The Underview on 2001 EXTRAS

  The Extras consist of:

Première season schedule

Kubrick's inspirations (1)...

...and (2)...

...and some of Clarke's

Unused shots

2001: the première season schedule

World Première: Uptown Theatre, Washington D.C., April 2 1968
April 4 Los Angeles Warner Hollywood Theatre	April 4 New York Loew's Capitol	April 10 Boston Cinerama Theatre
April 10 Chicago Cinestage Theatre	April 10 Detroit Summit Theatre	April 10 Houston Windsor Cinerama Theatre
April 10 San Francisco Orpheum Theatre	April 11 Johannesburg Royal Cinema Theatre	April 11 London Casino Theatre
April 11 Osaka O. S. Gekijo	April 11 Sydney Plaza Theatre	April 11 Tokyo Theatre
	Première season at the Broadway Loew's Capitol in New York (left) The Capitol was demolished following the 2001 season (but not because of it, we hope). Thanks to Stephen Powell for the picture and information   London's ex-Casino Theatre thirty years after the 2001 première (right), having long since been converted to the Prince Edward Theatre   Photos of other theatres listed above gladly received for inclusion!

Kubrick's inspirations (1)...

References to 2001 turn up in all sorts of interesting places, sometimes far removed from what might usually be associated with "the only science- fiction movie ever made". For example, a book published by W.H. Allen, London, in 1984: "Doctor Who - The Key To Time", by Peter Haining. Here is the entry dated December 11, 1965 (remember, this was the time when production of "2001: A Space Odyssey" was getting into gear). "The 'Counter-Plot' episode of the epic 'The Daleks' Master Plan' is screened. A few days later producer John Wiles receives a phonecall from MGM's studios at Borehamwood, North London, where Stanley Kubrick's new film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is in production. Having watched some of the previous week's episodes, the Visual Effects team, headed by Wally Weevers and Douglas Trumbull, are intrigued by the Doctor Who crew's achievements... both in the illusion of weightlessness - as seen with the death of Katarina in episode four - and in matter transportation, demonstrated when the Doctor, Sara and Steven are projected to the planet Mira. Giving credit to director Douglas Camfield, Wiles explains that the space- travel scenes were accomplished by techniques involving the use of special transparencies and video-effects generators, and that the weightless shots were done simply by aiming a camera vertically upwards at an actress suspended immediately above by a wire from the studio ceiling. Curiously enough, when 2001 is eventually released in 1967, permutations of those same techniques, pioneered by Camfield in Doctor Who, are clearly in evidence."

...the favour returned...

This entry from the Doctor Who book (see above) appears for December 15, 1973 (well after the release of 2001).

"A new season of Doctor Who...introduces...a new set of title graphics, again designed and executed by graphics specialist Bernard Lodge but this time using rostrum camera animation for the 'time tunnel' background...Lodge confesses to being influenced by Douglas Trumbull's 'Star Gate' effects in 2001, and to using the same technique to create the patterns which swirl out of nowhere and past the camera for the Doctor Who titles."

...and (2)...

Chesley Bonestell's work throughout the formative years of space rocketry was an inspiration for many, just as Kubrick's own work on 2001 inspired others to find their own places in the world of cinema. Compare this painting by Bonestell (left) with a familiar scene from 2001 (right). Can there be any doubt that Kubrick was influenced by Bonestell's stirring visions?
Click on the Bonestell Space Art link below for more about the great artist.

Bonestell illustration © Chesley Bonestell Estate / courtesy Bonestell Space Art The illustration is also reproduced in "Blueprint for Space: Science Fiction to Science Fact", edited by Frederick I. Ordway III and Randy Lierbermann, © 1992 by the Smithsonian Institution

...and some of Clarke's

Following are some passages quoted from "2001: A Space Odyssey", alongside extracts from works by other writers. Consider that Clarke wrote his short story "Sentinel of Eternity", which lent itself to subsequent development as "2001: A Space Odyssey", in 1948, and compare the dates. Certainly, it may be assumed that as a young writer yet to achieve any status, Clarke would have been an eager reader of other writers in his field, most of whom were published in pulp SF magazines of the time. Remember that "Sentinel of Eternity" was itself first published in pulp form, as detailed in my "Odyssey Books" page.

First, some familiar words from Arthur C. Clarke. "He put out his hand and felt a cold, hard surface... The object before which the spacesuited man was posing was a vertical slab of jet- black material, about ten feet high and five feet wide... it was so black it seemed to have swallowed up the light falling upon it; there was no surface detail at all. It was impossible to tell whether it was made of stone, or metal, or plastic - or some material altogether unknown to man... it has nothing to do with the human race - for when it was buried, there were no humans... What you are now looking at is the first evidence of intelligent life beyond the Earth..."

Now, some less familiar words... or are they? "...in the center of the glade reared a gaunt figure of black stone... some sixteen feet in height and about a foot and a half thick. It had once evidently been highly polished... the stone of which it was composed was a dully gleaming black, whose surface... created a curious illusion of semi- transparency... No connection of the Stone with any other artifact in the world suggested itself... It was as if the monolith had been reared by alien hands, in an age distant and apart from human ken... Now that I had seen the curious thing, my desire was still more keenly whetted to investigate the matter further and seek to learn by what strange hands and for what strange purpose the Black Stone had been reared in the long ago." From "The Black Stone", Robert E. Howard, copyright 1931 by The Popular Fiction Publishing Company; copyright 1946 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, as one of the tales forming the mythos of Cthulhu invented by the late H.P. Lovecraft.

More from Clarke... "At first we thought it might be an outcrop of magnetic rock, but all the geological evidence was against it. And not even a big nickel- iron meteorite could produce a field as intense as this... the hard, black material of the slab had resisted all... attempts... to obtain samples." From "2001: A Space Odyssey", Arthur C. Clarke, copyright 1968 by Arthur C. Clarke and Polaris Productions Inc.

...and others. "...instruments... detected a... magnetic influence... From the surface indications, the secondary pole we found was small, so small that the magnetic effect it had was preposterous. No magnetic material conceivable could have that effect... Something came down out of space... driven and lifted by forces men haven't discovered yet... the metal was something we didn't know. Our... tools wouldn't touch it." From "Who Goes There?", John W. Campbell writing as Don A. Stuart, copyright c1942 by Street & Smith Publications Inc. John Carpenter's 1982 classic SF/Horror movie, "The Thing", was based on "Who Goes There?".

Unused shots

A number of images from "2001: A Space Odyssey" are rarely seen. Some were removed by Stanley Kubrick after its controversial première, and others were shot as still photographs for publicity and other purposes. Here are a few such.

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