Author Michael Benson gives an illustrated presentation about the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey on Tuesday, April 10, at the Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library. He will be joined by visual effects artist Bruce Logan, special effects supervisor Con Pederson and actor Dan Richter, who all worked with director Stanley Kubrick on the film 50 years ago.
Benson’s new book, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, examines the making of the seminal sci-fi film.
“There are other books that have discussed the making of a major motion picture, most often they focus on the production phase of a film, although I can’t recall that many that have done this with the remarkable degree of research and detail of Space Odyssey,” commented Librarian Hubert Kozak who booked the event.
“What seems to me very rare among these kinds of narratives, however, and what I value most in this book, is that Michael Benson has been able to follow the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey from the very inception of the idea for the film—in all its permutations—traced here in his account of the discussions and creative collaboration between Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.”
“Benson’s book is more than just the account of the making of a great movie, told in a line from beginning to end, it gives us as well the sense through Benson’s choice of quotations and his keen eye for expressive actions, that we are coming to know the film’s director intimately, his imagination, the reach of his ambition, his will and obsession and the scope of his accomplishment,” added Kozak.
“It may at first seem incidental, but as you read along you understand that this book is not only the story about how an iconic movie was made but also a deftly drawn and affecting portrait of its director.”
For the program, Benson will display “some wonderful behind the scenes images from the set of the movie and of the major cast and crew involved in making the film which have never been published before,” explained Kozak.
“2001: A Space Odyssey appeared in 1968, and for many in my generation it did nothing short of opening up the expanse of the cosmos to our imagination,” Kozak also said.
“It appeared at a time we were just venturing beyond the earth, hoping to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and it seemed to promise us both amazement and peril. It felt like the times we were living in, and it remains a touchstone of the years we came of age.”
The event begins at 7:00 p.m. Afterwards, Benson will sign books, which will be available for purchase on site. The program is free to the public and free parking is available. The Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library is located at 300 N. Buena Vista Street in Burbank.
