Well, as you can see I finally have a new layout on both the main site and gallery. Thanks so much to Christine @ pinkchaos. Without her I wouldn’t have been able to get this done. She took what I was thinking, and made it better. Thanks so very much Chrissy for all your work. I’m sure Keir will appreciate your time and effort. I thought I’d go with a now/then motif. Keir as he looks today (and I know there will be some who’ll hate the beard …. I’m looking at you Megan) and a bit of a nostalgia feel on the gallery. I hope you like what I chose to go with. Updates will begin soon. I’m still in the process of getting those images sorted and tagged. They’ll be coming this week. I promise. I may have some more tweaks to do but for the most part the layout is complete. Also, you may have noticed something new in the sidebar. That would be a link to a site I’ve created for Keir’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY co-star Gary Lockwood. Click on the link to go there. The reason for the site is that in the collection of images for this site, I’ve collected a lot of Gary. Therefore I thought I’d create a site for him. I’m not sure how big it’ll get, my main priority is Keir’s, but whatever I get of Gary will go in there. So there you have it.

According to a new article on SlashFilm.com, seventeen minutes of footage has been found from Stanley Kubrick’s original cut of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The film was originally 160 minutes long, but for pacing reasons Kubrick cut it back to the length it is now. I for one would love to see a new home video release with the footage restored and two versions on the disc. Now there are some purists who will say to leave the film as it is, but why not allow Douglas Trumbull to restore the footage and let the critics speak. I’m always a fan of the longer version of any film. Sometimes when scenes are cut, for whatever reason, it may not be so good for the context of the film. For instance, in James Cameron’s blockbuster Titanic, the scene where Rose (Kate Winslet) went to the stern of the ship to jump off and before Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) met her, Cameron left out an integral scene where Rose after leaving the lounge where her mother and other women were gossiping about Rose’s upcoming nuptials, with Rose sitting there almost catatonic. The scene entailed Rose returning to her stateroom where she begins tearing at the pins and combs in her hair, frantically trying to remove them. Then she also tries to get out of the corset she’s been jammed into as with the convention of the time. The scene shows her frustration at not being able to fulfill her own destiny without the constraints on her sex. This scene for me would have added a little more gravitas the Rose’s reasons for attempting to jump from the ship. Without the scene it just plays that she’s this petulant little teenager. I’ll be posting the article after the cut, but there is reportedly one scene where Moonwatcher (Dan Richter) is filmed at a low angle looking up at The Monolith clarifying the connection between the two. That would have been an integral scene to show The Monolith was definitely having an impact on the progression of the violence in the ape community and its influence on Moonwatcher. What I say is neither Eyes Wide Shut or AI: Artificial Intelligence are the films Kubrick meant for us to see. Eyes Wide Shut was edited further from Kubrick’s original edit after his 1999 death. With AI: Artificial Intelligence Steven Spielberg certainly did not make the film Kubrick envisioned.

17 Minutes of Lost ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Footage Found

Almost like discovering a monolith buried underground, Warner Brothers recently found 17 minutes of lost footage from Stanley Kubrick‘s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in a salt-mine vault in Kansas. But before you go and drop acid in anticipation of an extended cut of the film, consider the slippery slope this footage constitutes. One, just because the footage was found doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to make it into the public eye. Two, Kubrick himself reportedly cut the footage from the film because he felt it created pacing issues. And three, the film is just about perfect as is, do you really want to screw it up?

Hit the jump for more details on the footage as well as what it might contain.

The Film Stage first alerted us to the news of this footage. They point us to a reports from Forgotten Silver and Blastr about an event in Toronto where Douglas Trumbull and David Larson, who were working on the now canceled documentary 2001: Beyond the Infinite: The Making of a Masterpiece, mentioned the footage had been found in perfect condition. Though they weren’t sure what the plans for the footage are, they did show images of never before seen scenes that will be in an upcoming photo book. It was unclear if these images were from the found footage or not.

