Steven Soderbergh Trims An Hour Off 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Be it for us to air this grievance, mind. We’re simply referring to a new recut by Steven Soderbergh, which has seen the director snip a good 50 minutes of running time from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 space opera before posting the edit on his Extension 765 website.

 

 

 

“Why now? I don’t know. Maybe I wasn’t old enough to touch it until now. maybe I was too scared to touch it until now, because not only does the film not need my—or anyone else’s—help, but if it’s not the most impressively imagined and sustained piece of visual art created in the 20th century, then it’s tied for first. meaning IF I was finally going to touch it, I’d better have a bigger idea than just trimming or re-scoring.”

 

That he has, going to town on the restructuring, which, if you're into the technical side, you can read all about on his blog, where he also goes on to test the patience of fan boys even further, claiming that Kubrick himself would have embraced the digital camerawork we see so much today.