'Mice?'

Books In Tesco yesterday buying my weekend's supply of water I happened upon the film tie-in copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Of course I bought it. I've been collecting editions of the book for years, whenever I see them in used book stores and charity shops. I like them to be in fairly poor condition, as though they'd be read by someone who's been travelling the galaxy with them. This one needed to be new though -- seems only right. The novel has been typeset again, with the film's thumb logo at the top of each chapter, which in a new innovation each start on a new page, which has the effect of making it feel even longer. Although the abrupt ending is still there, albeit on page 220.

The other hundred pages are taken up by an afterword by Executive Producer Robbie Stamp offering an useful insights into the script development, before and after the death of Douglas and actually getting the project greenlit. There are also spoilery interviews with the main cast -- I've only really skimmed but there are a few things which are really different in the film, but not necessarily in a bad way. Although on reading this and seeing the trailer there does appear to be lots of dialogue which has been re-written, which is going to be odd considering how well I know the original words. "Nuts to your white mice..."