2010: The Odyssey Continues

This short is a promo for the 1984 film "2010", and it is occasionally shown on TCM.

This short provides a behind the scenes look at the making of the film, and is a mixture of talking head shots, footage of the development and construction of sets and visual effects, footage of action and filming on the set, and a few clips from the finished film. After science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke makes some opening comments, an uncredited narrator introduces us to a series of cast and crew who each discuss various aspects of the making of the film. These include writer/director Peter Hyams, visual futurist Syd Mead, production designer Albert Brenner, visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund, model shop supervisor Mark Stetson, makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, and actors Keir Dullea, Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban, and actress Helen Mirren.

Some of the topics discussed are Clarke's and Hyams working together via computer since they were half a world apart, the design philosophy of the sets, makeup for Keir Dullea's elderly character, the difficult tasks of creating the illusions of spacewalking and weightlessness, the American/Russian "detente" theme, differences between this film and 2001, and the ambiguous meaning of the monolith.

Some of the stuff here wasn't that enjoyable, but the short does have enough to be moderately interesting. Things like... while the look of 2001 was supposed to be beautiful and visionary because it was supposed to be about the distant future, the look of 2010 was intended to be functional and realistic so that the audience would think "that can actually happen in the near future". It was also interesting to find out that they had to completely recreate the spaceship Discovery design from watching the film 2001 because Stanley Kubrick had destroyed the models and all detailed design info fearing that it would be copied and used by others.

Overall... I found the discussion of the technical crew interesting but most of the stuff the actors had to say was forgettable.

2010: The Odyssey Continues (1984)

*** (out of 4)

This 17-minute featurette was produced to try and build up interest for the movie 2010 (here called 2010: ODYSSEY 2). The point of these shorts are to build up interest in the movie and for the most part I think this one here succeeds. With interviews with Peter Hyams, Syd Mead, Michael WEstmore, Albert Brenner, Roy Scheider, John Lithgow and Helen Mirren among others, one really gets a good idea of what they were trying to do. As a die-hard Kubrick fans I thought the funniest moment happened when they talked about him destroying all the models, blue prints and other things from 2001 because he was worried they'd pop up in other sci-fi movies. That certainly sounds like something the man would do. Other good bits talk come from writer-director Hyams who talks about adapting a story and trying to do justice to not only it but the person who wrote it. Arthur C. Clarke actually introduces this featurette as well. Fans of the movie will certainly want to watch this for all the behind-the-scenes footage, which there is plenty of.

It's interesting to hear PETER HYAMS, the director shown in 2010: THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES, talks about his film 2010 wherein he worked with the actual writer of the story half a world away via computer--and how the design structures had to be realistic looking and visually impressive but functional as well.

Another interesting moment has actor KEIR DULLEA applying the age make-up--and later removing it (a sticky mess). And, in a lighter vein, actor JOHN LITHGOW seeming to enjoy his first big science fiction feature by having a high time on the high wires and told to take it more seriously because "astronauts don't clown around up there." Lithgow seems to be in rare good humor throughout the few talks he has about his role.

Whether the audience had as much fun watching the results, I'm not so sure. It certainly looks as though no expense was spared to give the look of the film as much accuracy as possible--also with respect to simulating weightlessness in space.

Nothing too provocative about this short, and Arthur C. Clarke exhibits the fatal flaw of most writers--he doesn't come across as particularly forthcoming or easy to interpret. I'm not saying he's inarticulate but he could have presented his case with more clarity.

Moderately entertaining short promo from MGM.