Born on this day – Arthur C. Clarke:

Arthur C. Clarke

Writer

Inventor

Undersea explorer

Television series host

December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008

Credits:

Books:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); 2010: Odyssey Two (1982); 2061: Odyssey Three (1987); 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997); 50 Short Science Fiction Tales (1963); A Fall of Moondust (1961); A Meeting With Medusa (1988); Against the Fall of Night (1948); Aliens: 3 Novellas (1977); Alpha 3 (1972); Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century (1986); Astounding Days (1990); Bangs & Whimpers: Stories about The End of The World (1999); Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow (1987); Beyond the Fall of Night (1990); Boy Beneath the Sea (1958); Bright Messengers (1995); Bug-Eyed Monsters & Bimbos (2011); Childhood's End (1953); City and the Stars (1956); Cradle (1987); Dolphin Island (1963); Double Full Moon Night (1999); Drabble II: Double Century (1990); Earthlight (1955); Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology (2006); Expedition to Earth (1968); Firstborn (2007); Fourth Planet from the Sun (1984); From Narnia To Space Odyssey (2003); From the Pen of Paul: The Fantastic Images of Frank R. Paul (2009); Futures Unlimited (1969); Galaxy Science Fiction - October 1973 (1973); Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1958 (1958); Galileo's Children (2005); Glide Path (1963); Grave Predictions (2016); Great Science Fiction Stories by the World's Greatest Scientists (1985); Great Tales of Action and Adventure (1958); Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (1999); How the World Was One (1992); Imperial Earth (1975); In Space No One Can Hear You Scream (2013); Infinite Stars (2019); Interplanetary Flight (1950); Into Space (1971); Isaac Asimov's Aliens (1991); Isaac Asimov's Camelot (1998); Isaac Asimov's Christmas (1997); Isaac Asimov's Cyberdreams (1994); Isaac Asimov's Detectives (1998); Isaac Asimov's Fantasy! (1985); Isaac Asimov's Fantasy! (1989); Isaac Asimov's Father Day (2001); Isaac Asimov's Ghosts (1995); Isaac Asimov's Halloween (2001); Isaac Asimov's Near Futures and Far (1981); Isaac Asimov's Robots (1991); Isaac Asimov's SF-Lite (1993); Isaac Asimov's Skin Deep (1995); Isaac Asimov's Solar System (1999); Isaac Asimov's Space of Her Own (1983); Isaac Asimov's Utopias (2000); Isaac Asimov's War (1993); Isaac Asimov's Werewolves (1999); Isaac Asimov's Worlds of Science Fiction (1980); Islands in the Sky (1952); Man And Space (1964); 1984: Spring - A Choice of Futures (1984); Novelets of Science Fiction (1963); Of Time and Stars (1972); Other Dimensions (1974); Prelude to Space (1950); Profiles of the Future (1962); Rama II (1989); Rama Revealed (1993); Reach for Tomorrow (1956); Rendezvous with Rama (1973); Richter 10 (1996); Science Fiction A to Z (1982); Science Fiction Stories (1988); Space Odyssey (1983); Star Science Fiction Stories 3 (1955); Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2 (1953); Sunstorm (2005); Tales From The White Hart (1957); Tales of Ten Worlds (1962); Tales of Time and Space (1969); The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels (1980); The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980); The Baen Big Book of Monsters (2014); The Bedside Playboy (1963); The Best of British SF 1 (1977); The Best of British SF 2 (1977); The Body (1964); The Coast of the Coral (1956); The Colours of Infinity: The Beauty, The Power and the Sense of Fractals (2004); The Deep Range (1957); The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse (2010); The Exploration of Space (1951); The Exploration of the Moon (2020); The Fountains of Paradise (1979); The Futurists (1972); The Garden of Rama (1991); The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990); The Hammer of God (1993); The Hard SF Renaissance (2003); The Last Theorem (2008); The Light of Other Days (2000); The Lion Of Comarre (1968); The Lost Worlds Of 2001 (1971); The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF (2009); The Nine Billion Names of God (1967); The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack (2014); The Promise of Space (1968); The Reefs of Taprobane (1956); The Sands of Mars (1951); The Sentinel (1951); The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack (2013); The Songs of Distant Earth (1986); The Tranquility Wars (2000); The Treasure of the Great Reef (1964); The Trigger (1999); The Ultimate Alien (1995); The View from Serendip (1977); The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (2010); The Wind From The Sun (1972); The World Turned Upside Down (2005); The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection (1993); The Young Oxford Book of Aliens (1999); They Came from Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures (1979); Time's Eye (2003); Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow... (1974); Voice Across The Sea (1958); Voices from the Sky (1966); Worlds to Come: New Science Fiction Adventures (1967).

