What makes thisDirk Gentlydifferent?
Landis continued:
The way youre told the story is more interesting than the story itself.
it’s possible for you to list the things that happen inHitchhikerson one hand in the first book.
Five things happen in that entire book.
The rest is tangents and meanderings.
The same could be said of theDirk Gentlybooks.
Its more of a tribute album than a direct cover.
is not a central figure of this show.
Its more the people and what they do.
Its a quirky detective show.Dirk Gentlybooks are not detective books.
Dirk Gentlyis executive produced by Arvind Ethan David, who brought Landis onto the project.
David not only worked with Adams himself, but has been a hugeDirk Gentlyfan for decades.
He even wrote and starred in his own adaptation of the novels when he was in high school.
And I said, Didnt they just do that for TV?
And he said, Yeah, but I want to do the real version.
I want to do the crazy version.
I mean how do you adapt tone?
Douglas wrote a speech, I think in the first book, about the way Dirk works.
And Dirk says, I believe in the interconnectedness of all things.
And thats taken word for word and put in the script.
Instead, Landis and executive producer Robert Cooper focused on translating the tone and making the characters relatable.
Cooper said of their strategy: I think you want to surprise people with the absurd, you know?
You want to constantly keep them on their toes and say: This is not what I expected.
You have to still stay in the story and not sort of get launched off the planet.
I think Max has done a really excellent job of making [Dirk] relatable.
One of the tenets of creating great characters is creating pathos and understanding in that person.
Why are they behaving that way?
Even a homicidal maniac.
And both Maxs writing and Sams performance bring that to the Dirk Gently character in spades.
