The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
A $60-million PG movie from Walt Disney pictures is released in Summer 2005. It stars Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast and the supercool hip-hop artist Mos Def as Ford Prefect. The UK and US releases of the film will be simultaneous and receive massive media attention worldwide. THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY was voted the nations fourth most popular book by the BBCs Big Read and the Young Picador edition will bring this perenially popular novel to a brand-new teenage readership. Well over 2 million copies of Douglas Adamss books have been sold in the UK to date.