coming from.

"I think America has always had a hard time taking British stuff undiluted," he says matter-of-factly. "We've always made, if I can say so myself, top-class comedy. Of course, we've also made some dreadful comedy. But the best stuff that I think could and should have worked in America hasn't, because I think America can be an insular place.

"In England, we've always [aired] American shows as they are," he continues. "So we know about Route 66, Hollywood and American accents. But that stuff isn't reciprocated. It's a shame that people here don't know what Yes, Minister or even what [the original] The Office is. I wish there was more two-way traffic.

"Instead, there's a long-standing tradition that America takes something it doesn't quite understand and changes it into something they do understand. I'm happy to report from my experience on the film that this didn't happen with Hitchhiker's. I would defy anyone to see it and think that not everyone had been cast right."

Speaking of English-to-American translations, how does Freeman feel about the remake of The Office that currently airs Tuesday nights at 9:30/ET on NBC? "I've only seen the pilot," he admits. "And I liked it. If I had come across it on the telly, I'd watch it again. It was very much like ours, only with American accents.

"In fact, it was so good and faithful, I kind of wondered who was going to get that who wasn't going to get the English one. My biggest fear was that they were going to make everyone beautiful, but [the actors] all looked normal. So hats off to them. I think they did it well. And I would say something if I didn't."

Next up for Freeman is a role in The Good Night, a film written and directed by Gwyneth's younger bro, Jake Paltrow. In the fall, he'll return to London's West End to tread the boards in an original play called Blue Eyes and Heels. But don't expect to see him working with his old Office boss Ricky Gervais anytime soon. "It would have to be specifically right, so it wouldn't jeopardize what has gone before. We wouldn't want to be teaming up just to push memory buttons. If I'm still talking about The Office in 10 years, I will know I have done something wrong!"

Actor catches the ride of his life in "Hitchhiker's Guide"
By Alona Wartofsky
Special to the Washington Post
April 28, 2005

NEW YORK — A few tidbits about British actor Martin Freeman, star of the new film opening Friday, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy":

He is a habitual nail-biter whose fingernails are gnawed perfectly straight across.

He and his girlfriend own a miniature longhaired dachshund named Archie.

He occasionally suffers from eczema.

This information might have been more interesting to some readers if Freeman resembled Brad Pitt or Jude Law or any other hunky Hollywood leading man. But Freeman isn't that kind of actor.

He first came to prominence in the British television comedy series "The Office," playing Tim Canterbury, a rumpled and slightly doughy underachiever stuck in the soul-crushing tedium of a paper-goods office. In "Hitchhiker," Freeman portrays another unglamorous guy: ordinary earthling Arthur Dent, who finds himself yanked into an extraordinary intergalactic adventure.

Freeman, 33, has played plenty of other roles, but Everyman characters seem to be his forte. "I'm a 30-odd-year-old white man from England, and I think everyone's got only so much range," he says. "And if you look like me — i.e., fairly average, if you're a fairly normal-looking person — you're not gonna get cast as James Bond."

Midway through a day of "Hitchhiker" interviews, Freeman is holed up in an upper-floor hotel suite. He's wearing jeans, a Levi's jacket over a polo shirt, and an exhausted-looking pair of Converse sneakers that were once white.

In the first minutes of "Hitchhiker," Arthur Dent wakes up with a massive yawn and bumps his head on the way to his kitchen, where he promptly burns his toast. He then looks out the window to see bulldozers converged around his house, which has been slated for demolition to make way for a new highway. A few minutes later, he finds himself in an alien spacecraft, and for the remainder of the film, Freeman's wardrobe consists of a fuzzy green bathrobe, two T-shirts, striped pajama pants and bedroom slippers.

The role of Dent presented other challenges as well. Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide" series has sold millions of copies around the world since the late 1970s, and the science-fiction books have attracted a certain kind of fervent fan. Expectations would be high.

"For some people this is going to be like sacrilege if it's perceived to have got it wrong," says Freeman. "But I couldn't go to work with that feeling, and I couldn't really go and do my job if I was paying too much mind to that. I just ... tried to play him in the best way I could."

That way was not merely impersonating Simon Jones, the veteran actor who played Dent in a 1981 British television version. Instead, Freeman focused on finding a balance between the story's comedy and tragedy. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, Earth is demolished to make way for an intergalactic expressway.

"Everything Arthur Dent ... has ever known or thought he knew has been destroyed — I mean, wiped. At the same time, you're acting in a comedy; you can only be so serious," says Freeman. "But I think it's got to matter. I think for the audience, it's got to matter that this man and us have just lost our planet in the first 10 minutes of the film."

Freeman remembers reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as a teenager, but he wasn't bowled over. "I was at an age when it either kind of hooked you in or it didn't, and it didn't," he says. "That wasn't really where I was at when I was 13."

Where was he at?

"George Orwell, I suppose. ... 'Animal Farm,' 'Homage to Catalonia.' I liked all his stuff. I read 'Animal Farm' when I was 11, and it remained my favorite book, really."

Freeman grew up in the London suburb of Teddington, the youngest of five siblings. As a child he suffered asthma attacks serious enough to require hospitalization. Still, he became an avid squash player in his teens.

He also developed a passion for far-left politics, but his interests soon shifted. By 18, he was involved in youth theater, he says, "so my focus was more on acting as opposed to bringing around bloody revolution."

