Austin Powers director to make 'Hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy'

Austin Powers director Jay Roach is to make a Hollywood adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Karey Kirkpatrick, who wrote Chicken Run, is to complete the film’s script from a draft version written by cult author Douglas Adams before his death last year.

Adams will be posthumously credited as an executive producer in the movie which follows the adventures of Englishman Arthur Dent who is taken on a tour of the universe by an alien after discovering the Earth is to be flattened for a hyperspace bypass.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy originally started out as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978.

From there it exploded into a series of best-selling novels and, in 1984, Adams became the youngest author to receive a Golden Pan award.

The saga also became a hit BBC television series, video game and, more recently, website.