Office star prepares to go galactic
icWales
April 20, 2005

It seems that no matter how much success Martin Freeman has, nothing much changes in his life.

Since he became a famous face thanks to the overwhelming and unexpected success of The Office in 2001, his career has gone from strength to strength.

He's proved his understated but highly effective performance as The Office's Tim wasn't a fluke by trying different types of comedy (the more mainstream Hardware, the forthcoming The Robinsons) and different types of drama (The Debt, Charles II).

And now the wider world is discovering Martin's talent.

They had a taste in Richard Curtis's 2003 smash hit Love Actually, but as the lead in the long-awaited big screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, playing hapless human Arthur Dent, Martin's fame is about to sky-rocket.

"I know it's going to happen but I'm sort of in denial about it," says the 33-year-old. "If the film is a massive success - and I hope it is, I hope people love what I do in it - that will bring me things I do want, like better scripts, and things I don't.

"I don't want any more attention than I'm getting thank you very much. What I get now is fine with me."

This is why nothing much changes in the life of Martin Freeman outside his work. He hasn't embraced his fame in the way others in his position might. He's happier staying at home, which he shares with his girlfriend, actress Amanda Abbington, in London, than he is heading out to a showbiz bash.

"This is why when people ask how I like spending my time I come out sounding like a 90-year-old man," he says. "But I do like to spend time at home, and never more so than in the last few years when people try and get me out of my home more and more.

"I don't care. I don't really want to align myself with that side of my work. Why? Because it's not my work. My work is being a flipping actor, it shouldn't be being a socialite."

There's no reason Martin shouldn't be able to continue with this attitude towards his career. Although Hitchhiker's will bring him much greater attention, there are two factors which provide an anchor in what he sees as the stormy seas he has to navigate.

For a start he's fiercely private. A gentle inquiry as to whether he and Amanda have any plans to get married or have children is answered with a polite `no comment'. And secondly he will continue to do television and theatre alongside his burgeoning film career.

"I would follow anyone, anywhere who had a good script," says Martin. "I'd go to Mars to make a good piece of work. Not just to go to Mars. I don't want to go to Hollywood just to go to Hollywood and hang around getting a bit more tanned and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a film.

"Who cares? I could have been making films back to back for the last few years. Why haven't I? Because they're not very good. Most things aren't very good. Most paintings aren't Michelangelo. It's when you do see a Michelangelo, or anything approaching a Michelangelo, you want to latch on to it."

Martin talks at 100 miles an hour, peppering his stream of dialogue with unexpected swearwords (somehow he just doesn't look like he'd swear at all, let alone a lot) and you quickly find yourself caught up in his unabashed enthusiasm for what he does.

"I'm going to carry on doing anything," he says. "Anything I want to do that people will let me do. Earlier this year I made time to, not like it's charity work, but I did a radio series for Radio 4.

"I wanted to make myself available for it because how often am I going to be asked to play David Warner's younger brother in an old GK Chesterton short story? I thought, give me some of that. It's that thing of having your cake and eating it. It's like, why not?"

There is one constant in his increasingly eclectic career, however, and that's his girlfriend Amanda. They met on the make-up bus on the set of Channel 4 drama Men Only and have acted together frequently ever since. Amanda plays his ex-wife in BBC Two's upcoming The Robinsons and also appears alongside him in forthcoming film The All Together.

"It's really lovely [working with her] because not only do I obviously really love Amanda, I really respect her," says Martin. "The disparity in our household is massive. I'm not the best actor in my house, and I know it. It's weird and unjust really.

"I mean she's working, she's working as we speak. But it's hard for her and it's hard for me because when we're out and about people know who I am and she's Martin's girlfriend. I always think, little do you know.

"She can kick my arse as an actor. Or at least touch my arse as an actor," he grins.

After the critical mauling that Hardware got, Martin should regain some of his comedy credibility with The Robinsons. The actor himself is resolutely diplomatic about Hardware, saying that, as a mainstream sitcom, people who loved The Office probably weren't going to love Hardware.

But The Robinsons he speaks more proudly of. It's somewhere between the two, starting off like another seemingly innocent mainstream sitcom before revealing a much darker (and funnier) side to to it.

It tells the story of Ed, the black sheep of the Robinson family, who often looks to his ancestors for inspiration and, just as often, finds none.

