Great little piece about the making of the Marmite-mungous 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Choice quotes:
Keir Dullea: “The first day of shooting ended up being delayed because Kubrick didn’t like my shoes.”
Douglas Trumbull: “The orbiting space station ended up in a dump in Stevenage.”
Hal nearly had a cockney voice, which would have resulted in the eternal silence of interstellar space being shattered by things like “Oi, Bowman, put dose memmary benks beck NAAAOW, you TOILIT!”
It’s enough to make you toss your bone up (hurr)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/12/how-we-made-2001-a-space-odyssey-stanley-kubrick-hal
Moose the Mooche says
Also, the decision not to let Leonard Rossitter do his Rigsby voice was crucial:
“Hulking great monoliths on the moon? Myyyy god, Miss Jones!”
GCU Grey Area says
I used to have a great paperback about the making of the film. Had early script drafts, interviews and some pics of the models, plus ‘The Sentinel’ short story. Might have been American.
I have got an unbuilt Airfix Pan-Am ‘Clipper’ from the film, and you can get models of many of the craft in the film, including a three-foot long ‘Discovery’. Which does look awfully like a sperm. . .
Moose the Mooche says
I tried to make a life-size replica of the monolith from bluetac. The result was, putting it mildly, unimpressive.
The effect wasn’t improved by my solo version of the Ligeti Requiem. I nearly split me clacker.
GCU Grey Area says
http://www.culttvmanshop.com/2001-Discovery-1144-scale-from-Moebius-Models-_p_4071.html
Forty inches long. . .
Sniffity says
From http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=41376
“Trevor Parsons writes
I was at college in Stevenage (about 15 miles away from St Albans in the early 1970’s). Our studio, we were studying graphic art, faced the entrance to the local corporation dump. One afternoon in 1974 a truck turned up after the dump was closed & left some crates in the entrance way. They contained 2 of the models used in 2001, the space wheel & one of the pods. Of course they may not have been the only ones but I believe they were genuine (the film had been made about 20 miles away at Boreham Wood the old MGM studios). By the time I got there the pod had been taken, the space wheel damaged & taken out its wooden case. I took pictures of it, its surface had been covered with bits of old plastic construction kits to make it look more technical when filmed. I desperately wanted to take it home, but I only had a motor bike & a room 8 feet by 10 so it was not really workable. It was smashed up by kids a few days later. ”
Scroll down a bit and there’s the photo he took of the dumped space station.
fentonsteve says
I can confirm that Stevenage is still, in 2018, about 15 miles away from St Albans.
Sewer Robot says
It hadn’t escaped my attention that the 50th anniversary of the release of TTAO:ASO was imminent
(Awesome! So now we can buy it again in a different box for £150 – The Massive)
and I had been assembling a list of sci fi films* (*with a couple of cheats) for each year since, paying particular attention to those which owed a debt to it. This is as far as I had got:
2017 War For The Planet Of The Apes – It’s got smart apes!
2016 Midnight Special – There’s a kid and he may be the next stage in human evolution. Or not.
2015 World Of Tomorrow – Prepare to have your brain turned inside out while observing a person at different ages.
2014 Ex Machina – THE
MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
2013 Under The Skin – It’s there in the cold detached attitude to humanity (that beach scene!) and the death pool: smooth, black and alien like the monolith. Not to mention the juxtaposition of odd scenes where you can’t figure out what’s going on with the utterly prosaic (mind, with an impenetrable Weegie accent).
2012 Robot + Frank – THE MACHINES WANT TO ….HELP US PULL OFF A BLAG!
2011 Love – A stranded astronaut discovers something that causes him to have a transcendental experience. With added light show.
2010 Inception – “Great visuals, load of old nonsense”versus “All-time brainy classic”. Discuss.
2009 Moon – I know my computer’s voice is meant to be reassuring, but something about it makes me feel queasy..
2008 Wall E – Well there’s the obvious visual reference of Auto’s big red eye and possibly unhelpful bossiness.
2007 Timecrimes
2006 Children Of Men
2005 Serenity
2004 Eternal Sunshine / Primer – Take your pick, both have devoted fans who think they are the bee’s knees and both have legions who regard the latter as an infuriating conundrum and the former as a load of pretentious toss.
2003 Battlestar Galactica – THE MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
2002 Minority Report
2001 Donnie Darko – A perplexing (ambiguous) narrative that leaves you scratching your head after? ✔️
2000 Battle Royale
1999 The Matrix – THE MACHINES WANT TO …er… FARM US!
1998 Dark City – The lives of humans are manipulated by smart aliens.
1997 Contact – Jodie, travelling through a load of fizz bang effects, leaves the human race behind to achieve enlightenment.
1996 Star Trek: First Contact – It’s got first contact!
1995 12 Monkeys
1994 Stargate – It’s got a stargate!
1993 Jurassic Park – jaw-dropping, never-seen-before special effects make it the must-see event of the year. ✔️
1992 Star Trek 6
1991 Terminator 2 – THE MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
1990 Total Recall
1989 Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
1988 Akira
1987 Robocop
1986 Aliens
1985 Back To The Future – Where you’re going, you won’t need roads.
1984 The Terminator – THE MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
1983 Videodrome – Another far out director makes a confusing but visually stunning film.
1982 Blade Runner – Looks nice ✔️ very influential ✔️ highly regarded ✔️
1981 Mad Max 2 – like Fury Road, but without the female-empowering scene of models in their undies sucking on a water hose.
1980 Cosmos – The spirit of 2001 is all there in The Pale Blue Dot, Relativity explained with mopeds, speculation about starsailing and Carl at the helm of a ship powered by f**king Vangelis – what mere movie could compete?
1979 Alien – Hmmm. Our computer-brained buddy has just told us we’re in the middle of a mission we never knew was the mission.
1978 The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Pfffft! The answer is the easy part…
Bloody computers!
1977 Close Encounters Of The Third Kind – Spielberg tries to capture some of the almost religious awe many people find in 2001 (the ape tribe are “chosen people” elevated by a Godlike power. Dave is like an Old Testament character who gets to hear the voice of God).
The camera pervs over a spaceship.
1976 The Man Who Fell To Earth – Another far out director makes a confusing, but visually stunning film
1975 A Boy And His Dog
1974 Dark Star – Another argument with a space ship computer. This time, it’s the crew who have the best doobies.
1973 Westworld – and THE MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
1972 Silent Running – Never Mind The Buses, It’s Mutiny In Space!
1971 The Andromeda Strain – Scientists who look like scientists rather than models, follow procedure that is detailed and realistic to the point of dull (for some).
1970 Colossus: The Forbin Project – THE MACHINES WANT TO KILL US!
1969 The Monitors – Like 2001, this is also best watched with a big bifter…
Tiggerlion says
It’s no coincidence you skip over the plot of 12 Monkeys.
I don’t regard myself as a lover of sci-fi, or cinema for that matter, but I’ve seen almost all of those and enjoyed pretty much all of them.
Moose the Mooche says
“Possibly unhelpful bossiness”… love it.
Carl says
A Boy And His Dog:
In a post apocalyptic world an itinerant survivor (the unknown pre-Miami Vice Don Johnson) finds his dream of unending sex with beautiful women turns into a nightmare. Fortunately his telepathic dog is smarter than he is and comes to his rescue.
Sewer Robot says
Also: wrt the comment in The Guardian article about a travelling show of stuff from the movie, there is this clip of Mythbuster Adam Savage visiting a travelling Kubrick exhibition: