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It was during this time of transition that director Stanley Kubrick established himself as a major force in American filmmaking. One of Hollywood’s most enigmatic personalities, Kubrick was a young filmmaker from the Bronx who had independently financed his first two features before drawing the attention of United Artists, where he completed two more films (The Killing and Paths of Glory) that scored critical, if not financial success. In 1960, he was selected to fill in for Anthony Mann to direct Kirk Douglas’ production of Spartacus. Kubrick then directed a film version of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita. He finally received both critical and commercial success in 1964 with a Cold War satire, entitled Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Only two weeks after Dr. Strangelove was released, Kubrick had already decided that his next project would be about outer space. A film publicist from Columbia Pictures who was a close friend of Arthur C. Clarke urged Kubrick to contact the British science fiction writer, who had lived in Ceylon since the mid-1950s.[5] Clarke had been interested in technology since his boyhood days, when he started tinkering with electronics and crystal radios. During World War II, Clarke worked on developing radio equipment for the British Air Force, and after the war, he became Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society. He began writing both science fiction and non-fiction “extrapolations” of the future, and his 1956 short story “The Star” won him a Hugo award from the World Science Fiction Society. His novels, such as Childhood’s End and The City and the Stars, are primarily concerned with technology and the transformation of mankind into some more advanced form of life. Already scheduled to fly to New York to promote Man and Space for Time-Life, Clarke accepted Kubrick’s invitation, and the two began to discuss various ideas for the proposed film.[6] Kubrick and Clarke planned to develop the 2001 story first as a novel, and then adapt a screenplay for the film. In practice, the novel and screenplay ended up being written almost simultaneously. Throughout 1964, Kubrick and Clarke continued brainstorming and writing, with Clarke doing almost all of the writing from his room at New York’s Hotel Chelsea. By the end of the year they had come up with enough of a manuscript to sell the idea to MGM.[7] Once the world’s largest and most profitable motion picture studio, MGM suffered greatly during the 1960s. The once-great lion of Hollywood was surrounded on every side by unhappy shareholders and creditors hoping to purchase and dismantle the company. Robert O’Brien, the studio’s chief executive, had faith in Kubrick’s vision, and gave him almost unlimited license and control over the production of 2001.[8] In the experimental environment of the mid-1960s, MGM was willing to give a director who had proven that he could be commercially successful the chance to create the first “grown-up” science fiction epic. Using Kubrick and 2001 as an example, film industry analyst James Monaco wrote, “The rules of the game had changed, as had the players. And for a few years, since no one knew what the new rules were, there was a genuine sense of freshness.”[9] In February of 1965, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced that they would finance the production of a science fiction film tentatively titled Journey Beyond the Stars. The film was budgeted at $6 million and was supposed to take two years to make. It would actually be another three years and $10.5 million before 2001 was finally released.[10] Next: Production |
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