While presenting a 70mm screening of Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi magnum opus 2001: A Spacy Odyssey, the film’s special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull revealed that Warner Bros. had discovered seventeen minutes of lost footage from the film in a vault in Kansas.
The film runs to an impressive 160 minutes, but Kubrick cut just shy of 20 to improve the pacing. IMDB states that the cut footage includes shots of the black monolith during the Dawn of Man opening (emphasizing its influence over the neanderthals and their learning how to use tools); a sequence in which protagonist Bowman searches for a replacement antenna part; bonkers computer HAL cutting comms between the Discovery ship and Frank Poole’s pod before killing him, and further shots of Poole’s spacewalk.
Trumbull said that while the footage is in pristine condition, Warner Bros. hadn’t made any plans yet as to what to do with it yet. I’m not convinced you’d find many people willing to bet against a ‘Special Edition’ DVD emerging at some point in the near future though. Since all the footage is content Kubrick chose to cut from the film, it’s obviously an important part of film history but its value…
While presenting a 70mm screening of Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi magnum opus 2001: A Spacy Odyssey, the film's special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull revealed that Warner Bros. had discovered seventeen minutes of lost footage from the film in a vault in Kansas.
The film runs to an impressive 160 minutes, but Kubrick cut just shy of 20 to improve the pacing. IMDB states that the cut footage includes shots of the black monolith during the Dawn of Man opening (emphasizing its influence over the neanderthals and their learning how to use tools); a sequence in which protagonist Bowman searches for a replacement antenna part; bonkers computer HAL cutting comms between the Discovery ship and Frank Poole's pod before killing him, and further shots of Poole's spacewalk.
Trumbull said that while the footage is in pristine condition, Warner Bros. hadn't made any plans yet as to what to do with it yet. I'm not convinced you'd find many people willing to bet against a 'Special Edition' DVD emerging at some point in the near future though. Since all the footage is content Kubrick chose to cut from the film, it's obviously an important part of film history but its value seems dubious in terms of being able to enhance the film, which like a sunset or a field of swaying daffodils or Alison Brie, is just perfect as it is.
[via Blastr]