"I'm playing him and reading it like he's an alien who's been beamed down in the wrong family," says Martin. "Which happens, it totally happens. A lot of people might think, I've got the wrong family or the wrong job or whatever. The enjoyable fact was that he is just so different to his family and it was really nice playing that stuff."

With Martin being the youngest of four children himself, and the only actor in the family, he could also be seen as the black sheep. But he says that has never been the case, that his family has always been supportive of his decision to go into acting - another grounding constant in his life.

"I'm sure [my fame] does seem weird for them but it's been an incremental thing," says Martin. "Obviously it's built up markedly over the last few years, but it's not been one minute I'm signing on, next minute I'm Tom Cruise.

"People have had time, including me, to get used to it and do with it whatever they choose to do. Hopefully ignore it."

Name: Martin Freeman

Date of birth: September 8, 1971

Significant other: Lives with actress Amanda Abbington

Career high: Landing the role of Arthur Dent in the long-awaited big screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Career low: His first mainstream sitcom, ITV's Hardware, garnered bad reviews

Famous for: Playing the eternally bemused Tim in The Office

Words of wisdom: "I was taught to never get big-headed or think I was better than anyone else. But I do have an ego and it's really nice when people give you praise."

Welsh Hitch for Office star
Nathan Bevan, Wales on Sunday
April 17, 2005

MARTIN Freeman says the strangest thing that happened to him while filming The Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy happened light years closer to home.

The Office star, who filmed in Trefil, South Wales, said: "I remember being in a cold, wet quarry in Wales, wearing pyjamas and slippers, running across silt, slate and rock.

"We were supposed to be on the Vogon planet. All of us were freezing."

Flix: Martin Freeman
CO-ED Magazine

Arthur Dent is having a really bad day. His house has been demolished to make way for a new freeway, he’s learned that his best friend is really an alien, and the girl that he’s crushing just took off with a real tool. Oh … and the world is going to end in six minutes. Martin Freeman, who plays Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is having a much better day than his character. Already a celebrity in England, Americans have fallen for his hilarious roles in British comedies like The Office, Love Actually and Shaun of the Dead. His latest role in Hitchhiker’s is Freeman’s first big “Hollywood” blockbuster role. Get ready for another British Invasion.

CO-ED: How did you feel being the lone Brit cast in an American filming of a British book?

Martin Freeman:

Occasionally I would feel like the only Limey in the town. But it still felt like a British movie because we were doing it in London and the creative team was British. I think it is certain fans’ fear, certainly British people’s fear, and I would say a lot of American fans’ fear, is that it is going to be Hollywood-ized.

Well, it is a big Hollywood film. How do you think it is going to affect your career?

The truth is I am either going to be great or rubbish. You know it will be either “You’re fantastic” or “You’re who?” and those are the facts of the business. I can let them guide my choices, but I don’t. What worries me is that we put a lot of time into the film and I would hate the film not to do well. Obviously you make films, or television, or paintings hoping that as many people will like it as possible, but I’m not a businessman.

Where you a fan of the Hitchhiker’s series?

I was familiar with it more than I would say I was a fan. I was young when it came out and I was young when it was on the tele (editor’s note: a British mini-series based off of the books came out in the early 80s). The books were around the house because people in my family were fans. I always knew who Zaphod Beeblebrox was, so I was aware of the basics of the story, but it wasn’t a part I felt that I was born to play.

How did you go about making sure that Arthur Dent came across as just an Average Joe … or Average Bloke as you Brits would say?

I think that work has already been done by Douglas (Adams) in his writing. He’s written as the last surviving human, and I guess people want to be able to in some way identify. I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to make that guy into James Bond -- he’s no George Clooney. He’s just a normal bloke with a job that he doesn’t particularly love, and he’s kind of in love with a woman who is not in love with him. So that’s certainly tangible for most of the population of the earth. I realized that my approach to him was to play him as real as possible, and hopefully as funny as possible.

Do you think that Arthur Dent is the anchor of the story?

I do, obviously (laughs). I suppose he’s the most famous character in the story. Everyone who knows Hitchhiker’s, and even those who don’t, has heard of the name Arthur Dent. He’s whom you should be rooting for and he’s the last one of our species. And it’s going to humans who are going to see the film, until we get distribution on Mars, so we should want to get behind him.

Did you have any trepidation about how hard-core fans would react to your being cast as Dent?

I knew some people would think I was a great idea and others would think I was a terrible idea. I’m not really a big web-head, so I don’t spend my time worrying about whether people want me or Jack Davenport.