He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and left early for a yearlong stint at the National Theatre. After that, he did stage and television work, and also dabbled in music, playing bongo drums in clubs and cafes.

Filming for "The Office," a highly regarded mock documentary, began in 2001. The understated comedy, which subtly captures the misery of having to work for and with stupid and unbearable people, became a surprise hit in the U.K. and gained a cult following here in the United States. (An American adaptation airs on NBC on Tuesday nights.)

"It's a funny thing, 'The Office,' because millions and millions and millions and millions of people didn't watch it," says Freeman. "But culturally, it is more of a phenomenon than almost anything else I can remember as far as British television is concerned."

Part of what made the original "Office" so compelling was the undiluted unpleasantness of its characters. "I think it had a bit more guts than other shows that have gone into that format," says Freeman. "It was more uncomfortable to watch than a lot of things on television are."

Perhaps the most sympathetic character on the show, Tim is smart enough to perceive the hideousness of his workplace, but he lacks the gumption to find a way out. He is, in effect, a likable loser.

Part of what made Tim so appealing was his long-held and seemingly hopeless infatuation with the office receptionist, Dawn (Lucy Davis). Their romance turned Tim into an unlikely heartthrob. "People talk about Tim and Dawn like one of the great love stories of our time," says Freeman.

The success of "The Office" has brought Freeman more scripts and more attention, but there's also a downside to playing such a beloved, indelible character. Not long ago, a British newspaper described Freeman's character in a historical miniseries about King Charles II as "Tim in a wig."

Since filming the first season of "The Office," Freeman appeared as a doofus B-boy in the movie "Ali G Indahouse" and portrayed yet another regular guy in the British ensemble comedy "Love Actually." In the latter, he played a stand-in for porn movies and performed virtually all his scenes nude.

"It's hard to be naked in front of 150 people. It's not in any way pleasant," he says. "As a man it gives you a kind of window of what quite a lot of jobs are like for quite a lot of women."

He still lives in London with his girlfriend, Amanda Abbington, who is an actress, and Archie the dachshund. Upcoming projects include a new play at London's Soho Theatre. He also plays a leading role in a comedy series, "The Robinsons," that will soon air on the BBC.

"I'm attracted to parts where people have to struggle a bit or parts where people are flawed or parts where people don't get their own way. It's just way more interesting. Because there's something to play against, something to overcome," says Freeman. "I can't imagine ever wanting to do a part where I lounge around on a yacht with a cocktail in my hand — unless something [expletive] horrible happens to me in the second scene."

Below is a link to the Google web site:

The final series of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy begins on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 3 May at 1830 BST.

The BBC collected three awards, including best online entertainment for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Adventure Game.

'Hitchhiker's Guide' takes $21.1M in debut
Associated Press
May 2, 2005

LOS ANGELES - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" caught a nice ride with movie-goers, who made it the No. 1 weekend choice at theaters with a $21.1 million debut.

Ice Cube's action thriller "XXX: State of the Union" opened weakly with $12.7 million, coming in third for the weekend.

The top 20 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. and Nielsen EDI Inc. are:

1. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Disney, $21,103,203, 3,133 locations, $6,736 average, $21,103,203, one week

2. "The Interpreter," Universal, $13,833,815, 2,764 locations, $5,005 average, $43,152,385, two weeks

3. "XXX: State of the Union," Sony, $12,712,272, 3,480 locations, $3,653 average, $12,712,272, one week

4. "The Amityville Horror," MGM, $7,862,157, 3,058 locations, $2,571 average, $54,816,999, three weeks

5. "Sahara," Paramount, $5,708,332, 3,112 locations, $1,834 average, $56,885,831, four weeks

6. "A Lot Like Love," Disney, $5,084,727, 2,502 locations, $2,032 average, $14,561,119, two weeks

7. "Fever Pitch," Fox, $3,532,813, 2,192 locations, $1,612 average, $36,317,491, four weeks

8. "Kung Fu Hustle," Sony Pictures Classic, $3,317,955, 2,440 locations, $1,360 average, $12,653,318, four weeks

9. "Robots," Fox, $2,269,605, 1,782 locations, $1,274 average, $123,300,061, eight weeks

10. "Guess Who," Sony, $2,151,446, 1,863 locations, $1,155 average, $65,434,348, six weeks

11. "Sin City," Dimension, $2,011,933, 1,665 locations, $1,208 average, $70,605,067, five weeks

12. "The Pacifier," Disney, $1,351,787, 1,224 locations, $1,104 average, $108,377,223, nine weeks

13. "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous," Warner Bros., $1,037,380, 1,108 locations, $936 average, $45,942,267, six weeks

14. "Beauty Shop," MGM, $901,489, 905 locations, $996 average, $35,426,139, five weeks

15. "King's Ransom," New Line, $831,925, 1,508 locations, $552 average, $3,499,259, two weeks

16. "Millions," Fox Searchlight, $600,918, 340 locations, $1,767 average, $4,615,070, eight weeks

17. "The Upside of Anger," New Line, $600,022, 816 locations, $735 average, $17,717,325, eight weeks

18. "Hitch," Sony, $447,498, 461 locations, $971 average, $177,207,898, 12 weeks

19. "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," Magnolia, $411,960, 49 locations, $8,407 average, $523,774, two weeks

20. "Ice Princess," Disney, $352,011, 458 locations, $769 average, $23,583,376, seven weeks

What happened to 'Hitchhiker's Guide'
A long, strange journey through the Hollywood universe
Associated Press
May 2, 2005

LONDON, England (AP) -- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has traveled light years in its voyage from airwaves to page to screen.

