2001 - A Space Odyssey

Jawa Ex Machina

Jawa Ex Machina

Veteran
I just watched this again the other day on Blu-ray.
It's been a while since I've seen this film, and a thing just struck me.

If 2001 - A Space Odyssey was made today, by an unknown filmmaker, and it was Exactly the same film; do you guys think it would find distribution?

What I mean is, this film is obviously a great masterpiece, but it's unconventional.
It's got a two act structure. Most of it is without dialogue. It's got endless long steady shots showing what artificial gravity would be like by having people walk around to classical music.
The parts this film is famous for, the interaction between Dr Dave Bowman and HAL 9000... we don't even meet these character until an hour after the film starts and by then all characters we've already met are gone.
The film is well over two hours, almost three.
Oh and you know... the ending.

These are all the sort of things that would make a distributor not want to release your film.

What do you guys think?
Would this film find distribution today if was made by one of us?
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
What do you guys think?
Would this film find distribution today if was made by one of us?
Click to expand...

Maybe, but probably not.

If it were made by a big name director, like Spielberg, then yes. It would probably bomb at the B.O. though.

But I don't see how anyone could make 2001 today without a substantial budget. At least not in the sense that it could be made as well as it was by Kubrick in the late 60's.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
I just watched this again the other day on Blu-ray.
It's been a while since I've seen this film, and a thing just struck me.

If 2001 - A Space Odyssey was made today, by an unknown filmmaker, and it was Exactly the same film; do you guys think it would find distribution?

What I mean is, this film is obviously a great masterpiece, but it's unconventional.
It's got a two act structure. Most of it is without dialogue. It's got endless long steady shots showing what artificial gravity would be like by having people walk around to classical music.
The parts this film is famous for, the interaction between Dr Dave Bowman and HAL 9000... we don't even meet these character until an hour after the film starts and by then all characters we've already met are gone.
The film is well over two hours, almost three.
Oh and you know... the ending.

These are all the sort of things that would make a distributor not want to release your film.

What do you guys think?
Would this film find distribution today if was made by one of us?
Click to expand...

An interesting notion, and I think that the post ahead of me hit it pretty well.

My friends that aren't into the production of movies (just the enjoyment) seem to not be too fond of it, while I would get stabbed if I said anything negative about it to my filmmaking friends.

I think that it could be remade, but it would have to have a much different approach to adapting the book in order to do well financially.
 
Kubrick had a pretty substantial budget. To account for inflation alone, a current budget would be roughly 10 times the amount he worked with.
 
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