So no one has come up to you in the pubs yet and said, “Arthur Dent … you?”

No … mainly because I don’t go to the pubs (laughs). But my girlfriend (British actress Amanda Abbington) has gone, “You?!?”

Can you tell me at what point during the production did you realize that you and Mos Def would click so well?

We haven’t clicked yet (laughs).

Recently, many British shows have been remade in America, such as Couplings and The Office. What are your thoughts on this new British Invasion?

I think America has always had a hard time taking British stuff undiluted. The best stuff that I think could, and should, have made it in America hasn’t because America can be an insular place. We’ve always had American shows as they are, it’s just not something that has been reciprocal. Which is why people are scared about Hitchhiker’s. There is a long standing tradition that America takes something, sort of doesn’t understand, and they will change it. And people are worried about it. From my experience of Hitchhiker, this doesn’t apply because I would defy anyone to see that movie and not everyone has been cast right and is doing their job as well as anyone else could do.

You almost sound resistant to the idea of acting in more “Hollywood” films?

I’m not at all. I have a massive DVD collection and home and probably a majority of that is American. I’m just not first in the queue when it comes to getting a visa to come and live in Los Angeles. So many British people with no prospects say “I’m going to go to Hollywood and see what happens.” What the fuck do you think is going to happen? But its Nirvana, it’s the end of the road where everyone wants to be. And if you’re making The Godfather, that’s where I want to be. But if you’re making “X” amount of films we can all name, I can make rubbish at home. I’m English and I love it there.

Master of the universe
The Observer Magazine
Sunday April 17, 2005

When Disney wanted a lovable Brit for the lead in the big-screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Martin Freeman - connoisseur mod, Catholic and couch potato - stuck out a thumb for the ride of his life. Miranda Sawyer catches him on his return to earth

Talking to Martin Freeman is like chatting with a friend. He has none of the high status that comes with someone who's used to being a star, and none of the love-me techniques that accompany the up-and-coming. He's just himself, nattering on a sofa in his agent's Soho offices as though I've popped round to his house for tea. This matey impression is heightened, of course, because of his having played Tim in The Office, the one character you could really relate to in that series. But though he looks very like him, ho ho, Martin Freeman is not Tim Canterbury.

For a start, Martin's better dressed (suedehead haircut, chunky silver bracelet, understated but expensive jumper and jeans). He's less diffident than Tim and he talks a lot more - a lot more, rattling on passionately about any topic you care to throw at him. It's rare for his sentences to be shorter than paragraphs, as they loop back and forth across themselves with tortuously democratic logic and hardcore swearing. He uses words like 'albeit' and 'behove' slap next to 'wanker' and worse; sets up statements - 'There's no difference between Van Gogh and other artists' - before shooting them down - 'Well, no, not all art is great, most of it's rubbish'; sees things from all angles, before just saying what he means, which is usually, 'I effing hate that.' Except he doesn't say effing.

His passion, which is based in anger, reminds me a bit of Paul Weller (Weller is Freeman's hero, by coincidence), except that Martin is far more approachable and normal. And it's these latter qualities, as well as his undoubted acting talent, that led to him being cast as the lead, Arthur Dent, in the forthcoming, highly awaited Disney film of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Arthur is a normal bloke caught up, against his will and home habits, in a swirling intergalactic adventure.

'But when I did the audition for Arthur, I didn't particularly think that I was the man for the job,' says Martin. 'I thought I was a man for the job. There are 20 other actors who could have played Arthur well and I happened to get it. It just had to be someone you can believe in and you can root for, and I suppose I have that rootable quality. It's a blessing and a curse.'

You're kind of an everyman, aren't you, Martin?

'Yes, OK, there's worse things to be.'

He's doing himself down. The casting of Hitchhiker is one of the film's strengths - all the main parts, from Martin, through Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def and Sam Rockwell, are gifted actors, but not hugely famous, which means you believe in them. And Martin plays a lovely Arthur, spending the entire film in his dressing gown, flipping between bewilderment, uselessness, irritation and love, an ordinary Englishman caught in an extraordinary world. Apparently, the film bigwigs originally wanted Hugh Grant, but he would have seemed too nobby, I think.

'Well, Americans assume all British people have at least one servant,' says Martin. 'But an audience has to relate to Arthur - he's the last human being left - and maybe, if he was posh, that would be harder. I'm not posh or common, I'm in between.'

