The World Tonight: Space Odyssey Events:
Summary about Wonderfest 2010
By Christopher Dalton


Photo above - Leonov and Discovery models.

I'm still surprised that there was not a double feature showing both 2001 and 2010 at the Baxter.

Since it is the actual year and the 25th Anniversary of Peter Hyams' excellent sequel, it would have been as David Bowman said to both Betty Fernandez and Heywood Floyd, 'Something Wonderful.'

Nevertheless, May 15th and 16th were definately two wonderful days.

Especially, since the night before, I got to attend a midnight screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey with fellow exhibit member Dale Charletta, and had an early dinner with Scott Alexander and various other model makers from Wonderfest 2010. Dale and I even had a wonderful discussion with Scott about 2001, 2010, the production histories of both MGM classics, Douglas Trumbull and his career, and mostly about the current state of MGM as a studio, in general.

It turns out, that due to MGM's financial troubles, the famous studio is no longer a 'studio'. MGM is now being owned and operated by a group of lawyers.

Another interesting story we discussed was the future of Stanley Kubrick's film. From what I recall, Scott explained to us, that the current owners of 2001 and 2010, Warner Brothers, no longer wished to keep the prints to both films(mostly due to the fact that the year 2001 has come and gone, and the year 2010 is about half-way over). Scott had also mentioned that he, George Lucas, Steven Speilberg, and Frank Darabont have discussed about purchasing the prints to both movies.

I must admit, I was a bit surprised and puzzled by the Warner Bros' executives train of thought on this. Unless I am mistaken, both the Stanley Kubrick and Sir Arthur C. Clarke estates(along with Peter Hyams) share ownership rights of both print copies (be they 70mm or 35mm).

Like the rest of Hollywood, certain film companies have their own interesting stories.

What Scott told me and Dale would definately as such.

All that aside, Scott even told Dale and I a very humorous story about the SFX production on 2010. One involving an exasperated model maker, who was told by Peter Hyams, to make another change on one of the models. I think it might have been the Discovery model. I can't remember the entire details of the situation.

Let's just say that the model maker was trying to decide whether or not to use a certain piece of equipment on Hyams, just to be funny and at the same time, to let off some steam.

Sometimes, production personnel and the studios they are employed by, have their bad days.

Anyway, Wonderfest 2010 did have a semi-2010 theme, with various displays of both the late U.S.S. Discovery and the Russian Spacecraft Alexi Leonov models. Surprisingly, there was no one from the 1984 MGM classic in attendance as guest speakers. Something which I found a little odd.

It would have been awesome to have had Keir Dullea return, or even have Peter Hyams, John Lithgow, Robert Balaban, or some of the production crew like Richard Edlund, Mark Stetson, and Albert Whitlock as hosts concerning the blockbuster hit sequel's silver anniversary. Oh, well....

Summary about Wonderfest 2008, Part 2

Next page