OTOY’s 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey documentary is here at last, plus Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief is finally coming to 4K Ultra HD! [UPDATED]

Tuesday, 23 July 2024 15:22

OTOY’s 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey documentary is here at last, plus Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief is finally coming to 4K Ultra HD! [UPDATED]

by Bill Hunt

Afternoon, Bits readers! We’ve got something very special to share with you today here at the site, but first we also have some more new disc reviews...

Our very own Tim Salmons has delivered his thoughts on Roy William Neill’s Black Moon (1934) on Blu-ray from Columbia Pictures and Via Vision’s Imprint Films label. Tim has also taken a look at Jay Levey’s UHF (1989) in 4K Ultra HD from Shout! Studios in honor of the film’s 35th anniversary!

And Stuart has offered his take on another classic film, Arthur Ripley’s The Chase (1946) on Blu-ray from the good people at Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Enjoy!

Now then, some of you may remember that way back in 2010, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull proposed an elaborate documentary on the making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Unfortunately, he was never able to get Warner Bros. to fund the project, which was known as Beyond the Infinite, and the man sadly passed away in 2022 (you can read our salute to him here).

You may also remember that back in 2016, I published an in-depth look at the various behind-the-scenes books on the making of the film, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: The Ultimate Trip in Print, here at The Bits website.

Well... back in September I was honored to be contacted by my friends Michael and Denise Okuda (of Star Trek fame) to participate in a new documentary they were producing on 2001 with the team at OTOY. So I spent a lovely evening up in Burbank with Mike, Denise, and my old friend Roger Lay, Jr. (who created many of the excellent documentaries on Paramount’s Star Trek Blu-rays in recent years) shooting an interview about the film and its place in cinema history. Today, I am very pleased to say that the result of their work is finally available for all of you to see for yourselves! [Read on here...]

2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey runs over 47 minutes in length and features interviews with several people involved in production of the film, including Keir Dullea (who played astronaut Dave Bowman) and choreographer Dan Richter (who played Moonwatcher, the proto-human ape), along with other experts such as visual effects technician Brian Johnson (Alien, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), film historian Michael Benson (author of Space Odyssey: Kubrick, Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece), and technologist Jules Urbach (the CEO of OTOY). I appear here and there throughout the documentary as well, as do VFX guru and Inglorious Trekspert Daren Dochterman (Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition), filmmaker Jeffrey Morris (who is working on a great documentary of his own on the Eagle Transporter spacecraft from Space: 1999 called The Eagle Obsession), and several others.

The documentary also includes incredible digital re-creations of the original 2001 sets, as well as graphics that illustrate how many of the film’s pioneering visual effects were achieved, all created by Dochterman, Mark Spatny, Carlos Baena, and the team of CG artists and animators at OTOY, including James Hibbert, Geoff Holman, J.J. Palomo, Neil Smith, and Aaron Westwood.

As a lifelong fan of Kubrick’s work and a student of film, I can say with some experience that 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey is one of the finest retrospectives ever produced on the making of this landmark of science fiction cinema, and I am incredibly proud to have been invited to play a small part in it. Keeping this a secret has been a real challenge over the last several months, I can tell you! But here it is for all of you to see at long last...

I think you’ll all agree that this documentary is pretty special. OTOY has also created a teaser for it here...

And you can read more about the project on OTOY’s website here. I tip my hat to every single person involved in this project. I hope you all enjoy it!

L to R: Roger Lay, Jr. Michael Okuda, Bill Hunt, HAL 9000, and Denise Okuda - September 2023

One last item of note this afternoon… I mentioned here at The Bits yesterday that Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955) was finally coming to 4K Ultra HD on 10/15 from Paramount. It will include Dolby Vision HDR, along with the previous 5.1 Dolby True HD audio mix. You may recall that this title was one of the very first Paramount Presents Blu-ray releases from the studio back in early 2020.

[Editor’s Update 7/24/24: I’ve just confirmed that Paramount’s new Ultra HD of Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955) is sourced from the same 4K scan as the 2020 Paramount Presents BD release, but is in fact an all-new, painstaking digital restoration that offers corrected aspect ratio, massive corrections throughout the HDR grade, and that is “worlds apart” from the previous Blu-ray. You can preview it now on Apple & Kscape.]

It’s not up for pre-order just yet, but it is listed on Amazon and we have a look at the packaging for you here...

That’s all for today. Back tomorrow with more.

Stay tuned!

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

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OTOY’s 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey documentary is here at last, plus Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief is finally coming to 4K Ultra HD! [UPDATED]

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