Cue a lengthy rant on the hypocrisy of inverted snobbery - 'Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?' - and how, these days, it's fashionable to knock the middle class, or anyway, 'people who pronounce things properly', which is 'just as unfair as anything else'. So, while he's chuntering, I'll tell you about the film. Made 25 years after the original, phenomenally popular Radio 4 series, Hitchhiker the movie is slick and funny, with glossy special effects, a voiceover from Stephen Fry and parts for John Malkovich, Anna Chancellor and Bill Nighy. I've checked with Hitchhiker geeks, and everything that should be in the film is present and correct (Douglas Adams co-wrote the screenplay before he died), including Marvin the Paranoid Android, the Vogons and Arthur's bath towel. The main characters, other than Arthur, all have stupid names: Trillian, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox. Check, check, check.

However, there is, apparently, some problem with Zaphod Beeblebrox's head. In the novel (the radio show, the telly series, the computer game, the tea towel: Hitchhiker would take ages on Give Us A Clue), this particular character has two heads, all the time; in the film, his second one only emerges when Zaphod gets upset. This is extremely controversial, according to those who write about such things on the web. It's also funny, as it pops out from under Zaphod's chin, knocking his real head backwards, like a bad hat. 'Ah, but it's like literal interpretations of the Bible,' nods Martin. 'Some people think not having a permanent second head is heresy. On one of the 12 times I've been on the internet, I read all the abuse.'

Martin doesn't use computers much. He prefers his scripts to be sent through the post, rather than by email. He has an old school/ditto man quality about him - he likes rooting through record shops, he doesn't drive, he's not interested in going out with famous friends to celebrity watering holes. 'God, no,' he explodes. 'I don't do any of that shit. I've got a stag weekend coming up and I've said I'm not doing anything more than a few drinks. I won't have it. I'll go home and watch Antiques Roadshow.' He's happy to stay up late, but only within his own house: 'Looking at the wall, or stroking the dog, or playing DVDs, or football on the X-box.' He actually sounds worried about the stag do: 'Well, it's exactly why I don't go out - well, I do, but I like smaller groups because you can keep a handle on things, and you don't end up thinking, "How did I end up coming on this model's tits and then killing her?" If you stay in watching Antiques Roadshow, that kind of shit doesn't happen.'

If that sounds like Martin has a hidden wild streak, he insists he hasn't. Actually, he used to go out more, but he hates pubs, is happily settled with his girlfriend, actress Amanda Abbington (Shona in Channel 4's 20 Things To Do Before You're 30), and, these days, when he goes to gigs, he gets hassled so much by drunken fans it ruins his evening. So he prefers staying in and playing records (note, not CDs).

'If I could get bands to come and play in my house, I'd like that,' he offers. 'I've never been to a festival. I'm a creature of habit, mashed-potato comfort, I like rugs. Our sofa's squishy. Maybe too squishy - it's hard to get up sometimes.'

Though he's very animated when he talks, often jumping up to act out a point, Martin insists he's terminally lazy. He gets up late, between 10 and 11, and, when Amanda's away, the house becomes a terrible tip. She's been in Leeds for a few days, is due back immediately after our interview, and he hasn't got it together to clear up. 'I'm disorganised, too. I go, "I know that needs tidying, but what about this?" And then I don't do any of it.' Sensibly, he's bought Amanda a present from Urban Outfitters 'to deaden the blow'.

Amanda and Martin have been together for about four years, which means she met him before The Office made him everyone's friend. They're 'a very coupley couple', and are happy: 'Once you've switched that switch [he means commitment], then, though you notice that other people are great, you're just not interested.' They own a dog, Archie, a miniature wire-haired dachshund, 'so small he'd fall down an ant-hole', and judging by an extended rant Martin gives about the lack of discipline in today's kids ('no child of mine ...' etc), they may be considering having children. 'It's certainly not an unthinkable thing, that's what I'll give you.'

Martin himself is from a large and artistic family: his older brother, Tim, was in Eighties art-pop group Frazier Chorus; another brother, Jamie, is a musician and website designer; and his cousin, Ben Norris, is a stand-up comic. 'I don't think it was a surprise that I ended up as an actor, and it was anything but a disappointment. My parents gave me the knowledge that reading isn't a bad thing, and admitting to liking a painting doesn't make you an arse-bandit. And that wouldn't have been a problem either.'

