by Adabisi

This edit is intended to satisfy fans who weren’t happy with the film. It’s still not 100% faithful to the book, but it’s as close as it’s going to get.
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Original film name: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
New film name: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The Almost, But Not Quite, Entirely Unlike the Movie Edit
Original runtime: 109 mins
New runtime: 60 mins
Amount of time Cut/Added: 49 mins

The intention of this fanedit:
To create a version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that’s as close to the book as possible.

Cuts removed/added/extended:

• -Added some title cards at the beginning
• -Moved the title sequence to the beginning, followed by Arthur at home
• -So long and thanks, but no thanks for the cheesy musical number
• -removed the flashback to Arthur and Trillian at the costume party and Arthur whining to Ford about her
• -The Answer no longer gets revealed 42 minutes into the movie. You win some, you lose some.
• -rearranged and cut scenes on the Heart of Gold to remove a lot of Zaphod’s silliness and tone down the love triangle aspect
• -removed the Vogons chasing the Heart of Gold
• -removed the trips to Viltvodle VI and Vogsphere
• -moved the Guide entry on dolphins to approximately where it is in the book
• -removed Zaphod, Ford and Trillian’s encounter with Deep Thought in Magrathea and the Point of View Gun bit. They go through the portal and we don’t see them again until Arthur’s coming home party
• -removed Arthur’s rant about whether Trillian was “the one” or not
• -removed the standoff with the Vogons at the end, the recreation of the Earth and everything after Arthur kills the mice except a couple of lines of dialogue
• -removed Marvin’s lame joke at the very end. Marvin gets left on Magrathea
• -the original Journey of the Sorcerer plays over the end credits

Did not remove/change, but also not in the book:

• -Arthur and Ford’s initial meeting (Ford’s line about cars being the dominant life form is in the book. Close enough)
• -Arthur tells Trillian that the Earth was destroyed (in the book she figures it out for herself)
• -Trillian surprised by the mice in her bag (in the book she brought them with her. Again, close enough)
• -the Deep Thought entry from the Magrathean archives takes place on the Heart of Gold, not Magrathea (no biggie)
• -After they engage the Infinite Improbability Drive to travel to Magrathea, Zaphod’s and Trillian’s clothes change and Zaphod has an odd helmet on his head. Must’ve been a strange effect of engaging the Drive.
• -Arthur killing the mice (not in the book, but you need some kind of end to the story)

Those are the major ones. There are various other minor elements that were not in the book, but retained in the edit.

Additional Comment:
I’m a huge Douglas Adams fan, read everything he’s written many times over, and spent more money that I’d like to admit on the various incarnations of the Guide. I’m probably in the minority in that I actually liked the film, including most of the changes to it. With this edit, I wasn’t too sad to see the Vogsphere and Viltvodle VI bits go, but the Point of View Gun was a great bit. It would’ve been nice to keep it, but if it’s going to be faithful to the book, it had to go. This also means that the shootout at the end had to go as well, which in turn makes the ending to the edit feel somewhat abrupt. It is what it is.

It’s safe to say that Douglas Adams would’ve hated this edit. He always saw the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a constantly evolving story and almost all the changes to the movie were his. But this edit is intended to satisfy fans who weren’t happy with the film. It’s still not 100% faithful to the book, but it’s as close as it’s going to get.

DVD Details:

• NTSC SL DVD
• Ac-3 5.1 Audio
• Menus
• Chapter Stops
• Cover Art included

Time needed for the edition: about a week

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IMAGES:
cover art by adabisi (download here):

Faneditforum Link

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