From the Hollywood Reporter, March 11, 1999

Kubrick's 'Odyssey' keeps date with 2001

Warner Bros. is planning to rerelease Stanley Kubrick's best-known film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," on New Year's Eve 2000 -- in accordance with the wishes of the late filmmaker. "This is something Stanley himself was very, very desirous of," said Turner Entertainment Co. president Roger Mayer, who is working on the project. Print elements of the 1968 film have been kept in pristine condition, and new protection elements were pulled from Kubrick's negative in 1982. "At Stanley's instigation, the color timing was freshened up a few years ago, with new 35mm and 70mm prints made," said Dick May, vp film preservation at Warners, which holds "Odyssey" through its acquisition of Ted Turner's MGM/UA library. At that time, the sound was digitally remastered, May said. As many Kubrick fans are aware, after the movie opened to tepid audience response, the director had 20 minutes excised while the picture was in limited release. "He never actually pulled (the film); he had MGM send out editors with an instruction list, and they cut it right there in the theaters," May said. That footage will not be restored. "This did come up a few years ago in regard to a video rerelease, and Stanley said no," May said. "The cut he ended up with was the cut he was happiest with."