The youngest of five, Martin was born in Aldershot, to Philomena, a housewife, and Geoffrey, who'd been in the navy. They split up when he was young, and he went to live with his dad. But Geoffrey died when Martin was seven, so he moved back in with his mum and stepdad James, who ran pubs; there was a bit of moving about, until the family settled in Teddington. Though Martin was a sickly child (asthma, prone to fainting), he was sporty, too, playing football and squash. He was in the British national squash squad between nine and 14, travelling the country, competing in tournaments, 'a contender, but never the best'.

At school, he sat at the back, a combination of 'naughty and smart-arse'. His mother had instilled confidence and self-worth in all of her children. 'My mum was Labour-voting, but wanted us to know we were important. Basically, everyone's equal, but you, my children, are a bit better.' He went to a Catholic secondary school, and still believes in God; he spends quite some time justifying this. 'I'm not a practising Catholic or I wouldn't be living unwed with a woman, and I don't think all poofs are going to hell, and I don't think everyone who's had an abortion is damned, most of my friends are atheists and I understand atheism, I get it, but I happen to be a theist. I believe in our answerableness to something else. You're not the only **** in the world.' Martin's tolerance sits awkwardly with his religion and anger. He's a raging, God-loving, conservative-living liberal. (Removed and put stars for a certain word - PTsgirl)

Anyhow, once squash was out of the picture, at 14, he joined the local youth theatre, progressing to a B-Tech in performing arts at Weybridge, and then the Central School of Art and Drama in... well, I'd tell you, but he's touchy about how old he is. He won't give me his date of birth - '8 September, early Seventies' - though, if you're that bothered, just Google 'Martin Freeman date of birth', and you'll find out (it's 1971). All actresses are weird about their age, but I'm surprised at him: 'Well, this is my first big film that people will know me for, and I should be 26, that's when it should happen.' Ironically, given his age sensitivity, his politics and attitudes remind me of people a couple of years older than I am (I'm 38 - see, it isn't that hard). He's a socialist, a fish-eating vegetarian, a soul fan and, judging by his clothes, a mod. 'Yes, I am. Just not in a Vespa-scooter-let's-beat-up- the-rockers-down-Brighton way. It's in the details. People either spot it or they don't.' Mods are notoriously obsessed with music: 'Most people have a passive relationship with music and clothes, with culture. But music was my first contact with anything creative. Music is it, as far as I'm concerned.'

The first pop Martin liked was punk. He sang it in the bath, when he was very little, to shock his dad. The first records he bought were Two Tone - the Specials, Madness, Bad Manners - and Jerry Dammers of the Specials is 'one of the pillars of my life. I've heard he's quite moany, but so am I.' Martin likes to argue about music - why Paul McCartney is brilliant, why Leonard Cohen isn't - 'I don't care how clever his words are, he hasn't got the funk. The tunes are what matters: I don't go home and read my Beatles lyrics book, I put the record on.'

What McCartney has, which Martin really, really respects, is talent. He is uncompromising when it comes to culture that he cares about. Quality and integrity are vital to him, he gets worked up when people just shrug and say, 'All art's the same, really, innit?' This makes him tough when it comes to work. If he doesn't like a script, he won't audition, 'even though, sometimes, I really wish I did like it, because they want to pay me a lot of money'. Nowadays, he doesn't have to audition as much, anyway - though, actually, he prefers to, because he hates miscasting, and he wants to check that he's right for a part. Plus, though he's undoubtedly successful and was even before The Office, he doesn't get everything he goes for either. Just the other week, he was turned down for two jobs in one day. 'Which taught me. I'd been thinking, "How will I fit them both in?" Well, you won't have to, so get over yourself.'

I wonder if Hitchhiker will make Martin famous, in a Hollywood-premiere way. If it does, he could be stuck with the everyman tag for a long time, even though he's proved that he can play period (Charles II) and nasty (Debt). Huge fame would sit oddly on him. He's so set in his likes and dislikes, in his local approach to life. His ideal day, he says, would involve him getting up late, having breakfast with Amanda at Banners in Crouch End, going for a drive to the seaside, wandering round record shops, then fish and chips and home to watch a film on DVD. Not very high rolling.

'Some people have that roar in their head, but I'm not sure I ever did,' Martin says. 'That live-fast-die-young thing. No one wants it really - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin - it's not good. I want to live with Amanda till I'm 70. I was never the kid that went all the way with naughtiness, never got caned or in serious trouble. I always knew when to pull back.' Arthur Dent, eat your heart out.

