2001: A Space Odyssey

“The screenplay was written by Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, and was inspired by Clarke's 1951 short story "The Sentinel" and other short stories by Clarke. Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film's release.”

> Originally, Kubrick and Clarke had planned to develop a 2001 novel first, free of the constraints of film, and then write the screenplay. They planned the writing credits to be "Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick" to reflect their preeminence in their respective fields.[31] In practice, the screenplay developed in parallel with the novel, with only some elements being common to both.

> In the end, Clarke and Kubrick wrote parts of the novel and screenplay simultaneously, with the film version being released before the book version was published. Clarke opted for clearer explanations of the mysterious monolith and Star Gate in the novel; Kubrick made the film more cryptic by minimising dialogue and explanation.

However, 2010 was only a novel and later made in to a film, with the producer consulting with Clarke over email (in 1983).

A reboot of both of them with modern special effects might be interesting assuming whoever does the reboot does not inject modern social/political biases into it.

I tried rewatching 2001 and got bored. I love the concept and it's beautiful, but you could edit that movie down to 80 minutes and get almost the same impact.

2001 left some galaxy-sized film cans to fill. Even being a good movie, it's not one of the very best movies ever made (something we can easily say about 2001)

Who's the speaker? He's uncredited and the video doesn't identify him.

There seems to be mention of an alternative introductory scene that was shown to studio execs here:

According to Wikipedia's page on 2001, an early cut of the film was shown to MGM studio executives and featured a ten minute black and white opening. This sequence featured interviews with scientists about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, but after the screening Kubrick had the interview sequence removed from the film.

<http://www.collativelearning.com/2001%20chapter%209.html>

Clarke mentions this version in his book about 2001, The Lost Worlds of 2001:

One of the problems facing any science-fiction writer who is aiming for the general public is how much to explain, and how much to take for granted. He must try not to leave his readers baffled, but at the same time must avoid those disguised lectures which are all too typical of the genre (“Now tell me, Professor….”). At one time, Stanley hoped to get around this problem — as far as the movie was concerned — by opening with a short documentary — type prelude, in which noted scientists and philosophers would establish the credibility of our theme. With this idea in mind, he sent Roger Caras around the world, to interview, on film, more than twenty authorities on space, computers, anthropology — even religion. They included the astronomers Harlow Shapley, Sir Bernard Lovell, Fred Whipple, Frank Drake, Dr. Margaret Mead (who was a space bug long before Sputnik) and the great Russian scientist A. I. Oparin, the first man to point out (in the 1920’s) a plausible way in which life could arise from the simple chemicals of the primitive Earth.

These interviews, many of them quite fascinating, were never used — a fact which understandably upset some of the distinguished and busy men involved. (Transcripts of several interviews may be found in Jerry Agel’s The Making of Kubrick’s 2001.) But as it turned out, to have incorporated them in the film would have been aesthetically impossible; it also proved to be unnecessary. We did not have to educate the public, as the headlong rush of astronautical events did it for us.

- Arthur C. Clarke, The Lost Worlds of 2001, Ch. 13, "The Birth of HAL".

Wikipedia's source for the similar description is from Agel, Jerome, ed. (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. New York: New American Library. ISBN 0-451-07139-5