Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Assuming it is a legitimate cut, why not give us both and let us decide?

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Define legitimate. People saw it in the theater and Kubrick immediately cut it. The studio didn't demand the cuts, and Kubrick never said it should be changed from its current form. If WB made it clear that this wasn't the way Kubrick intended the movie to be seen, then I guess it wouldn't be too awful if they made it available via seamless branching, although I'd hope they'd also offer them as deleted scenes.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

I think you just answered your own question! :D

I suspect this is indeed the case, but do any of us know it with any authority?

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

The footage was cut between the premiere and general release. Unless there was a previous test screening, he might've used the premiere for that purpose. So, while "people" saw it in the theater, the general public saw the version we know today.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Hardly. I've seen plenty of movies in a theater that differ from the final cut.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

2001: A Space Odyssey is absolutely perfect as is. It doesn't need one frame added or excised. I'd be more interested in that documentary which apparently is no longer happening. :(

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

It's fantastic, as is... but you haven't seen the other cut, have you?

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

No, and that's not the point. I'm saying that the movie as-is doesn't need enhancement; weaving in extra scenes to create a "longer edit" or "new cut" is nice as a curiosity, maybe, but -- for me -- it holds absolutely no interest. I'd much rather see an in-depth documentary of the film's creation, special effects, original storyline, communications between Kubrick & Clarke, etc.

There are few films that I'm an anal purist about, but "Bitanic" is one of them.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

True enough, but this cut was also only screened once, making it even more rare than the sneaks I'm talking about. I'm just saying that just because a movie is shown to an audience in a theater doesn't mean it's considered a legitimate cut by the filmmakers.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

It's a touchy subject that depends on the artist, but I can't imagine Kubrick, because there has never been any indication from him, would want it reintegrated.

On a personal level, I'm not much of a fan alternate versions that don't have the director's or main creative force's approval. I feel they cheapen the work of art. You either like what the artist presents or don't. It's really not that big of a deal to dislike it and move onto something else. The piece of art cannot speak for itself if it doesn't have a singular voice. It just feels weak. But that is up to the artist only. If they feel presenting multiple versions are fine, then release them.

And I'm not even saying I like all director's cuts, but I really hate lack of integrity when it comes to art. Have a vision and produce it. I'm here do digest your work not make up your mind. If it sucks I'll find something else, there is plenty of it out there.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Of course it's the point! How can you dismiss an unseen version? If additional material would provide no meaning for you, how can you derive meaning from any film footage?

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Regardless, additional insight into Kubrick's editorial concept would potentially be a very rewarding 'extra' and including this footage into its one-time place in the film would possibly be a much more revealing way of presenting it. I want to know what it feels like in the context of the rest of the movie and how it impacts the story development, pace, etc. The key is to include both cuts.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

No interest. As a bonus feature, sure, bring on the film footage. I don't mind watching it on its own. I just don't think it belongs reinserted in the movie, one that has existed as Kubrick's final vision for the last 42 years.

More is not always better.

It's a personal thing. In contrast, I'm not as bugfuck insistent about the newfound footage in "Metropolis". I'd go berserk if they fucked with Lang's "Woman in the Window" or "Scarlet Street" though...

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

It doesn't belong, reinserted in the movie... in other words, of course nothing should be done to the existing, familiar cut which should still be the primary focus of any future releases.

Meanwhile, don't you understand how watching the additional footage in the context of the film might provide more insight (even if only on a subconscious level) into the making of the film (and the thought behind it) than would only being able to see the footage acontextually? And what would anyone have to lose by authoring the disc in a way that would allow viewers to watch this footage either way (cut in or on its own)?

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Look...no matter what the inclusion of those scenes doesn't make it Kubrick's official cut. I want to see them, sure...why not? More stuff to see is cool. OFFER that alternate cut as whatever it was called...AND that TC. The TC is the one that will be held forever as the definitive cut. The possible inclusion of those scenes into it's own cut is fine. Don't just offer this alternate cut, that's not fucking cool. That's essentially erasing or covering what is history, in the sense that people who will only watch it, seeing as in this scenario, it may be the only cut included.

BEST case scenario is that we get the TC and this other cut (to see what it was like in context). Separately it'd also be cool to get them as a deleted scene option to evaluate the clips solely based based on themselves. Added w/ whatever other features we get.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

I'm not saying they can't include it as a seamless branching option with the existing film(depending on whatever deals they have in place with the Kubrick estate). If they can, go for it. Doesn't hurt me none.

I'm just saying, IMO, they shouldn't. Include them as bonus features and end it there. But if they end up releasing a "Special Edition", my life won't end on the spot. Unless Dr. M has already exhausted next year's birthday wish. :(

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Oh, goody and when I literally JUST finally bought the blu.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

I think it's fair to say that the longer version, while not the definitive version, was approved buy Kubrick since he allowed it to be shown at the premiere.

If he didn't like the longer cut to begin with, he never would have shown it to anyone. And if he was just curious to see how it would play to an audience, he could have easily had a test screening (even if the process wasn't as common back then).

And what if the premiere audience had responded positively to the later excised footage? Would Kubrick have left it in?

I doubt any filmmaker has ever had an "I love this cut and hate all others" feeling toward one of their own films.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

They do when there's a theatrical cut that was messed around with by some studio executives.

