Typical dinner conversation from the future. "What's on TV"? "Judo". Left: Fahrenheit 451 (1966), François Truffaut Right: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Stanley Kubrick. Trivia: The '2001' scene was shot on early January 1966 at Borehamwood; the 'Fahrenheit 451' scene, planned to be shot almost at the same time, was delayed and eventually shot on early February 1966 at Pinewood.

A new quasi-weekly series: 'You Saw It Here First' (rare or previously unreleased pics from the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey) N°4 A nice picture of Kubrick and Californian actor Kevin Scott, who played Nick Miller of Space Station Security, from the documentary "Trumbull Land", recently broadcasted on TCM. The scenes Scott appeared in 2001 were shot very quickly in mid-January 1966; he had a bit of extra dialogue cut from the final movie, in the voice identification scene, chatting with Dr.Floyd (played by William Sylvester) about how their families were doing.

(Left) In a scene shot in May 1966 that does not appear in movie but curiously ended up in a promotional picture released in 1972, Poole and Bowman probe the supposedly faulty AE-35 unit with what looks like a parabolic shaped tool. In the final version we see the astronauts checking the internal circuits of the unit (a modified gyroscope) with a probe built by Tektronix, a Portland-based firm whose oscilloscopes and related test and measurement equipment were actually used by NASA in the Apollo program. (See also https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-in-movies-shows/)

Picture courtesy of Martin Pope.

h/t Lorenzo Sangalli on Facebook

N°1: Burnell Tucker, William Sylvester, Robert Beatty waiting to be called in action on the Shepperton monolith excavation set. (Date: December 29, 1965 - January 2, 1966)

(English version coming soon!) Carissimi, per commemorare il 20° anniversario della morte di Stanley Kubrick, è disponibile ora in edizione digitale il mio nuovo libro 2001 tra Kubrick e Clarke: Genesi, realizzazione e paternità di un capolavoro scritto insieme a Filippo Ulivieri. Disponibile su Amazon subito (https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07PDMTW79/) e tra poco su tutti gli altri gli store digitali; la versione cartacea è in arrivo, così come quella in inglese. Attingendo a fonti inedite, tra cui i documenti di produzione del film e il carteggio tra lo scrittore e il regista, 2001 tra Kubrick e Clarke racconta per la prima volta in modo completo l'odissea tecnica e artistica dei due autori, getta luce sulla loro relazione altalenante e rivela particolari finora sconosciuti sulla nascita e la realizzazione del "proverbiale buon film di fantascienza" il primo e il più grande film sullo spazio, l'origine della specie umana e il suo destino tra le stelle. In copertina: illustrazioni di Roberto Baldassarri, progetto grafico di Gianni Denaro.