2001: The secrets of Kubrick's classic

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2001: The secrets of Kubrick's classic
Never-seen-before footage released to the 'IoS' reveals the extraordinary discarded prologue to Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

It is the missing part of a cinematic classic. Almost four decades ago, Stanley Kubrick gathered the world's scientific minds and asked them to predict the future. Their thoughts would then form the opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his epic about a mission to Jupiter which becomes a life or death battle between the space crew and their on-board computer HAL 9000.

But the interviews were never screened and the collective thoughts of 21 eminent men and women of science appeared to have been lost for ever.

Now the musings are to be made public for the first time when they are published next month, giving Kubrick enthusiasts an insight into his ultimate vision for the classic film.

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...it became clear his masterpiece would be far too long unless the sequence of thoughts about the future was cut. The US-born director had built up an enviable reputation with hits such as Spartacus, Lolita and Dr Strangelove, but 2001 was a challenge to many cinema-goers when it was released in 1968. Although dazzled by the artistic vision on-screen, which influenced numerous other sci-fi films, they found the film difficult to interpret.

Arthur C Clarke, who co-wrote 2001 and inspired it with his short story Sentinel, has admitted: "If you understand 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered."