It stars Sam Rockwell, Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey), Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, and John Malkovich, and the voices of Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Richard Griffiths, Thomas Lennon, Ian McNeice, and Alan Rickman.

However, the two are picked up by the starship Heart of Gold, aboard which they meet Ford's "semi-cousin" Zaphod Beeblebrox, the newly elected president of the Galaxy.

He has stolen the ship along with Tricia "Trillian" McMillan, an Earth woman whom Arthur had met previously, and Marvin, a clinically depressed robot.

Zaphod seeks the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything to match the disappointing answer given by the supercomputer Deep Thought: "42".

He believes that the answer lies on the planet Magrathea, which is only accessible using the Heart of Gold's improbability drives through trial and error.

Before her rescue, Trillian learns that Zaphod personally signed the order for the destruction of Earth, while assuming that the Vogon with the relevant permission form was a fan who wanted his autograph.

While Arthur and his companions take cover, Marvin reboots and uses the Point-of-View gun to force the Vogons into a crippling state of depression.

Edgar Wright, Garth Jennings, and Jason Schwartzman appear uncredited as a Deep Thought technician, the voice of Frankie Mouse, and Gag Halfrunt, respectively.

Bringing The Hitchhiker's Guide to a theatrical version started as early as the 1970s, as documented in The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes.

[4] In 1982, Adams signed an option for the film with producers Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck and Michael C. Gross, and completed three scripts for them.

As part of the rewrites, Medjuck and Gross offered the idea of bringing in either Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd to play Ford Prefect.

[5][6][7] Movement on the film was quiet until around 2001, when director Jay Roach, using the clout he had gained from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Meet the Parents, secured a new deal with Adams and production through Disney.

Roach brought in Karey Kirkpatrick to complete the screenplay based on Adams' final draft, submitted just before his death.

An audio collection called "Additional Guide Entries", read by Fry, was released to iTunes to promote the film.

You will hear dialogue that preserves the content of written humor at the cost of sounding as if the characters are holding a Douglas Adams reading ...

[14]Manohla Dargis called it "hugely likable" with a story arc structured "more or less" as "a long beginning and then an ending"; she calls Jim Henson's Creature Shop's Vogons "beautifully constructed" and noted that Sam Rockwell's performance is "sensational, ... riffing on Elvis and the current President George Bush".

The savour and flavour of the Adams original, its playfully ruminative feel, has been downgraded in favour of a jolly but less interesting outerspace romp.

"[15] Philip French, after describing the Vogons as "a species resembling Laughton's version of Quasimodo" and writing it is "not, except in its financing, anything resembling a standard Hollywood production", and called the film "slightly old-fashioned (few things date as rapidly as science fiction and our view of the future) and somewhat commonplace through its embracing familiar special effects.

It's funnier, and obviously cleverer, than Spaceballs, Mel Brooks's puerile spoof on Star Wars, but a good bit less engaging than Galaxy Quest.

The song was written by English composer Joby Talbot, conductor Christopher Austin, and director Garth Jennings and performed by the Tenebrae Choir.

Neil Hannon, founder and frontman of the Irish pop group The Divine Comedy, of which Talbot is a former member, lent his vocals to the version of the song played during the ending credits.

Single disc widescreen (2.35:1) and full-screen (1.33:1) editions (Region 1, NTSC) were released in the United States and Canada on 13 September 2005.