A film version of Douglas Adams' cerebrally comic science fiction saga has been a stop-start project for years, sparking anticipation and worry among millions of devoted fans. Adams was working on an oft-rewritten screenplay when he died of a heart attack in May 2001 at 49.

Now, at last, there's a film.

Are the fans happy? Not entirely.

"It's faithful, irreverent, fun, funny and in no way the disrespectful waste of celluloid Adams fans had secretly been dreading," said Scott Andrews on the FilmFocus Web site. But Adams' unofficial biographer, M.J. Simpson, called the film "an abomination" in a scathing 10,000-word review that was quickly beamed around the Internet world of "Hitchhiker" fans.

On the "Tomatometer" -- a compendium of critics' views on RottenTomatoes.com -- the film eked out a 62 percent favorable rating, a bare passing grade. However, "Hitchhiker" was the top film of the weekend, pulling in $21.7 million.

"You're aware of the expectations," said Martin Freeman, who stars as everyman hero Arthur Dent. "Unfortunately, Douglas is no longer with us, so any differences between the film and the books are going to be seen as tap-dancing on his grave.

"What people won't realize yet is that a lot of the changes are Douglas' changes," added Freeman, best known as likable wage slave Tim in the British sitcom "The Office." "Douglas didn't see the film as this stone tablet that could never change. He saw it as an evolving, ever-changing thing."

Adams' humor 'sophisticated in that it's unsophisticated' A satirical sci-fi adventure that opens with the Earth being destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway, the "Hitchhiker's Guide" began life as a BBC radio series in 1978. Adams turned it into a book, which sold 14 million copies around the world, and later into a TV series (and a computer game).

The book was followed by several sequels, including "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" and "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish."

The series blended satire, memorably named characters such as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android and playfully witty philosophy, at one point supplying the answer to "the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything." The answer: 42.

"Douglas Adams' humor, not unlike Monty Python, is sophisticated in that it's unsophisticated," said Sam ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") Rockwell, who plays the boisterous, two-headed Beeblebrox. "It deals with a lot of profound themes -- religion, world politics, social bureaucracy, the meaning of life -- but it has silly jokes in it, too."

There is much in the movie to please Adams fans: the eponymous Guide, a sort of intergalactic Lonely Planet bearing the motto "Don't Panic"; the bureaucratic Vogons and their appalling poetry; and a startled, improbable whale.

The cast includes Zooey Deschanel as Arthur's love interest; Mos Def as his alien friend, Ford Prefect; Billy Nighy as droll planetary designer Slartibartfast, and Alan Rickman as the voice of depressive robot Marvin. John Malkovich appears as Humma Kavula, a nasally fixated cult leader created by Adams for the film.

'Just trying to keep it funny'

Adams struggled to transform his episodic scripts into a screenplay, complaining that their picaresque style resisted adaptation.

After Adams' death, screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick was called in to tighten up the script's structure, bolstering the romance and streamlining the plot.

"What we didn't want it to be was one weird thing after another, because after half an hour of that you really do tire very quickly," said Garth Jennings, the film's director who has made music videos for bands including Blur and R.E.M.

He said the filmmakers' priority was "just trying to keep it funny, because it is a comedy first and foremost. We didn't want to just make a film that was trying to compete with the effects of other big, effects-driven movies."

The filmmakers are clearly protective of Adams' memory. The film is dedicated to him, and his image appears on screen several times. There is even a 30-foot model of his nose.

Jennings likes to think of the atheist Adams watching the film's progress from on high -- perhaps at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

"It's a lovely image," Jennings said. "Having a drink at the bar, watching the universe explode before his eyes."

'Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy' stays on course
By Michael Machosky
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
April 29, 2005

The real revenge of the nerds is complete, Earthlings.

Your planet has been destroyed and replaced with an all-too-real matrix, where everything looks the same, but isn't.

"The Lord of the Rings" has rebuilt Mt. Doom atop the box office. Monty Python has silly-walked its way onto Broadway's brightest stages. And now, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has thumbed a ride to multiplexes worldwide. The holy trinity of geek culture is now mainstream culture.

Douglas Adams' novel has long been the tome of choice for smart, alienated teenagers everywhere, supplying them with a lifetime's worth of inside jokes.

So, for the faithful -- the film is not a desecration, like, say, "The Phantom Menace." Despite what you may have read in chat rooms and message boards, it's pretty close to the book in spirit -- even if some of your favorite gags didn't make the cut.

For the rest of you, just sit back and let it take you where it takes you. Just do as the Guide tells you -- "Don't panic."

It begins with Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), a hapless English bloke who wakes up to find a construction crew preparing to demolish his house to build a freeway bypass.

The Earth is about to be similarly demolished, for the sake of an intergalactic bypass. Luckily, Dent's eccentric buddy, Ford Prefect (Mos Def), who happens to be an alien, has a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and knows how to thumb a ride off the planet.

