Get closer than ever to the movie that changed the movies. This behind-the-scenes spectacular of 2001: A Space Odyssey sheds light on the lead actors, senior production designers, special-effects experts and masterminds of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke , who together revolutionized science fiction and the art of cinema. This comprehensive visual record includes on and off set photographs, pre-production paintings, and conceptual designs from the Kubrick archives. These dazzling images offer insight both into Kubrick's meticulous directorial methods, and into the mysteries and magnetism of a film at once vast in scope and intricate in its exploration of our relationship to technology . Written and researched over several years by the outer space, special effects, and technology journalist Piers Bizony, this compendium is both an exhaustive labour of love and a monument to a masterpiece of 20th century culture .