Even after 500 pages, the reserved, controlling Kubrick feels like a distant figure. In the end, this is very much Clarke's story. Key figures, such as special effects expert Douglas Trumbull and actor Keir Dullea, are introduced quickly only to disappear for long stretches (helpfully, Benson does includes a list of major characters). Unfortunately, Benson struggles to cover his protracted story, which is alternately sketchy and repetitive. It plays out as a straightforward production history but one set apart by the project's massive scale and extended gestation period, from Kubrick making first contact with Clarke in 1964, with a two-page letter proposing 'doing the proverbial really good' science fiction movie,' to the film's 1968 release. “At last! The dense, intense, detailed, and authoritative saga of the making of the greatest motion picture I’ve ever seen …Michael Benson has done the Cosmos a great service” (Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks).īenson (Otherworlds) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the classic SF film 2001: A Space Odyssey with this wide-ranging, if somewhat lopsided, chronicle of the collaboration between director Stanley Kubrick and novelist-turned-screenwriter Arthur C. And it features dozens of photos from the making of the film, most never previously published. Drawing also from other previously unpublished interviews, Space Odyssey provides a 360-degree view of the film from its genesis to its legacy, including many previously untold stories. He has had the cooperation of Kubrick’s widow, Christiane, and interviewed most of the key people still alive who worked on the film. In Space Odyssey, author, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Benson “delivers expert inside stuff” ( San Francisco Chronicle) from his extensive research of Kubrick’s and Clarke’s archives. Drawing from Clarke’s ideas and with one of the author’s short stories as the initial inspiration, their bold vision benefited from pioneering special effects that still look extraordinary today, even in an age of computer-generated images. Strangelove, Kubrick wanted to make the first truly first-rate science fiction film. Fresh off the success of his cold war satire Dr. The movie was the product of a singular collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and science fiction visionary Arthur C. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted the first contacts between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence. Clarke- “a tremendous explication of a tremendous film….Breathtaking” ( The Washington Post).įifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C.

Space odyssey by michael benson