There's a flashback to when Dent met Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) at a party. He's entranced. But some obnoxious goofball picks her up with a corny line -- something to the tune of, "Hey baby, wanna see my spaceship?"

Dent and Prefect catch a ride with the Vogons, who just wiped out Earth. The pair begin a trek through the galaxy, gradually learning about the true nature of the universe. Every so often, the Guide interjects a few helpful space-time truths, dispensed with droll, understated humor by narrator Stephen Fry.

Dent and Prefect end up aboard an experimental spaceship stolen by the president-elect of the galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell). It dawns on Dent that this is the same twit who picked up Trillian at the party -- and sure enough, in walks Trillian.

There's very little actual hilarity here. The movie strikes a tone that's mostly dry, flip and irreverent -- a very English brand of humor that doesn't always translate well over here.

Some will be dismayed to see so many Americans in the cast, but they're all quite good. Rockwell steals every scene he's in -- Zaphod acts like a stoned redneck who's as amazed as anyone that he was elected president.

Alan Rickman is brilliant as the voice of Marvin, the paranoid, depressed android. And Freeman is ideal as the bewildered English everyman.

The only superfluous player might be the Hitchhiker's Guide itself. Although it doles out the novel's trademark jokey wisdom, it also shows up in the nick of time to pull the story out of plot holes, paving them over with an irreverent quip or two. For any other movie, we'd just call that lazy storytelling.

Michael Machosky can be reached at mmachosky@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7901.

"THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY"
By Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
April 28, 2005

It is possible that "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" should be reviewed by, and perhaps seen by, only people who are familiar with the original material to the point of obsession. My good friend Andy Ihnatko is such a person, and considered the late Douglas Adams to be one of only three or four people worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as P.G. Wodehouse. Adams may in fact have been the only worthy person.

Such a Hitchhiker Master would be able to review this movie in terms of its in-jokes, its references to various generations of the Guide universe, its earlier manifestations as books, radio shows, a TV series and the center of a matrix of Web sites. He would understand what the filmmakers have done with Adams' material, and how, and why, and whether the film is faithful to the spirit of the original.

I cannot address any of those issues, and I would rather plead ignorance than pretend to knowledge. If you're familiar with the Adams material, I suggest you stop reading right now before I disappoint or even anger you. All I can do is speak to others like myself, who will be arriving at the movie innocent of "Hitchhiker" knowledge. To such a person, two things are possible if you see the movie:

1. You will become intrigued by its whimsical and quirky sense of humor, understand that a familiarity with the books is necessary, read one or more of the "Hitchhiker" books, return to the movie, appreciate it more, and eventually be absorbed into the legion of Adams admirers.

2. You will find the movie tiresomely twee, and notice that it obviously thinks it is being funny at times when you do not have the slightest clue why that should be. You will sense a certain desperation as actors try to sustain a tone that belongs on the page and not on the screen. And you will hear dialogue that preserves the content of written humor at the cost of sounding as if the characters are holding a Douglas Adams reading.

I take the second choice. The movie does not inspire me to learn lots more about "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide," "The Salmon of Doubt," "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" and so on. Like "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," but with less visual charm, it is a conceit with little to be conceited about.

The story involves Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), for whom one day there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that Earth is being destroyed to build an intergalactic freeway, which will run right through his house. The good news is that his best friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def), is an alien temporarily visiting Earth to do research for a series of "Hitchhiker's Guides," and can use his magic ring to beam both of them up to a vast spaceship operated by the Vogons, an alien race that looks like a cross between Jabba the Hutt and Harold Bloom. The Vogons are not a cruel race, apart from the fact that they insist on reading their poetry, which is so bad it has driven people to catatonia.

Once aboard this ship, Arthur and Ford are hitchhikers themselves, and quickly transfer to another ship named the Heart of Gold, commanded by the galaxy's president, Zaphos Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), who has a third arm that keeps emerging from his tunic like the concealed arm of a samurai warrior, with the proviso that a samurai conceals two arms at the most. Zaphod is two-faced in a most intriguing way. Also on the ship are Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), an earthling, and Marvin the Android (body by Warwick Davis, voice by Alan Rickman), who is a terminal kvetcher. There is also a role for John Malkovich, who has a human trunk and a lower body apparently made from spindly robotic cranes' legs; this makes him a wonder to behold, up to a point.

What these characters do is not as important as what they say, how they say it, and what it will mean to Douglas Adams fans. To me, it got old fairly quickly. The movie was more of a revue than a narrative, more about moments than an organizing purpose, and cute to the point that I yearned for some corrosive wit from its second cousin, the Monty Python universe. But of course I do not get the joke. I do not much want to get the joke, but maybe you will. It is not an evil movie. It wants only to be loved, but movies that want to be loved are like puppies in the pound: No matter how earnestly they wag their little tails, you can only adopt one at a time.

At the Movies: 'The Hitchhiker's Guide'
By Christy Lemire
Associated Press
April 29, 2005

Surely "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" would seem sufficiently well-known and have a large enough cult following for its various incarnations that comparing it to something else - another book, another TV series, another movie, whatever - would be pointless. You know it or you don't. You love it or you don't.

But sitting through the long-awaited film version of Douglas Adams' beloved book calls to mind another ambitious effort: not Monty Python, with which it's easy to find similarities, but last year's "I (Heart) Huckabees."

