In terms of the meticulous detailing which resulted, it seems an admirable attack. To develop all possible nuances, they first plotted the story in novel form. Kubrick and Clarke, the latter sometime chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and one of the most renowned writers of science fiction and fact, have estimated that they spent a total of 2400 hours developing the script for 2001. Judging by MGM’s success with Blow Up, a far cosier thematic apperception test, and coupled with man’s ageless quest toward the stars, 2001 will emerge from its initial long-run Cinerama engagements and subsequent extended runs as one of MGM’s all-time box office hits, its wonders and its riddles generating sustained word of mouth and the kind of audience debate that promotes repeat attendance. Clarke, to provoke the more limitless imaginings of the mind, to assault the viewer with tantalizing enigmas to force exploration of that personal universe in relation to time and space, meaning and potential. These details are merely a means employed by Kubrick and his distinguished screenplay collaborator Arthur C. Drawing from a team of 36 technical designers, representing 12 countries, and working in association with 40 industrial research scientific concerns here and in Europe, Kubrick has insured scientific accuracy and logic in this projection into the near future of space exploration and man’s first encounter with extraterrestrial life. It is, as promised, “a majestic visual experience,” quite unlike any film we have ever seen. Founded in meticulously researched and documented scientific prediction, and evolving through philosophical and metaphysical implication, Stanley Kubrick’s production of 2001: A Space Odyssey, for MGM, is true to the predicted goals expressed by the producer-director when production began over two years ago. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below, which was headlined “Kubrick’s ‘Space Odyssey’ One of MGM’s All-Time Hits.” On April 2, 1968, a sci-fi epic premiered in Washington D.C., paving the way for decades of projects to follow in the footsteps of the title, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Space odyssey