Trivia

Stanley Kubrick notoriously had all models and sets from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) destroyed to prevent their reuse (which was common at the time). The model and interior of the spaceship Discovery had to be constructed by painstakingly scrutinizing blown-up frames from the original movie. The reconstructed ship was not a complete copy: the corridors are just a bit wider and lit with a more natural blue/white tone compared to its '2001' counterpart.

During the planning stage of this movie, an email connection was provided for writer, producer, and director Peter Hyams (in Hollywood) and Sir Arthur C. Clarke (in Colombo, Sri Lanka) so that Hyams could regularly consult with Clarke about how to adapt the novel to the movie screen. In 1983/4, such an e-mail correspondence was practically unheard of outside the academic community, and it was certainly the first for the movie world. Edited highlights of the emails were published as a book, "The Odyssey File", in 1984.

(at around 21 mins) When Dr. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) stands in the doorway of his sleeping son's room, on the wall, to the left of his bed is a poster of an Olympic runner, with the text "Beijing 08" on the bottom. Considering that this movie was made in 1984 and the Olympic Committee did not choose Beijing for the Olympics until July 2001, this is an example of life imitating art and background details which came true. Later Dr. Floyd starts to tell Curnow about a marathon runner.

The nurse at the old people's home is reading a Time Magazine with a cover story about the impending war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The leaders on that cover are stylized depictions of Sir Arthur C. Clarke (USA) and Stanley Kubrick (USSR).

When writer, producer and director Stanley Kubrick was not interested in creating a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Peter Hyams was approached to direct on the strength of his sci-fi movie Outland (1981). Hyams was initially reluctant (fearing unfavorable comparisons with Kubrick's film) but eventually agreed to direct. He contacted both the author, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, and Kubrick for their approval. The telephone conversation with Kubrick reportedly lasted three hours, because Kubrick was keenly interested in how Hyams had filmed certain shots of his previous movies. At the end of the conversation, Hyams asked: "'Mr. Kubrick, I would like to know if you approve me doing 2010.' He said, 'Sure, of course.'"

Arthur C. Clarke: Sitting on a park bench in front of the White House, feeding the pigeons.

Candice Bergen: The voice of the S.A.L. 9000 computer. Bergen was credited to "Olga Mallsnerd", a pseudonym combining the surnames of her husband Louis Malle and Mortimer Snerd, one of her father Edgar Bergen's stage personas. She had been offered a role in Capricorn One (1977). Had she accepted, this would have been her second of two movies involving space travel.