MOUNTAIN ON PLUTO'S MOON CHARON NAMED "KUBRICK MONS"

And the best part is, it's parked right next to a small mountain range named after Arthur C. Clarke! Take a look! Click on the image below to enlarge.

JON RONSON'S DOCUMENTARY "KUBRICK'S BOXES" (2008)

Thanks to the fine folks at IndieWire for bringing to our attention the fact that Jon Ronson's 49 minute documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, which first aired in 2008, has finally found its way online. And in glorious Vimeo quality, no less! I've been waiting a while to see it, myself. Watch along with me, why don't you?

ENJOY THE "REDRUM" COCKTAIL THIS HALLOWEEN!

As Johnathan Barkan reports at Bloody Disgusting, the fine mixologists behind the Youtube channel Distinguished Spirits have come up with a cocktail that was "directly inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Stephen King book-to-film adaptation of The Shining." They have decided to call their drink the "Redrum", and it's literally a rum-based drink with a rich, red coloring. Kind of on the nose, but whatever. Seems like it would be pretty tasty.  

KUBRICK AND THE BEATLES: APPENDIX

On Thursday, September 3rd, 2015, this blog ran a story entitled Kubrick, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, about how The Beatles almost starred in The Lord of the Rings, how The Rolling Stones wanted to appear in A Clockwork Orange, and how Kubrick was tapped by both bands to direct these projects.

Well, it turns out there is yet another, albeit smaller, connection between the Fab Four and Stan the Man, and it's been hidden from view since 1967. It involves the now legendary photograph used as the album cover for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which features a massive collage of life-sized cutouts of people chosen by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison (but not Ringo for some reason).

Take a look at this:

Looks familiar, right? But look again... it's a photograph from the same shoot from which the cover of Sgt Pepper's was taken, but the band is positioned differently, which exposes some of the collage members who ended up obscured on the final image.

And to whom does that menacing, grimacing face positioned directly above John Lennon's head belong? Why, it's none other than early Kubrick favorite, Timothy Carey! And the image itself is taken from the scene in Kubrick's The Killing (1956) in which Carey's character, the incredibly-named Nikki Arcane, is first introduced!

You may have noticed that there are a couple more differences between the above photo and the final album cover image. In fact, there are seven missing people from the final shot, including five faces that ended up airbrushed out or obscured by band members, one that was printed but left out of the collage at the last second (Hitler), and one that was called for, but never printed (Jesus). To learn more about this fascinating bit of historical trivia, check out this article on FeelNumb.com.

COMPETING KUBRICKEAN CLICKBAIT!

On July 18, 2014, the Huffington Post published a top-linked article by Mathew Jacobs in their Entertainment section, called 13 Facts You May Not Know About Eyes Wide Shut. Meanwhile, one whole day later over at FlavorWire, someone named Alison Nastasi published an article called Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut: 25 Things You Didn't Know. Needless to say, there's quite a bit of overlap between the two articles, and not much there will be new to most of my fellow Kubrick obsessives. I did, however, learn a few new things from both.

For instance, from the Jacobs piece, there's this intriguing revelation from director Paul Thomas Anderson, who is himself frequently cited as a potential Kubrick heir apparent...

Kubrick allowed only a skeleton crew to remain on the set throughout filming... Cruise was in talks for the lead role in Anderson's "Magnolia" and had to sneak him past security. ''I asked [Kubrick], 'Do you always work with so few people?' Anderson recalled. "He gave me this look and said, 'Why? How many people do you need?' I felt like such a Hollywood asshole.''

And from the Nastasi piece, there are these tidbits...

The Star of Venus can be seen throughout the film. It’s sometimes known as the [8-pointed] Star of Ishtar — the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. 

And, perhaps most intriguingly, there is this...

Filmmaker Filippo Biagianti created a documentary about the Venetian Carnival masks used in the film, which features an interview with the artist, Franco Cecamore.

 I had no idea of this documentary's existence, and was chuffed to learn that it could be seen, online, for free, at Vimeo. Or, you could watch it here, below, if you are so inclined. Enjoy. I know I did!

Eyes Wide Shut masks - DOC (HD) SUB_ENG from Formacinema on Vimeo.