And, of course, Douglas also starred in (and helped to get made) the magnificent Paths of Glory, the film that arguably put Stanley Kubrick on the path towards achieving a level of directorial superstardom reached by only a tiny handful of others, before or since.
Canadian stage legend Douglas Rain, the actor and entrepreneur who co-created the world-famous Stratford Shakespeare Festival and was most famous for voicing the murderous computer HAL-9000 in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey -- as well as Peter Hyams' 2010: The Year We Make Contact and a number of remarkable SCTV parody sketches -- passed away at home of natural causes at the age of 90.
Most people aren't aware that Rain was only hired after principle photography was completed, with HAL being voiced by veteran actor Martin Balsam of falling-backwards-down-a-staircase infamy in Psycho. During post, however, Kubrick found the gruff Balsam's voice was “too colloquially American,” and cast the Canadian actor after hearing his narration in the 1960 documentary Universe (which itself was a huge influence on 2001, particularly in the special effects department). In a letter to a colleague, Kubrick remarked that Rain's voice, “is neither patronizing, nor is it intimidating, nor is it pompous, overly dramatic or actorish. Despite this, it is interesting.”
UNIVERSE (1960)
SCTV 2001 PARODY featuring Douglas Rain as HAL-9000
After walking the Earth like a Jolly Green Giant for 74 years, Marine turned actor R. Lee Ermey has passed away. And on April 15, my birthday, no less.
Why not take a moment out of your day to enjoy this incredible, star-making six-minute tour de force performance that opened Full Metal Jacket in the most unforgettable way imaginable?
Bloody Disgusting reports on a new line of vinyl collectibles being put out by Funko featuring four figurines based on characters from The Shining. My favorite? Frozen Jack! Find out more at the link!
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This summer, in advance of a concert given in Ottawa featuring some of the most iconic pieces of music used in Kubrick's films, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper interviewed our ubiquitous friend and Kubrick estate spokesman Jan Harlan, and even though the concert is long done with, the interview is well worth revisiting. It begins:
Q: What was Stanley Kubrick’s taste in music like? What enthusiasm did he have for music outside of the role that it played in his films? A: As a young man he was a drummer in a band. He certainly knew how to distinguish — music as a possible pillar to support the structure of a film is one thing, music for pure enjoyment is another. Two great works he loved very much were never considered for one of his films: The Brahms Requiem and the Schubert Quintet in C.
If that's the kind of behind the scenes Kubrickeana that you just can't get enough of, then by all means keep on reading.
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In this article about the BBC's 100 Best Comedies of All Time (in which Kubrick's Strangelove comes in 2nd after Wilder's Some Like It Hot), Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell discusses the ways in which movie critics frequently (and unfairly, in his opinion) get a bad rap when it comes to their capacity to appreciate comedy. It's worth checking out for Howell's brief insights into the nature of the laughs generated by Kubrick's jet black satire.
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The title of this Gizmodo article says it all: These Original Artworks From the Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey Are Spectacular.
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With the successful release in recent months of IT in theaters and Gerald's Game on Netflix, certain media have taken to discussing what it takes to make a truly great cinematic adaptation of Stephen King's writing, with Kubrick's The Shining frequently popping up as an example of said greatness (and, occasionally, as a failure, but that's mostly from King himself). Scott Tobias' piece for the Hamilton Spectator, titled The Secrets to Making a Great Stephen King Adaptation is a pretty good example of the genre.
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So apparently someone made an incredibly cool game not-so-loosely based on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and apparently, according to this stellar review at least, it's fucking amazing. It's called 2000:1 (Two Thousand to One): A Space Felony, or: How I Came to Value My Life and MURDER Mercilessly. Can you beat that for a Kubrickean title!? Nope. You can't. Check out this video preview, then visit the links above for more information about gameplay, etc. This thing looks good enough to drag me back into gaming, which is something I haven't indulged in for almost a decade now.
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Those of you who are fascinated by Kubrick's early work as a "boy wonder" photographer for LOOK Magazine are definitely going to want to check out Philippe D. Mather’s recent book Stanley Kubrick at LOOK Magazine: Authorship and Genre in Photojournalism and Film. It features recently uncovered images from 1946, when Kubrick was only 16, which portray his beloved New York as a paradoxical place of beauty and ugliness, darkness and light.
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Were you aware that, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, during the scene where Dave Bowman and the HAL 9000 computer play a friendly game of chess... HAL appears to cheat? Of course, if you're reading this blog, it's more than likely that you ARE aware of this fact. Furthermore, it's probably more than likely that you're also aware of the myriad theories as to why Kubrick included this little tidbit in his film. Just in case you're not already fully aware of the speculation surrounding this brief moment in 2001, SyFy.com lays it all out for you. They also provide a link to this delightful, new-to-me New York Review of Books article by Jeremy Bernstein--the guy who produced one of the best Kubrick interviews ever, and was smart enough to record it and KEEP his recording--about precisely how clever Kubrick could get when it came to chess.
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And, finally for this edition of KNIB, we say goodbye to character actor Barry Dennen, who played Bill Watson in Kubrick's version of The Shining, but who will most likely be better remembered for his passionate and iconic portrayal of Pontius Pilate, both on Broadway and in the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was 79 years old.
Richard Anderson, who portrayed the obsequious prosecutor Major Saint-Auban in Stanley Kubrick's 1958 anti-war masterpiece Paths of Glory, has passed away at the age of 91. Anderson enjoyed steady work throughout the years before achieving the heights of popularity as fan favorite character Oscar Goldman in two hugely successful mid-70's science-fiction TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
American Legends: Showing the execution of soldiers ran contrary to Hollywood's standard approach to filmmaking. Richard Anderson: Max Youngstein insisted that the three soldiers not die at the end. He said, "If those guys die, who will go see the movie?" The studio wanted them reprieved at the last minute. In Munich, Stanley sent Youngstein the final script without making the changes Max wanted. He registered the script to show it had been sent--and held his breath. They prayed Max wouldn't call and say that the deal is off. No one at United Artists read the script. When Max was shown a cut of the picture, he turned to Stanley and said: "You were right."