Both have eclectic ensemble casts. Both mix complicated concepts with broad physical comedy. Both have the courage to be completely out there with wild ideas and images.

Despite its quick, quirky opening and dry British wit, after a while "Hitchhiker's Guide" feels like an onslaught. There is simply too much stuff - too many aliens, too many gadgets, too many elaborately absurd set pieces - all at the expense of character development and plot.

The first film from longtime music video director Garth Jennings has traveled to the screen with lots of baggage. Adams died in 2001 at 49 while working (and re-working) on the screenplay; the script is credited to him and Karey Kirkpatrick.

What they've come up with sporadically flirts with genius - like the guide itself, a precursor to the Blackberry with its bright colors and oversimplified graphics, the contents of which are explained in understated fashion by narrator Stephen Fry. Alan Rickman, meanwhile, provides the ideally droll voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android, who's rendered like a "Star Wars" storm trooper with a case of encephalitis.

Most everything else, though, feels aimless and a little empty as the characters meander from one section of the galaxy to the next, their adventures punctuated by an overly jaunty score.

We don't know that much about everyman hero Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman, Tim from the BBC series "The Office") or Tricia McMillan (the irrepressibly lovely Zooey Deschanel), the American girl he adores and with whom he unexpectedly reunites in space after the Earth blows up. Who they are doesn't seem to matter as much as the places they inhabit, which are invariably over-the-top in detail. By no fault of their own, they're like props with a pulse.

Mos Def has a goofy likability as Arthur's friend, the automotively named (and nattily dressed) Ford Prefect, who informs Martin that he's an alien just minutes before the globe is about to explode. And Bill Nighy ("Love Actually"), who stands out in every film he's in with his craggy face and world-weary presence, plays a planetary construction engineer who offers such meaningful nuggets as, "I'd much rather be happy than right any day." Good point.

And then there's Sam Rockwell, playing the incompetent galactic president, Zaphod Beeblebrox, in a way Adams couldn't have imagined back in 1978. Rockwell is doing an impression of President Bush - or he's doing an impression of a parody of Bush, with his breezy jokes and smug twang - but he's dressed like the lead singer of a '70s glam-rock band.

This is a fascinating juxtaposition to behold, and it would have been the film's best performance if Rockwell weren't saddled with a repetitive, distracting special effect in which a second head pops out of his neck and starts talking while the first head just sort of dangles at the back of his neck.

It's just one more element that makes the movie, similar to how the universe is described, "vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big." But sometimes, size doesn't matter.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," a Touchstone Pictures release, is rated PG for thematic elements, action and mild language. Running time: 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Fans split on 'Hitchhiker's Guide' film
By Jill Lawless
Associated Press
April 27, 2005

LONDON - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has traveled light years in its voyage from airwaves to page to screen.

A film version of Douglas Adams' cerebrally comic science fiction saga has been a stop-start project for years, sparking anticipation and worry among millions of devoted fans. Adams was working on an oft-rewritten screenplay when he died of a heart attack in May 2001 at 49.

Now, at last, there's a film.

Are the fans happy? Not entirely.

"It's faithful, irreverent, fun, funny and in no way the disrespectful waste of celluloid Adams fans had secretly been dreading," said Scott Andrews on the FilmFocus Web site. But Adams' unofficial biographer, M.J. Simpson, called the film "an abomination" in a scathing 10,000-word review that was quickly beamed around the Internet world of "Hitchhiker" fans.

"You're aware of the expectations," said Martin Freeman, who stars as everyman hero Arthur Dent. "Unfortunately, Douglas is no longer with us, so any differences between the film and the books are going to be seen as tap-dancing on his grave.

"What people won't realize yet is that a lot of the changes are Douglas' changes," added Freeman, best known as likable wage slave Tim in the British sitcom "The Office." "Douglas didn't see the film as this stone tablet that could never change. He saw it as an evolving, ever-changing thing."

A satirical sci-fi adventure that opens with the Earth being destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway, the "Hitchhiker's Guide" began life as a BBC radio series in 1978. Adams turned it into a book, which sold 14 million copies around the world, and later into a TV series (and a computer game).

The book was followed by several sequels, including "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" and "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish."

The series blended satire, memorably named characters such as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android and playfully witty philosophy, at one point supplying the answer to "the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything." The answer: 42.

"Douglas Adams' humor, not unlike Monty Python, is sophisticated in that it's unsophisticated," said Sam ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") Rockwell, who plays the boisterous, two-headed Beeblebrox. "It deals with a lot of profound themes - religion, world politics, social bureaucracy, the meaning of life - but it has silly jokes in it, too."

There is much in the movie to please Adams fans: the eponymous Guide, a sort of intergalactic Lonely Planet bearing the motto "Don't Panic"; the bureaucratic Vogons and their appalling poetry; and a startled, improbable whale.

The cast includes Zooey Deschanel as Arthur's love interest; Mos Def as his alien friend, Ford Prefect; Billy Nighy as droll planetary designer Slartibartfast, and Alan Rickman as the voice of depressive robot Marvin. John Malkovich appears as Humma Kavula, a nasally fixated cult leader created by Adams for the film.

Adams struggled to transform his episodic scripts into a screenplay, complaining that their picaresque style resisted adaptation.

After Adams' death, screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick was called in to tighten up the script's structure, bolstering the romance and streamlining the plot.

"What we didn't want it to be was one weird thing after another, because after half an hour of that you really do tire very quickly," said Garth Jennings, the film's director who has made music videos for bands including Blur and R.E.M.

He said the filmmakers' priority was "just trying to keep it funny, because it is a comedy first and foremost. We didn't want to just make a film that was trying to compete with the effects of other big, effects-driven movies."

The filmmakers are clearly protective of Adams' memory. The film is dedicated to him, and his image appears on screen several times. There is even a 30-foot model of his nose.

Jennings likes to think of the atheist Adams watching the film's progress from on high - perhaps at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

"It's a lovely image," Jennings said. "Having a drink at the bar, watching the universe explode before his eyes."

ON THE NET

Hitchhiker's guide to Freeman's galaxy
By Simon Houpt
The Globe and Mail
April 28, 2005

NEW YORK -- This is what British actor Martin Freeman will do to convince people that he is not a nice guy. He will say things like, "I'm not nice!" He'll pepper his conversation with language bluer than the Queen's blood and insist that he's a -- (well, he'll use a coarse euphemism for female genitalia). He'll lean on a habit of ending his sentences with "D'you know what I mean?" without giving his listener an opportunity to respond. On a day that Disney has flown him from his home in London to New York to promote his leading role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which opens across Canada tomorrow, Freeman will ignore his alarm clock and show up for interviews half asleep, badly shaven, with mussed hair, and wearing nothing more formal than blue jeans, a jean jacket and tennis shoes.

But damned if Freeman's real character -- that is, his essential niceness, his modest amiability -- doesn't keep getting in the way. He explains his approach to acting, then punctuates it by saying, "There's nothing really unique about it." He makes a mild joke about a Hollywood director, then apologizes profusely and pleads that his comment be stricken from the record lest it be taken out of context. He notes that the alarm-clock fiasco wasn't his fault -- he was in bed very early the night before, but was jet-lagged -- and in any case he made it to his first interview at 9 a.m., albeit without benefit of a shower.

Furthermore, Freeman goes to great lengths to voice a suspicion of showoffs, and then puts his money where his mouth is by generally avoiding the flashbulb-infested movie-premiere circuit. "Compared to a lot of people, I'm a big-mouth showoff, d'you know what I mean?" he says, poised on a couch in a lower Manhattan hotel room that affords a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty. " But in show-biz terms I don't think I am, because I don't go to every event and I don't particularly want people to know everything about my life, and I don't live my life through that medium. I could be on the telly all the time and I could be everywhere all the time and I certainly don't want to be, because I do think only a . . . moron wants that, or someone with a bigger hole in their lives than I ever would want to have."

Freeman grew up in a family that was strapped for cash but which he says was, "middle class by cultural ways." His father, a painter, and his mother encouraged Freeman and his four siblings to read and explore the arts.

When Freeman was a child, he played competitive squash, but quit in his mid-teens because, he says, "I don't think I had the natural killer instinct to make a really good sportsman."

But sometimes it takes a killer instinct to make it in show business, too. Audiences don't have much use for nice; neither do movie producers. Nice just doesn't sell tickets the way smooth confidence does, or dark mystery; legions of high-school boys who've lost their girlfriends to intense and dangerous guys know this only too well.

And Freeman, 33, knows what it is to lose the girl, for he's done it enough times onscreen, even if he and his real-life girlfriend are in a solid five-year relationship. Hitchhiker's Guide is based on the first of the quirky and beloved comic sci-fi quartet of late-seventies/early-eighties novels by the British writer Douglas Adams. Freeman plays Arthur Dent, a bumbling British Everyman who wakes up one day only to be whisked off Earth mere moments before the planet is destroyed by a careless intergalactic construction crew clearing the way for a hyperspace freeway. If the numb pain of losing his home (and home planet) isn't enough, Arthur must also live with the memory of allowing a flashy space cowboy to seduce a woman he met the other night at a party.

If you're familiar with Freeman's work, this dynamic may ring a bell. His most famous role, Tim Canterbury in the BBC hit The Office, cast Freeman in the quintessentially British part of a quietly longing paper salesman who harbours a simmering affection for an engaged office mate. The series lasted only two short seasons but earned a large cult following during its run in North America. (An American adaptation launched on NBC last month, to generally warm reviews.) There was such demand for the show to continue even after it had wrapped that the creative team and cast reconvened for one last episode, a two-hour Christmas special that aired 18 months ago. It was a huge success, but Freeman insists there should be no more Office.

"I would hope not," he says. (Freeman himself has evidently moved on since his days on The Office, putting on enough weight and changing his hair style to almost erase the visual memories of Tim.)

"Because who wants The Beatles to re-form? D'you know what I mean? I mean, I'm not comparing us to the Beatles, but who needs it?" He repeats that last phrase, bolstering it with an expletive, and his thoughts now come so fast that he doesn't even bother to complete his sentences. "When has that sort of thing ever been good? I mean, maybe, maybe Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park - but is it really as good as Bridge Over Troubled Waters? No. Who cares?! Was Godfather 3 as good as the -- of course not. If you want to chase money, and if you want to chase that kind of -- 'Ooh, maybe we've still got it?' -- No you 'aven't."