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

Earthlings coming over all funny peculiar
By Baz Bamigboye
Daily Mail
March 18, 2005

Don't panic! Just go out and get those towels ready!

If you're schooled in the jargon of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's-Guide To The Galaxy, you will have an inkling of what I'm ranting about.

On Tuesday morning, I caught a special screening of the movie version of the cult novel - and how glorious to find none of the things I had dreaded. For instance, I'd been afraid that it would be overwhelmed by computer-generated characters (it isn't), and that it would lack soul - and I don't mean the Stevie Wonder kind (it doesn't).

Instead, it's a joy - and it's fun, to boot.

As director Garth Jennings told me: "Hitchhiker's was never about the latest threedimensional computergenerated images and people flying through the air. It was more about the peculiar side of things. It never gets too tech-y."

To be sure, there are sci-fi moments, but the story, characters, Stephen Fry's gently wry commentary (plus a witty voice-over from Helen Mirren) always come first.

A pre-credit sequence showing dolphins splashing about to the song So Long And Thanks For All The Fish sets the movie's humour level beautifully.

Jennings and his producing partner Nick Goldsmith understood that the very title was the star.

"You don't find big names, you find exactly the right people for the roles," he explained.

He called his cast a "funny little group, a peculiar little lot".

Indeed. Martin Freeman really is Everyman as the bewildered Arthur Dent, and Mos Def proves an inspired choice for Ford Prefect ('Arthur, what if I told you I wasn't really from Guildford').

Zooey Deschanel is great as Trillian, Sam Rockwell suitably cocky as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Bill Nighy is out of this world as Slartibartfast and John Malkovich is run off his teeny-tiny feet as Humma Kavula. Jennings added: "You've got Martin who's, well, Martin; Zooey who's from a completely different planet anyway, and Mos Def who's from another galaxy altogether. This is a man who's 32, he's got five kids, a Number One recording, he plays live gigs, he's starring in a film, he designs furniture - and tennis shoes. Now that's peculiar. "And Sam Rockwell's like a Tasmanian devil."

Jennings swore to me that Mos would fall asleep on the set between takes. At one point, he's hoisted up by a crane and, according to Jennings, he dozed off while waiting for his lift. "He woke up as I shouted: 'Action!'"

OK, so they may all be a tad weird, but they do - possess impeccable comic timing. And let's not forget those Vogons. I mean, they're not content with simply destroying the earth to make way for an intergalactic bypass (sounds like my local Hastings Council). No, they also torture victims . . . with their poetry.

These blubbery bumbling bureaucrats have been wonderfully visualised by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

Douglas Adams' widow, Jane, was at the screening I attending (it was 70 per cent finished) and declared it to be an 'astonishing' piece of work.

The movie has its world premiere in London on April 20 and opens here on April 28, a day ahead of the US release.

Martin Freeman (right) of "The Office" stars in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Photo courtesy of the BBC

SFGate.com: INDUSTRY BUZZ

THUMBS OUT: For all their virtues, the "Matrix," "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" movies have never been accused of demonstrating a particularly sharp sense of humor. But now that the hunt is on in Hollywood for the next big sci-fi/fantasy franchise, Disney is betting on the funny bone with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The space adventure stars Martin Freeman as befuddled Brit Arthur Dent, who embarks on his adventure after planet Earth is earmarked for destruction to make way for an intergalactic freeway.

Who the heck is Martin Freeman?

Fans of the BBC-TV comedy series "The Office" know him as hapless white- collar wonk Tim Canterbury, but to most moviegoers, he's a cipher. Last summer Disney rolled the dice on another comedic British TV actor when it cast Steve Coogan in "Around the World in 80 Days." That gamble didn't pay off. But "Hitchhiker" executive producer Robbie Stamp is confident that, in this case, the film's trailer and grassroots hype generated by the worldwide cult of "Hitchhiker" fans will get bodies into seats when the film opens April 29.

"Hitchhiker" certainly had plenty of time to build a following. For two decades, creator Douglas Adams masterminded the "Hitchhiker" novels, translated into 25 languages, plus a British radio show and TV series. Adams died four years ago. "For Douglas, the comedy came first," says Stamp, a longtime associate of Adams. "The science fiction is not incidental, because obviously that's the backdrop, but first and foremost he wanted this to be a funny movie."

