A collection of drawings by British illustrator Brian Sanders made during the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey, many of which, from what I understand, have only been published in the last decade or so.

HENRi is a short sci-fi film about a derelict spacecraft drifting through space that is controlled by a human brain, named, you guessed it, Henri. Yearning to be able to moved independently though, Henri builds a mechanical body from parts lying around the ship.

Henri is voiced by Keir Dullea, who portrayed astronaut David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, if you ask me, gives the brain a sound not dissimilar to that of “2001” super-computer HAL.

Tim Deegan recounts working for Stanley Kubrick as an intern during the production, and release, of 2001: A Space Odyssey:

Another mystery quickly developed when the studio received a call from the manager of the Loews Capitol Theatre, MGM’s 5,500-seat showcase theater on Broadway (second largest in New York after Radio City Music Hall’s 5,700 seats). The projectionist was threatening to go on strike and close the theater, which meant no more showings of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Someone saying they were from MGM had gone into the projection booth and was using a chisel to file the aperture frame to remove the built up dust from the carbon arc projectors so that there would be sharp, not fuzzy, edges on the theater screen.

As it turns out a Nikkor 8mm f/8 Fisheye Lens was the eye-piece of the HAL 9000 supercomputer from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Good to know, considering that it was one detail I hadn’t the slightest thought to.

HAL, the supercomputer of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame, talks about the making of the film in a reasonably frank interview at Mother Jones.

That’s easy. Trying to learn the dialogue. I was supposed to say this line: “I’ve just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It’s going to go 100 percent failure in 72 hours.” I just kept screwing it up: “A3E5 unit,” “A53E unit.” I mixed it up every way you can imagine. Keir Dullea, who was a good friend of mine, was laughing so hard he popped a blood vessel in his eye. Eventually they had to unplug me and let me cool down for a few minutes. When they booted me back up, I nailed the line.

If you’re a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and conspiracy theories, you might enjoy reading Joe Bisdin’s take on Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, who suggests that the discovery of the monolith on the Moon was set up by the National Council of Astronautics (NCA).

Does this sound like they are discussing what may be the most significant discovery in the history of science, or work as usual? Bill follows by asking, “You seen these yet?” Photographs of the alleged monolith discovery are then reviewed while they munch on sandwiches. If this is a genuine discovery, doesn’t it seem a little unusual that Heywood, the chairman of the NCA, would be presented with such fundamentally important material in this casual setting as an afterthought, rather than having been presented with the photographs earlier? Does it make more sense that Bill and Ralph are presenting a genuine landmark scientific discovery to Heywood, or that they are rehearsing their story lines about how this contrived discovery was made? The scene concludes with Heywood’s comment, “Well, I must say, you guys have certainly come up with something.” Laughter follows.

I did wonder about this bit in the film though, it really didn’t make any sense.

Fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey will doubtless enjoy 2001: The Making of a Myth, a documentary exploring aspects of the production of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic, that was included, I believe, as part of a “2001” DVD box set released in 2007.

Narrated by James Cameron, the feature includes interviews with Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the screenplay with Kubrick, and Keir Dullea who plays astronaut Dave Bowman, plus a number of minor cast members, who offer some, at times, candid thoughts on working with Kubrick.

There’s a few other interesting tidbits here… for instance at one point it was proposed that a TV-like monitor be attached to the monolith. Who else is thankful that idea was never pursued?

What’s the story with the doco’s soundtrack though? It sounds more like a MIDI file than anything else.

The trailer for 2001: A Space Odyssey remixed as an action/blockbuster film.

I’m in.

Just when I thought there was nothing new to see or learn about Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, along comes this amazing collection of behind-the-scenes photos taken during its filming.

Via Coudal Partners.

An interview, clocking in at one hour and sixteen minutes, that Jeremy Bernstein of The New Yorker recorded with Stanley Kubrick in November 1966, where among other things, they discuss the then in production film “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

If you’d rather listen to the interview in shorter segments it is broken into nine parts here.

Update: oops, the Kubrick interview was actually for The New Yorker, not Look Magazine (Thanks Jack).