There’s a new TV adaptation of Douglas Adams’ beloved novel/radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – and if it works, it’ll be third time lucky for the plucky franchise.
The new push is happening on US streaming service Hulu by showrunner Carlton Cuse (Lost) and co-writer Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman), and since it’s only just been announced and the people responsible are currently working on other projects we assume it’s at least a couple of years away.
However, would it be too much to hope that it was based on the stuff Adams wrote for once? Because let’s be honest: the predecessors have been a bit… well, crap.
The BBC did a well-loved TV adaptation in 1981 which used a bunch of actors from the original radio series, but had obvious budget issues (most notably with Zaphod Beeblebrox’s very, very fake second head) and inexplicably turned the sole female character Trillian – a genius mathematician and astrophysicist with a unquenchable zest for life and adventure – into a ditz.
Meanwhile the 2005 movie version of Hitchhiker’s Guide did a better job of her – played by Zooey Deschanel – but managed to get almost everything else wrong, including giving the main character Arthur Dent a redemption arc which made no sense.
He finally becomes “brave”? The dude lay down in front of a bulldozer in the very first scene! He’s irredeemably stubborn and grumpy and continues to be so in the face of all of the wonders of the galaxy! That’s the entire point of the character!
Anyway: I have annoyingly strong feelings about this material.
In any case, here’s hoping they take in the third and best book, Life, The Universe And Everything, because I for one have always dreamed of seeing an on-screen representation of Marvin the Paranoid Android having a conversation with a wild mattress in the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta.
Don’t judge me.