"Hitchhiker" endured a long and bumpy ride to the big screen. Ivan Reitman ("Animal House") was attached in the early '80s, followed by former Monkee Michael Nesmith. In 1997 Jay Roach ("Austin Powers") came onboard and spent years developing the piece, during which time there was talk of Jim Carrey in a starring role.

"Jay finally decided in early 2004 he wasn't going to be the person to bring it home," Stamp says. "Through Spike Jonze, we found Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith." Director Jennings and producer Goldsmith, known as "Hammer & Tong," were hired on the strength of their music videos. This is their first feature film.

Despite the absence of a name director or well-known lead, Stamp thinks that, at the very least, his "Hitchhiker" movie has remained true to the original vision of its creator. "I've been involved with the project for nine years now, so I feel the responsibility to Douglas Adams very strongly. He wanted a whole new generation to come and find what's cool and funny and different about the absurdities of life."

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New 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' Pic
March 10th, 2005
Source: The Hollywood News
Posted by: Paul Heath

Getting more and more excited about the upcoming 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' movie? Well, get even more excited because we've received a new image featuring the main three characters from the film, Ford Prefect (Mos Def, left), Arthur (Martin Freeman, center), and Zaphod (Sam Rockwell, right), as they attempt to use their charm on the Vogon bureaucracy in a scene from the hilarious comedy.

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L to R: Mos Def (Ford Perfect), Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent), Sam Rockwell (Zaphod Beeblebrox)
IMDb - Photo gallery for Martin Freeman (II)

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Mos Def as Ford Prefect and Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent - Hitchhiker's Guide
I found this little item while searching Google's Martin Freeman Images. The original photo is huge.

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Coming Soon! - Latest News - Hitchhiker's Guide

Nighy, Freeman & Davis Join Hitchhiker's Guide Source: BBCi Films, Cinescape Monday, January 12, 2004

BBCi Films reports that Love Actually star Bill Nighy and Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) are set to topline sci-fi comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Nighy says he's been cast as alien planet designer Slartibartfast in the long-gestating adaptation of Douglas Adams' novel. Freeman will play Arthur Dent, the everyday Earthling thrust into an interplanetary adventure.

"I'm a big fan of the book and the people who are making it are very cool people and I think they're going to do a good job," says Nighy. "It's a really good script. It's really, really faithful [to the book]. All the jokes are there and they're big fat jokes. It's wonderful. And with all the technology we have now, it can not only be a big satisfying comedy but I figure it could be quite exciting as well."

Nighy also added that a director is not set yet, although it was last believed that Garth Jennings would be helming the film. In an interview with Fangoria, actor Warwick Davis ("Leprechaun" and "Harry Potter" films) indicated he will also star.

In related news, Cinescape has received a scoop on where some of the filming may take place:

The scooper told us that Labrador Pictures will assist the HITCHHIKER'S production shoot in Iceland "either in April or August this year" and that the location will likely be on a glacier, as in the case with the soon-to-be filming BATMAN shoot. It's expected that the exterior shoot will only take up about a week or a little more of time and only cost the production about a million dollars. When our scooper tried to find out more information they were told that the scenes in question "will concern the white and dark planet (don't remember that from the book, though I've read it more than once."

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Freeman Goes from 'Office' to 'Hitchhiker'
The Mediadrome
Thursday, January 29, 2004

The forever-in-the-works big screen take on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy moved closer to production today with the announcement that Martin Freeman of the Golden Globe-winning The Office is confirmed as Arthur Dent. Freeman will be joining Zooey Deschanel (Trillian) and Mos Def (Ford Prefect) in the Spyglass Entertainment/Disney flick.

The road to a multiplex near you has been more than usually convoluted for Hitchhiker. It began life as a BBC radio show, then became a book and then a TV series. The TV series had production values in the cardboard and chewing gum category, but was a classic interpretation of the tale.

The only major role left to cast is that of the mercurial (and two-headed) Zaphod Beeblebrox. Robert Downey, Jr. was reportedly in talks for the part, but was rejected due to insurance costs and the fact that he wanted script changes. The script was penned by the late Douglas Adams himself after numerous other writers had failed to hit the mark, and with hordes of fans worldwide waiting with bated breath to see if a US company can make this very British comic scifi confection play, the producer's are unlikely to make major changes to satisfy the whim of an actor. If Lord of the Rings has taught Hollywood anything, it's that respecting the source of a revered work will actually pay off at the box office.