Academy Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Kubrick’s Futuristic Epic

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a 40th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” on Friday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Tom Hanks, whose career and interests were markedly influenced by “2001: A Space Odyssey,” will host this special screening, presented in 70mm 6-track stereo, as was the original release. Following the screening, Hanks will be joined onstage by actor Keir Dullea, Oscar®-nominated visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull and special effects artist Bruce Logan to discuss their work on the film.

In May 1964 director Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke embarked on a creative collaboration: a novel and a screenplay inspired by Clarke’s 1950 short story “The Sentinel.” In December 1965, many ideas, drafts and titles later, filming commenced on “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The futuristic epic, which premiered in April 1968, would prove to be one of the groundbreaking films of the decade, receiving an Academy Award® for Special Visual Effects (Kubrick) as well as Oscar nominations for Art Direction (Tony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernie Archer), Directing (Kubrick) and Writing – Story and Screenplay written directly for the screen (Kubrick, Clarke).

With its epoch-spanning storyline and its nearly dialogue-free script, “2001: A Space Odyssey” combined the production values of Hollywood filmmaking with the artistic sensibility of European cinema. Its cerebral approach to the genre helped usher in a new, more literate age of science fiction cinema, and its extraordinary imagery – the widescreen 70mm cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth, the visually dazzling and scrupulously researched production design, and especially the Oscar-winning special effects – instantly became the benchmark by which all space films would be judged.

Tickets for the Academy’s 40th anniversary presentation of “2001: A Space Odyssey” may be purchased online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office or by mail. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is unreserved. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information, call (310) 247-3600.