13/02/02 : Exclusive interview of Jim Cirile, a screenwriter who wrote a sript for the hitchhiker's movie.

Jim Cirile : Bit of a long story. My partner and I were asked by one of Jay Roach's agents at ICM to write the script. The agent (...) was also a big fan of our writing. It was advised that we make it more accessible, and "make the story work as a movie." That was about our only guidance.

But, since we're not million-dollar writers, we'd never get the assignment, and the only way to get it was to blow them away with a excellent spec.

So, since my partner and I are huge Adams fans, we decided to risk it and budgeted the time to write the script, knowing full well it could go down in flames. But we were confident that with ICM pushing our draft we'd have a shot.

What we didn't count on was that Jay would be so eager to get things moving, he'd hire another writer before we could even get our draft over there.

Nicolas Botti : when did you begin to work on the draft?

Jim Cirile : Around end of August I think. It came together very quickly. After my partner Chris and I re-read all the Hitchhiker's books, we had a very clear idea of what needed to be done to make this into an exciting space adventure comedy film while still true to Adams. One big inspiration was the old Infocom H2G2 text adventure game, which we actually paid homage to in our script (2). That game takes place firmly in the H2G2 universe yet they changed the plot quite a bit, with great success. So we took a cue from the game and tried to do the same thing in our script. I think it was about 8 very intense weeks from start to finish, and then another 3 weeks of rewrites based on reader feedback.

Nicolas Botti : Do you think you were faithful to the book?

Jim Cirile : I think Adams fans would like it rather a lot -- we tried to be very faithful to the spirit of the book, while still making the necessary concessions to make it accessible to mass audiences. Our version is sort of like HGG meets Galaxy Quest (3).

Nicolas Botti : You said you are a huge douglas adams fan...

Jim Cirile : I love Adams, I find him an inspiration. I also grew up on Python and Star Trek, so HGG was a natural project for me to take on. I just finished rereading Long Dark Tea Time... what a genius. My goal in writing my draft was to make a movie that would earn $300 million worldwide, thereby causing millions of people to go out and buy Adams' books, and maybe be inspired as I was.

Nicolas Botti : Have you read douglas adams draft? If yes what do you think of it?

Jim Cirile : We decided it would be best not to read it. We wanted to come at the project with a completely fresh approach. As a huge Adams fan, I'm sure I would have loved the script and would have wallowed in misery at my own inadequacies as a writer upon reading it.

Nicolas Botti : There are a lot of fans who dont believe anymore that the movie will be made after all this delays.

Jim Cirile : It seems that Jay is behind the picture, enough to persuade the studio to throw some money at it. It is entirely possible that the film could get made within 3 years. But it's also just as feasible that the script will go through many more drafts and writers before that happens. Jay is supposed to do Meet the Parents 2 next (4), and then after that, a romantic comedy, so he is theoretically booked solid for years, but, he could certainly juggle things ifthe HGG script shapes up.

I honestly believe Jay Roach is the best director for HGG. While some might say an auteur like Terry Gilliam could make a wilder, more true-to-Adams version, I think that Jay's strong comedic skill and ability to make offbeat material accessible to the masses is just what HGG needs to be a huge success.