Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking sci-fi film2001: A Space Odysseyis headed to an IMAX screen for the first time.Varietyreports that the late, great filmmaker’s magnum opus is set for a limited run to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. Starting August 24, an unrestored 70mm version will screen across four venues in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto. (Not to be confused withChristopher Nolan’srestored 70mm version.)
Tickets go on sale Friday.
If you’ve never seen2001—and you happen to live in one of these admittedly few cities, the only bummer about this news—catching it in IMAX for the first time in history is going to be borderline life-changing. Kubrick’s film has a “plot”, sure;Keir DulleaandGary Lockwoodstar as astronauts en route to Jupiter—along with the sentient computer HAL—following the discovery of a massive, black monolith.
But as is often the case with Kubrick,2001is a feast of visuals and sound, absolute game-changing at the time and no less stunning in 2018. The director and noted perfectionist famously delved into an unprecedented amount of research to craft his outer space epic, constructing a Ferris-wheel-like set so his stars could literally walk on walls. Thanks to Nolan, we’ve already seen how gorgeous2001can look in 70mm. I predict adding IMAX to the equation is going to be something out of this world.
Here’s the official synopsis for Stanly Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey:
“Stanley Kubrick’s dazzling, Academy Award®-winning* achievement is a compelling drama of man vs. machine, a stunning meld of music and motion. Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) first visits our prehistoric ape-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted space, perhaps even into immortality. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” Let an awesome journey unlike any other begin.”