According the 2001 IMDB page, when the film premiered in 1968, it ran 160 minutes. Kubrick then went in and trimmed a good 19 minutes or so. It’s assumed this would be the footage that was found in Kansas. Here’s what the IMDB says was cut:

• Some shots from the “Dawn of Man” sequence and a new scene was inserted where an ape pauses with the bone it is about to use as a tool. The new scene was a low-angle shot of the monolith, done in order to portray and clarify the connection between the man-ape using the tool and the monolith.
• Some shots of Frank Poole jogging in the centrifuge.
• An entire sequence of several shots in which Dave Bowman searches for the replacement antenna part in storage.
• A scene where HAL severs radio communication between the “Discovery” and Poole’s pod before killing him. This scene explains a line that stayed in the film in which Bowman addresses HAL on the subject.
• Some shots of Poole’s space walk before he is killed.

While none of that sounds particularly exciting, new Kubrick is new Kubrick and it would be pretty cool for this footage to make its way onto some sort of epic, mega Blu-ray release one day. Still, I don’t know if I’d want to see it edited into the film. Kubrick cut it, why would anyone want to go against his wishes? But, if there is any money to be made from this footage, Warner’s will surely find a way.

Do you think this footage should be released? Do you want to see it? Do you want to see it cut back into the movie?

SOURCE

I’m not sure who these two are, but I found this podcast in my diligent interwebs searches and thought you’d like to give it a listen. My minor gripes with this podcast is the host and his guest’s inability to pronounce Keir’s name, it coming out as Keer Duleea. Does no one actually bother to try? They also fail to pronounce Roy Scheider’s (Heywood Floyd) name either. They pronounce it as ‘Schneider’. The thing I did like about this reassessment of the film is how the hosts call it “hard science fiction” in terms of how to treats both the genre and the issue of it not being what director Darren Aronofsky calls “trucks in space”. Sure there is the issue of the Discovery and the Leonov, but for the most part there is no weaponry or any sort of alien present. That’s what I think makes this film largely one of those that one doesn’t forget after viewing. Another thing I liked about what these two said about the film is the relationship between Dave and HAL (the voice of Douglas Rain) and HAL and Chandra (Bob Balaban). It is rather touching in light of what happened with HAL in the first film. The only other gripe I think I have with this assessment are the hosts who say this film is better than Kubrick’s. I say no. There can be no doubt how exceptional Kubrick’s film is. It is a classic and a forerunner to many of the space operas out today. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is without a doubt a rare film in how it portrays outer space and it’s mysteries. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, I’d have to say quite possibly 2001 might have de-evolved into something akin to The Blob or one of the many 50s style science fiction films that seemed to not take its subject seriously. All one has to do is look at Kubrick’s artistry and realize it’s place in the history of film. I believe it is if not the best film of all time. 2010: ODYSSEY TWO directed by Peter Hyams is a great film, no question. However, it’s like comparing apples and oranges in that both filmmakers have different styles. The best thing about this film is Keir Dullea.

Another interview with Keir and Gary about 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

A wonderful Q&A with Keir and Gary at the TIFF for a retrospective on the films of Stanley Kubrick focusing in on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I love the interplay between them. It’s so natural and so cute of two men who have been friends forever. Once again Keir tells us about his airlock scene, and the dialogue Stanley didn’t use in the film. I loved Keir’s comment about Alzheimer’s. Proves at 78 he’s still got his faculties all in place. I just adored this talk. Thanks to my home country of Canada and the great city of Toronto for hosting this and for inviting two of the most underrated actors alive to discuss this great film. Now if they could only do a respective of the films of Ridley Scott, I’d be real happy. The did briefly mention Keir’s reprisal of Dave Bowman in the Peter Hayams sequel 2010: ODYSSEY TWO. My only gripe would have to be the Q&A wasn’t long enough. Of course I’m a little bit selfish. I could listen to Keir speak non-top. I love his voice.