Grant, Carrey to Hitch Hike?

Movie 'close to fruition'

Hugh Grant and Jim Carrey could star in the film version of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Plans for a movie version of Douglas Adams's cult series have been rattling around Hollywood for five years.

But now the project is closer to being made than ever before, according to Adams's agent Ed Victor.

He told the BBC: "I know that Douglas thought Hugh Grant would make a marvellous Arthur and one of the Hollywood actors who's been tracking this for a long time, who wanted to play Zaphod Beeblebrox, was Jim Carrey.

"Ironically, since Douglas's death things have started to look better for the film, because a lot of people have determined that it must be made in honour of him."

Adams's final book, The Salmon of Doubt, is to be posthumously published in May.

It will be a compilation of short stories, essays, lectures, and articles rescued from his computer's hard drive.

Included are Adams's first published work (a letter to a boys' magazine written when he was 12), a piece about a hike up Mount Kilimanjaro dressed as a rhino, the short story The Private Life of Genghis Khan, a Hitch Hikers story called Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, and a lecture on the evolution of civilization.

And the centrepiece of the book, which will feature an introduction by Stephen Fry, are ten chapters from A Salmon of Doubt - the sixth episode of the Hitch Hiker's series.

Shaye Areheart, editorial director of Harmony Books, said: "We are lucky to have this treasure trove of truly hilarious and thought-provoking material as a lasting remembrance and tribute to one of the most creative and amusing writers of our time."

The book will be published to coincide with the first anniversary of his death of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 49.

Amazon.co.uk are taking pre-orders for the title, priced £16.99. Click here to buy it.

Published: 7 Jan 2002

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