2001: A Space Odyssey still sets the bar for how cinema imagines space.
Stanley Kubrick's film combines meticulous science, limitless imagination and pure visual majesty, and this TASCHEN compendium goes behind it. Previously available as a Collector's Edition, it contains photographs, pre-production paintings and conceptual designs that explore the genius behind the sci-fi classic that remains the benchmark for all cinema space epics.
The pages pictured here move between worlds: crew working on the white neoclassical bedroom set, the huge centrifuge set under construction, technical plans and drawings, blue-toned concept paintings, spacecraft models, a projection setup, the Dawn of Man ape costumes, and astronauts in flight suits. It is the film taken apart into its working parts, which is exactly what makes it so valuable to people who make images for a living.
Released in 1968, 2001 changed what audiences expected from effects and production design. Its spacecraft, interiors and interfaces still echo through science fiction, on film sets and in product renders alike. Seeing the planning behind those images, the drawings, paintings and test setups, is a reminder that the film's calm, inevitable look was built on an enormous amount of hands-on problem-solving.
In Signals, we collect books that show the process, not just the poster. This one is a production bible for one of the most influential films ever made.
About Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) was an American filmmaker born in Manhattan, New York City. The road to 2001 started with a camera: Look magazine printed his first photo series in 1945 and later hired him as a staff photographer. He moved into film with the boxing documentary Day of the Fight, then made The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), settling in England in 1961.
After Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick resolved to make a serious science fiction film. He met the writer Arthur C. Clarke in New York in April 1964 and chose Clarke's short story The Sentinel (1951) as the seed; the two co-wrote the screenplay while Clarke developed the novel in parallel. Principal photography began on December 29, 1965, at Shepperton Studios, with work also at MGM-British Studios, shot in Super Panavision 70. Kubrick hired Graphic Films as design consultants, bringing in Douglas Trumbull, later a special effects supervisor; pioneered large-scale front projection for the Dawn of Man backdrops; and had Vickers-Armstrong build a rotating centrifuge set 38 feet across.
2001: A Space Odyssey premiered on April 2, 1968, and won Kubrick his only personal Oscar, for visual effects. In 2022 it topped the Sight and Sound directors' poll. Kubrick died at Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire on March 7, 1999. Stanley Kubrick films reward close study, and 2001 is the clearest case of design, science and filmmaking working as one.
Why 2001: A Space Odyssey still matters
Kubrick's film proved that science fiction could be precise, patient and visually monumental at the same time. Decades later, directors, production designers and VFX teams still use it as a reference point for scale, symmetry and believable technology. The preparatory paintings and designs collected here show how that vision was built step by step, which makes them as instructive for a working crew as they are beautiful to look at.
Who this book is for
For filmmakers, cinematographers, production designers, VFX artists, concept artists, art directors and anyone who loves science fiction on screen. Designers working on interfaces, sets or product worlds will find a deep well of reference. For the RIOT and vandal_ crowd, it is the book to pull off the shelf when a brief says make it feel inevitable.
Product details
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Title: The Making of Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'
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Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
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Publisher: TASCHEN
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Edition: Compendium, previously available as a Collector's Edition
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Contents: Photographs, pre-production paintings and conceptual designs
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Language: English
FAQ
What is in this 2001: A Space Odyssey book?
Photographs, pre-production paintings and conceptual designs that explore the making of Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi classic.
Is this the Collector's Edition?
This is the compendium edition of material that was previously available as a Collector's Edition.
What language is the text in?
This edition is in English.
