17 Lost Mintues of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY have been Found

As you may have heard, there was a documentary in development called 2001: Beyond the Infinite The Making of A Masterpiece, which would tell the story of the making of 2001, "not just the technical story but the human story, the personal story, the experiences of people who interacted with Kubrick that is really true to the style and look of 2001: A Space Odyssey."

While doing research on the documentary Warner Bros. uncovered 17 minutes of footage that director Stanely Kubrick cut from the film just after it's release, and the footage is in perfect condition. The footage was found in a vault in a salt mine in Kansas of all places. One of the doc's filmmakers, Douglas Trumbull, revealed this news in Toronto while screening a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull also gave a presentation that showed off a number of never-before-seen images from the Kubrick production.

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. pulled the plug on this awesome documentary. All of the research that Douglas Trumbull and David Larson did will be loaded up in a new book instead. That's a shame because the documentary looked like it was going to be great! There was a trailer for it released that you can watch here.

Trumbull has no idea of what Warners plans to do with them, but I imagine Warners will eventually add it into the movie and release a 2011: A Space Odyssey Redux edition, which I would gladly buy. I just hope we eventually get to see the footage.