2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Universe's narrator, actor Douglas Rain, was cast as the voice of HAL.
• Originally, Kubrick and Clarke had planned to develop a 2001 novel first, free of the constraints of film, and then write the screenplay.
• The film was voted the 47th most inspiring film on the 100 Years...
• The Dawn of Man sequence that opens the film was shot at Borehamwood with John Alcott as cinematographer after Geoffrey Unsworth left to work on other projects.
• After completing Dr. Strangelove (1964), director Stanley Kubrick told a publicist from Columbia Pictures that his next project would be about extraterrestrial life, and resolved to make "the proverbial good science fiction movie".
• The film was originally scheduled for a Christmas 1966 release, but was later delayed to early 1967, then later to October 1967.
• Kubrick and editor Ray Lovejoy edited the film between 5 and 9 April 1968.
• In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed it as the 19th best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.
• Kubrick was in part inspired to make the scene by seeing abstract effects in experimental films, such as the 1963 short film Sublimated Birth, whose creators would later work on the Star Gate sequence.
• The film had a reissue on a test basis on 24 July 1974 at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and grossed $53,000 in its first week, which led to an expanded reissue.
• Taking its re-releases into account, it is the highest-grossing film of 1968 in the United States and Canada.
• At the proper moment, the stage-hand first loosened his grip on the wire, causing Dullea to fall toward the camera, then, while holding the wire firmly, jumped off the platform, causing Dullea to ascend back toward the hatch.
• All of the music North originally wrote was recorded commercially by his friend and colleague Jerry Goldsmith with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and released on Varèse Sarabande CDs shortly after Telarc's first theme release and before North's death.
• Similar detailed instructions for replacing the explosive bolts also appear on the hatches of the EVA pods, most visibly in close-up just before Bowman's pod leaves the ship to rescue Poole.
• Art director Anthony Masters suggested making the monolith's surface matte black.

Source: Wikipedia

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