As for 2001: A Space Odyssey it's hard to say what Kubrick felt about the subject since we really don't have the information necessary to know.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

from the Kubrick Archives 2001 The Production: A Calendar

1968

March 13. Kubrick returns to the United States. While the last special effects shots are still coming in, he edits the film. Several scenes are omitted, including the purchase of a bushbaby for Dr. Floyd's daughter, Squirt; routine activities on the moon; shots of the astronauts' families; shots of the ping-pong table, shower, and piano in Discovery. After a screening for the MGM executives in Culver City, California, Kubrick cuts the prologue and all voice-over narration from the film.

March 29. Screening of the film for Life magazine.

March 31, April 1. Washington press previews.

April. The discovery of man-like jaw bone in southern Ethiopia pushes man's history back to the four million year mark

April 1, 2. New York press previews of the film in Loew's Capital Cinerama Theater

April 3. New York premiere in the Capital Theater

April 4. Los Angeles premiere.

April 4, 5. Kubrick cuts nineteen minutes from the films original running time of two hours and fourty-one minutes, shortening scenes including "Dawn of Man," Orion, Poole jogging in Discovery, and Poole in the pod.

April 6. Final version released in New York in the Cinerama Theater on Broadway, sixteen months late and at a cost of $4,500,000 over the original budget of $6 million.

Early April. Kubrick edits the 2001 trailer.

July. Publication of Clarke's novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The paperback edition sale exceeds one million copies.

December 21. Apollo VII carries man into a moon orbit for the first time.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

As the previous post says it has always been my belief that Kubrick cut the film after it's early screenings and that was not unusual at all for Kubrick. He also cut "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining" after their release. I heard most of the cut footage was from the early "Dawn of Man" type scenes. In the 70's it was always a good idea to see a Stanley Kubrick film the first week it was released.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

From Wiki:

Kubrick filmed several scenes that were deleted from the final film. These include a schoolroom on the moon base—a painting class that included Kubrick's daughters, additional scenes of life on the base, Floyd buying a bush baby from a department store via videophone for his daughter, details about the daily life on Discovery, additional space walks, astronaut Bowman retrieving a spare part from an octagonal corridor, a number of cuts from the Poole murder sequence including the entire space walk preparation and shots of HAL turning off radio contact with Poole—explaining the non sequitur of HAL's response to Bowman's question, and notably a close-up shot of Bowman picking up a slipper during his walk in the alien room—the slipper can still be seen behind him in what was then the next shot[85]. The most notable cut was a 10-minute black-and-white opening sequence featuring interviews with actual scientists, including Freeman Dyson,[86] discussing extraterrestrial life, which Kubrick removed after an early screening for MGM executives. The actual text survives in the book The Making of Kubrick's 2001 by Jerome Agel[87]. If the music intro and outro are included, 29 minutes of film have been excised from the theatrical version.[88] Kubrick's rationale for editing the film was to tighten the narrative; reviews suggested the film suffered too much by the radical departure from traditional cinema story telling conventions. Regarding the cuts, Kubrick stated; "I didn't believe that the trims made a critical difference. [...] The people who like it, like it no matter what its length, and the same holds true for the people who hate it".

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Holy cow! All these "Director's Cuts" have made everyone incredibly cynical. This is almost as big news for me as Metropolis was (and that brought me to tears). I've bought this film on VHS, Laserdisc, 4 times on DVD, and the Blu-ray (which goes for about $10 now, so I can't believe anyone is complaining about double dipping). This is Stanley Kubrick's legendary "lost" original cut of 2001. It won't replace the old one, but as a curiosity, this is incredible.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

Interesting. The story often told was that Kubrick burned all the deleted footage from 2001 because he didn't want anyone to see it. I wonder what sort of source this newly-found footage comes from. The original negative? A multi-generation dupe? A 16mm reduction?

Kubrick did not like the idea of audiences learning "behind the scenes" details of how movies were made, or seeing deleted footage. He believed that such things destroyed the illusion of cinema.

The first pressings of the Criterion Collection Laserdisc release of Dr. Strangelove included a text copy of an early draft of the script, which was radically different than the final movie. (It opened and closed with aliens in the distant future visiting the charred remains of Earth and excavating artifacts from our lost civilization.) When Kubrick found out about this, he demanded that Criterion recall the disc. Subsequent pressings dropped the script.

For the Criterion LDs of both Strangelove and 2001, the only supplements that Kubrick authorized were all contextual material about the Cold War and the space program respectively - nothing about the making of the movies themselves.

Re: Extended cut of 2001 may be coming soon!
 

But who knows how Kubrick would've felt about it now. A lot could have changed in the past ten years.

I'm pretty sure that Laughton wouldn't have been thrilled with The Charles Laughton Directs The Night of the Hunter documentary, but the fact is that it is interesting to watch. There are other facts that with later films that Kubrick allowed making-of documentaries, like The Shining. Who knows what he'd feel about this, he could have taken this like David Lean did with the Lawrence of Arabia restoration.

There is a point, especially with older films with deceased members of the cast and crew, of where we can either try to adhere to the director's wants and desires, or go with what could be interesting for the public to watch. It could be worse, the Kubrick estate could be like the Welles estate, where we wouldn't even be allowed to buy the films he finished.

I for one would like to be able to see this "premiere version." But like others have said, this cut should not become the 'definitive' version, and should never be as treated as such. If WB were to release new footage in a new cut they should include a disclaimer at the beginning explaining exactly how one should look at this cut.