Deschanel Hip to Hitchhiker

Zooey Deschanel, co-star of the SF movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that production has wrapped on the upcoming film adaptation of the late Douglas Adams' beloved satire. "It's done," Deschanel said in an interview. "It was great. It was so much fun to make that movie. We had these 7-foot-tall alien Vogon puppets. They built four different alien planets, the Heart of Gold set, like, the most amazing sets, and all the actors were great. I'm making up my own system to control the ship and everything. It was really fun."

Deschanel plays Trillian in the adaptation of the first of Adams' Hitchhiker books, which were inspired by his original BBC radio serial, about a hapless Brit (Martin Freeman) taken aboard a starship by a wacky crew of aliens after Earth is destroyed. Adams wrote a draft of the screenplay before he died unexpectedly in May 2001 of a heart attack. Deschanel (Elf) said that it was an exciting experience for her, particularly in light of the more serious character roles she's played in the past. "Trillian's like a genius," she said. "It was fun to play that."

Deschanel said that much of the production was kept in secrecy, but she was able to reveal a few details about her costume. "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be talking about it, because they were very protective," she said. "We had to wear robes if we were ever out in public. ... I have a couple of different costumes, but the main one is this sort of aqua one-piece suit, sort of like a karate one-piece. It's really cool."

Deschanel said that she enjoyed the challenge of performing in such a fantastical story. "That was a real 'going-back-to-your-childhood' sort of thing," she said. "It's just the most fun to walk on set and have it be a spaceship that you're running around, and you have to pretend to be hit by missiles." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is scheduled for release May 6, 2005.