Space Odyssey by Michael Benson

   This book, with 497 pages, reveals how Stanley Kubrick made the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey written by Arthur Clark into a movie. It delineates how they made the first scene "Dawn of Man," the device to present the colorful flashing scenes when the man enters another space world, and the first severe criticisms given by professional critics, but the following tremendous good reputation by the general public.

Together with the 2001 movie, several famous movies such as Planet of Apes are introduced. Douglas Trumbull, the visual effects supervisor of Close Encounters of the Third Kind helped Stanley to make the film. The selection of background music such as Johann Strauss’s On the Beautiful Blue Danube and Also sprach Zarathustra composed by Richard Strauss is described in the book..

Kubrick also had a hard time selecting the man who had the most suitable voice for HAL.    

   I now know how difficult it is to make an SF movie. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey more than three times. After reading this book it would be worthwhile to see the film once again.