Freeman frequently deploys music-world analogies. Music crops up in conversation perhaps more than any other subject. As a child, he thought that he'd be in a band; the possibility of acting only arose much later, and he never really let go of that music dream. Nowadays, whenever he's on location, or away from home for interviews, he'll prowl through record stores in cities around the world, looking for vinyl pressings of classics from the sixties and seventies. He likes that era in music because, he says, big business hadn't yet ruined it. Music executives nowadays aren't interested in promoting "the eternal," he offers.

Talk of the artistic eternal winds its way back to movies, and the roles that Freeman wants to -- and does not want to -- embrace. "I'm not particularly interested in playing the smoothie, unless something 'orrible happens or unless something really interesting happens to the smoothie. You might as well just make infomercials, if you just want to be smooth, or suave. If you're in it just because you want to, you know, ride a Harley and play James Bond, you're basically a model. And that's valid, as well, that's fine -- but life isn't about that."

There are roles Freeman wants to play, but that Nice Factor keeps getting in the way, mixed in with the perception that he makes a great Everyman. "It's a little frustrating," he admits. "I don't want to be pigeonholed as one thing or another. When that happens, people I'm sure get to a point where they think: Can I stop doing that? Will people accept me in a Tennessee Williams play, or whatever?"

And will people accept him as less than nice? Before The Office, Freeman had a successful stage career in which he played all manner of devilish parts. He'll be back at it again this summer, playing an unscrupulous television producer in a Soho production of the new play by Toby Whithouse, Blue Eyes and Heels. "I'd love to play Macbeth," he adds. "See, the thing is, what I think I can do and what the perception of what I can do -- there's quite a gulf between the two, because obviously people don't know my work. But I do. Probably no one would think I'd make a good Macbeth, but I know I would." Still, Freeman isn't about to push himself on anyone. He's too nice. That's what agents are for.

Exclusive Interview: Martin Freeman - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
By Paul Fischer
April 25, 2005

Martin Freeman has come a long way since making his film debut in 1998's I Just Want to Kiss You. At 34, the British actor rose to fame with the hit series The Office, and is now starring in the big screen adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But Freeman is not one to take success for granted. As we sit in a New York hotel room, Freeman is busily coping with the massive press junket scene that precedes the release of a major Hollywood film. Sitting back after his first round of group interviews, finally able to, literally, put his feet up, Freeman admits to getting tired of "answering the same questions over and over again. With some exceptions, and with the best will in the world, you do get tired. Obviously you just have to pinch yourself." Interrupted by room service, Freeman says he deals with all his press-related duties while being creative, "you have to make it interesting for yourself, hopefully make it interesting for the press, but also to a certain extent, that's only part of the job."

Freeman, a classically trained theatre actor, recalls that while his parents were consistently artistic, they were not the sole influence behind his decision to become an actor. "I think I was influenced by the fact there was the environment at home that, we're creating things and expressing yourself artistically wasn't to be frowned upon, so in that, I was always aware that it was OK to write or read," Freeman explains. "You didn't have to pretend to be stupid or pretend that you weren't interested in things that you were interested in, so there was always the environment where it was open for that to happen. I guess probably seeing films at a very early age, because we all watched tele, was a strong influence."

Freeman recalls being something of a show off at school, and I think I was probably seen to be quite funny at school. People would say, 'you should have your own show'. But probably every actor in the world was probably in that position, in that they were probably one of the biggest show-offs at school in a way. I think a lot of actors require a mixture of the two, very shy and a show off and I think people find it hard to believe, how can he be shy, but it's not that simple."

Freeman has been a successful working actor for about a decade, easily crossing various mediums, from stage to the big and small screens. While many actors recall the tough times, for this actor, the first few years didn't feel hard. "I wasn't raking it in but I was raking work in. I always did work that I was happy with, not work that made me famous or work that made me rich, but work that made me very happy and it was always valid work, so the first five years didn't feel hard at all."

In 2001 Freeman hit pay dirt, when he auditioned for a new BBC comedy series, The Office. The show, created by and starring Ricky Gervais was an instant hit, and from then on, Freeman knew that his career as an actor was secure. "Once The Office hit and the attention wasn't going away, I knew this was something that was going to last, and seemed, that it wasn't just going to bubble up and then go. That interest stayed, and scripts kept coming in." Yet, as successful as Freeman is becoming, he remains uncertain as to whether this is merely a temporary phase. "As it is, I still don't know that I'll be able to do it, because it's so fickle," Freeman concedes. "This time next year I might not be working, because that's the nature of the business. You never feel completely safe I suppose, because you know there's enough people who've gone before you who must have thought, 'hey man, I'm the new Brando' and in five years time they're nowhere. This is a business that really gives you a slap in the face and a cold glass of water thrown over you." So one wonders why put yourself through that. "You are always wanting the next job for a million reasons: (a) because you love acting, (b) because you've got to pay the rent."

Freeman has always been open about his loathing of fame and celebrity. Clearly down to earth and honestly matter-of-fact, Freeman says he tries to ignore the fame that is being generously poured on him. "I try to ignore it to be honest, because I don't want to get caught up in someone else's perception of me because that's not the truth. Fame and success is such a subjective thing. It's not like saying, that's the Statue of Liberty, that's a fact; me being famous, successful or rich are not a fact. It's all subjective because some people say to me, but of course Martin you're very famous, while I think, well, I'm not, and I'm not being modest. Ask a cab driver, ask your cousin, ask your Mother. I'm not that famous because they would all know who Tom Cruise is, they don't know who I am, but that's cool because that's not the plan anyway."

Freeman has managed to juggle various facets of his acting, yet it is comedy that has established him. He says that The Office, in many ways, remains typical of his blend of dry humour. "It was certainly pretty close. I mean, my taste in humour does go from slapping you around the face in Tom and Jerry, to The Office, Larry Sanders, or to Harold Lloyd, from the silly to the clever. I love physical shtick, and all sorts of things that are done well." Freeman has remained close to series co-creator Gervais, who says, like himself, a move to Los Angeles is unlikely. "Neither Ricky or I are particularly LA animals." Nor was Freeman asked to appear in the US remake of The Office, a show he has few opinions about. "It doesn't affect me, other than wishing everyone well, and I'm glad they've done it well as opposed to the opposite. But it makes no difference to me, anymore whether I'm any good makes any difference to Simon Jones and Hitchhikers. It's like he's done his and nothing can touch his. If I do badly, it doesn't detract from him whereas if I'm good it doesn't detract from him."

Two decades in the making, the big screen adaptation of Hitchhikers, casts Freeman as the pivotal Everyman, Arthur Dent, in this lush, sci-fi satire that borrows from Monty Python and beyond. In this film, Freeman's Earthman Arthur Dent is having a very bad day. His house is about to be bulldozed, he discovers that his best friend is an alien and to top things off, Planet Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur's only chance for survival: hitch a ride on a passing spacecraft. For the novice space traveller, the most astonishing adventure in the universe begins when the world ends. Arthur sets out on a journey in which he finds that nothing is as it seems: he learns that a towel is just the most useful thing in the universe, finds the meaning of life, and discovers that everything he needs to know can be found in one book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

While so many British actors were attached to the film over its two decade gestation, it was Freeman who won the coveted role, a role he says, he didn't fight to hard to ultimately acquire. "I didn't feel there was a lot of fighting to do for me because that's not really my personal style. I don't necessarily hound directors or ring them up and say look I'm the man for this. I literally went in to meet and then I got it, so it was like an audition that you just get." Freeman says that he wasn't faced with a challenge of putting his own spin on the character, "because I didn't revisit the program, I basically ignored it and I can only do what I can do, so I went in and approached it the only way I know how. So in that sense, it wasn't difficult once I thought, I can do this. Simon definitely cast a long shadow because that's what I grew up with but I can't do what he can do and I wouldn't want to." As for feeling any pressure bringing this classic to cinematic life, Freeman prefers not to worry about such matters. "I genuinely don't worry about it. Obviously I'd be mortified if everybody hated it and hated me. It's not that I don't have feelings or I'm not susceptible to that sort of stuff, but I'm not bothered by it at all. I think people are either going to like you or they're not, but I really, really hope passionately that they like it because I'm proud of it."

Not one to rest on any laurels, Freeman has completed two small British films, and returns to British TV in a new series, The Robinsons. The actor says he has no qualms about returning to television or any other medium for that matter. "I was definitely happy to do it. It didn't feel like a return to tele to me because I'd always done lots of TV and I just follow whatever script is good at the time. An awful lot of film scripts are dreadful while a lot of tele scripts are really good. So I just want to be involved in things that I like. I'm as proud of the Robinsons as anything else I've done. I mean I love it. But again, whether anyone else loves it, I hope they do." But don't hold your breath for a return to the series that started it all: The Office, and nobody has offered him a fortune to do it. "And I think no-one, would do it anyway."

There is well and truly life outside of Office politics!

From office space to outer space
By Cindy Pearlman
Chicago Sun-Times
April 24, 2005

Martin Freeman, star of the wildly popular British series "The Office," stars as the hapless Arthur Dent, a bloke taken for a ride through space in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," opening Friday. He was earthbound long enough at the Ritz Carlton in the Big Apple to answer a few local planetary questions.

Q. There was an early race to see what American actors might be cast as Arthur Dent, with names like Jim Carrey being floated around. How does someone without any familiarity to American audiences get cast in the end?

A. I can't even explain it. I was certainly an admirer of the "Hitchhiker" books growing up in England. I remember the books being around my house, but I certainly didn't dream of playing Arthur one day.

Q. NBC has remade "The Office" for American audiences. Did you secretly hope that the U.S. remake would be rubbish?

A. Honestly, I was open to the idea of a new "Office." I have nothing invested in the idea of the American version being a hit or not. It certainly doesn't affect the legacy of the British one. But I did see the pilot for the American series, and I thought it was really good. It was close to our version and very faithful. Plus, the guy who played my character was really good.

Q. The tagline of the movie is "Don't Panic." What makes you panic?

A. Forgetting people's names. I'm just so easily embarrassed.

Q. Your character begins the movie knowing he only has five minutes left on earth before the planet explodes. What would you do during those five minutes?

A. I'd panic. I'd be terrified.

Q. Is it important to be a hit in the United States with this movie?

A. There are two schools of thought. Some think if you haven't made it in America, then you're a bum. Some think, "What do they know over there?" I just care that I've made a good film because in a few days, I'll either be a pr--- or a hero to fans of the work. I'll either be a star or it will be "Martin who?" But in the end ultimately you have to sleep with yourself and be proud on your death bed.