(Image credit: Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty) The centrifuge allowed actors to be filmed walking fully around the 'walls' and 'ceiling' of a round spaceship with artificial gravity. But in a way, I was consciously steering away from film-geek fetishism of object, and I was looking at the written record of what happened: letters, the cables.Īt 38 feet in diameter and 30 tons, '2001'’s centrifuge, seen here from outside, was one of the largest and most expensive kinetic sets ever built. Just to hold the thing, which had some mildew on it because it was in a tropical environment for 45 years or something - it was just amazing. Did you get to interact with any physical objects from the filming or from that time period?īenson: When I was in the Clarke archives at Dulles, I opened a folder and there was the original letter, written March 31, 1964, from Stanley Kubrick to Arthur Clarke, proposing that they work together to make the first - he wanted to discuss the possibility of doing 'the proverbial 'really good' science fiction movie.' I suddenly realized, there I was, holding the actual letter - it just kind of - I personally believe '2001' will be talked about in 500 years, that it's going to be one of those works of art that will represent the species in the mid-20th century. : For the book, you tracked down most of the key players who were still alive and you pored over earlier interview transcripts, letters and even edits to previous work - like Stanley Kubrick's notes on drafts of articles and books about the filming process. Then, when the 50th anniversary started appearing on the horizon, I thought it might be a good thing to do - it might be, in a way, cathartic, and help me understand the film better write about it.

And I thought, probably right around then, I was thinking maybe I could write something about Arthur and '2001' and so forth.

In fact, he wrote the forward to my first book. Clarke - I first met him in the year 2001 - and we talked about the film quite a bit.

: And how did you get that idea?īenson: I got to know Arthur C.

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