Movies, television, video games and audio plays:

2001 and Beyond (2001); 2001: A Space Odyssey - A Look Behind the Future (1966); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); 2001: HAL's Legacy (2001); 2001: Odyseja kosmiczna (Audioplay) (2016); 2001: The Making of a Myth (2001); 2010: Odyseja kosmiczna (Audioplay) (2017); 2010: The Odyssey Continues (1984); 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984); 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984); 2061: Odyseja kosmiczna (Audioplay) (2021); 3001: Odyseja kosmiczna (Audioplay) (2021); 50 Terrible Predictions (2005); 50th Anniversary Brunch Noreascon Three Videotape (1989); A Failed Recluse (1993); Adventure (1964); Adventure (1964); Arthur C. Clarke: Before 2001 (1993); Arthur C. Clarke: Before 2001 (1993); Arthur C. Clarke: The Man Who Saw the Future (1997); Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980); Baddegama (1980); Brave New Worlds: The Science Fiction Phenomenon (1993); Breaking Strain (2019); Camera Three (1970–1972); Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949); Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949); Childhood's End (2015); Cold Fusion: Fire from Water (1998); Contact: The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (1995); Esther (1996); Future Fantastic (1996); God, the Universe and Everything Else (1988); Jännitysnäytelmä (1968); La Estrella (2020); Letadlo (2001); L'odyssée de la survie (1999); Masters of Fantasy (1997); Mysterious Universe (1994); Nova (1978); Odyssey of Survival (1999); People to Watch (1966); Phenomenon: The Lost Archives (1998); Planetary Defense (2007); Rama (1997); Rama (1997); Rendezvous with Rama (2003); Sci-Fi Entertainment (1998); Sightings / The Sci-Fi Prophet (1996); Siskel & Ebert (1997); Stanley Kubrick in Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001); Stanley Kubrick: The Invisible Man (1996); Tales of Tomorrow (1952); Television (1985); Television (1988); The 73rd Annual Academy Awards (2001); The City in the Image of Man: Ideas and Work of Paolo Soleri (1972); The Colours of Infinity (1995); The Colours of Infinity (1995); The David Frost Show (1969–1972); The Day of Five Billion (1987); The Dick Cavett Show (1972); The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O'Neill (2021); The Martians and Us (2006); The Sky at Night (1963–2003); The Twilight Zone (1985); The Unexplained (1970); The Works (1997); This Is Your Life (1995); Time Out of Mind (1979); To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion (2003); Trapped in Space / Breaking Strain (1994); Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001 (2007); We Love 'The Sky at Night' (2007); Without Warning (1994); Wogan (1985); World of Strange Powers (1985).

On this day in movie history - Kubrick by Kubrick (2020):

Kubrick by Kubrick

a documentary directed and written by Gregory Monro,

was released at the Chicago International Film Festival in the United States on October 20, 2020.
Music by Vincent Théard.

Cast:

Stanley Kubrick, Michel Ciment, Malcolm McDowell, Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Sterling Hayden, Arthur C. Clarke, Marisa Berenson, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Sellers, Garrett Brown, Ken Adam, Leonard Rosenman, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Christiane Kubrick, Roger Ebert, Dann Gire, Maurice Beaupère, J.-H. Bigay, Kirk Douglas, Pierre Fruchon, Sue Lyon, James Mason, Agop Terzan.

On this day in movie history - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968):

2001: A Space Odyssey,

directed by Stanley Kubrick,

written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke,

based on the short story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke,

was released in the United States on April 2, 1968.
Music by Aram Khachaturyan, György Ligeti, Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss.

Cast:
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain, Frank Miller, Edwina Carroll, Penny Brahms, Heather Downham, Alan Gifford, Ann Gillis, Chela Matthison, Vivian Kubrick, Kenneth Kendall.

Then and now:

Gary Lockwood (left) & Keir Dullea (right), who played astronauts Dr. Frank Poole & Dr. David Bowman, in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic: 2001: A Space Odyssey:

Two great minds:

Behind the scenes photograph of one of the greatest collaborations.

Director, Stanley Kubrick, and author, Arthur C. Clarke, working on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Photographer unknown.

It can only be attributable to human error …

Sadly, to the date of this writing, author Arthur C. Clarke’s classic science fiction quartet is an Odyssey half-filmed: 2001: A Space Odyssey was directed in 1968, by Stanley Kubrick. 2010 in 1984, by Peter Hyams.

The epic evolved from Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, The Sentinel:

… to: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey:

I love the full picture artwork for 2010 and 2061, by Michael Whelan:

This is an alien contact story that goes for realism rather than spectacle … until the Star Gate sequence. Evolution is the main theme: of humans, from ape-men to space pioneers, along with technology and artificial intelligence. What set it apart and made it admirable, for me, was the concept of the enigmatic Monoliths and the unseen alien intelligence behind them, the use of classical music, slow and deliberate pacing, accurate representation of space travel, and minimalist dialogue.

There is also a good subject for discussion in the strand of the plot dealing with what happens when man puts too much reliance on artificial intelligence, and then faces disaster when conflicting orders cause the A.I. to malfunction, with tragic results; the reason made clear in the sequel: 2010. This is a technology turning on mankind theme that would later be explored in movies like Westworld, Demon Seed, The Terminator, I Robot, Tron … and many others.

A timeless classic and easily one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made.

Sun, Earth and Moon in perfect alignment:

Dawn of Man and the push towards evolution:

The bone-to-satellite jump-shot to the year 2001:

The space station:

Deflection:

Zero-gravity:

Heywood Floyd and the second monolith:

Discovery and the mission to Jupiter:

HAL 9000:

"I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error."

In error of predicting the fault:

 

Suspicion, paranoia and murder:

Disconnection:

The journey through the Star Gate:

Frozen moments in time:

Neoclassic containment cell:

Age, death and rebirth:

Quite a journey!