'God, it'll be hard topping the H-bomb': Kubrick's search for a new obsession in the path from Dr. Strangelove to 2001: A Space Odyssey

Simone Odino

When Dr. Strangelove was released in the United States on 29 January 1964, Stanley Kubrick was already considered one of the most interesting directors in the film industry. Regarded by the press as author of controversial, unconventional films, his nightmare comedy had garnered considerable attention for its original approach on the topic of nuclear war. In the round of publicity interviews surrounding the release of the film, therefore, many of the questions revolved around his creative process and what his next project would be. On one of these occasions Kubrick answered,

I haven't found anything I can get so obsessed with. It takes me two years: that's too big a commitment for something that may suddenly go flat [...] there's no reason to do it my way unless you are, as I said, obsessed. You must be obsessed.

(McGrady 1964: 3c)

Kubrick was referring to his distinctive authorial style, which made him the prototype of the 'total filmmaker'. As he said, 'making a film starts with the germ of an idea and continues through script, rehearsing, shooting, cutting music projection, and tax-accountants' (Southern 1962: 343). The problem to find a so-called obsession was therefore related to the considerable effort needed to put a story on screen. The director often claimed it was never easy for him to find something that would prove to be interesting in the long run, and to better illustrate this crucial point he used to employ a romantic (and fatalistic) comparison: 'Finding a story which will make a film is a little like finding the right girl. It's very hard to say how you do it, or when you're going to do it. Some stories just come from a chance thing' (Bean 1963: 12).

Kubrick had first hinted at what his new love interest would be in an interview on 3 February 1964 that revealed how he was 'fascinated by outer space, which he thinks is inhabited, and he is reading and reading and reading about it' (Anon. 1964a: 80). Tackling a topic by researching it exhaustively was already the method of choice for the director; for Dr. Strangelove, he had immersed himself in years of research into the topic of nuclear warfare, a long-time obsession of his, reading in the process 'almost every available book on the nuclear situation' (Southern 1963: 29).

Kubrick's mention of outer space immediately led to speculation by the trade press, and the April 1964 issue of Show Magazine attached the director's name to an 'untitled story of extra-terrestrial life' (Anon. 1964b). Still, it would take until December 1964 for Kubrick to officially go on the record, in an interview with journalist and friend Alexander Walker:

His next film will have what he admitted (with obvious feat that he was saying too much) is a 'futuristic plot'. He is co-scripting it with Arthur C. Clarke, the scientist explorer [...]. His coal-black eye twinkled, then he said with almost presidential gravity: 'But God, it'll be hard topping the H-bomb'.

(Walker 1964)

The caution he used and the solemn tone of the last sentence suggest a sort of performance anxiety not usually associated with Kubrick's public persona. However, one should be aware that by December 1964 the director had spent the best part of the previous eight months in daily brainstorming sessions with Arthur C. Clarke, struggling to produce a completely original plot, an effort that he had not undertaken since Killer's Kiss. Kubrick's career up to that point had been characterized by a series of rejections from major studios and continual difficulties in having his projects green-lighted, as the director himself recalled years later:

Up until A Clockwork Orange, there wasn't a single producer who was prepared to produce my films. For example, MGM only took on 2001 at the last minute; no one wanted it. [...] The same thing for Dr. Strangelove, it was turned down by all the studios.

(Heymann 1987: 478)

It is against this complicated background that the director started his path towards 2001, whose starting point is traditionally identified in a chance encounter with Roger Caras on 17 February 1964, a lunch during which Kubrick revealed his intention to follow Dr. Strangelove with 'something about extraterrestrials' (McAleer 1992: 190–91), to which Caras suggested the director contact his friend Arthur C. Clarke.

I think that a small step back is needed, though, to better understand the artistic decisions taken in the conception and production of the movie that would, eventually, 'top the H-bomb'. The period between the post-production of Dr. Strangelove (late 1963) and the director's commitment with Clarke (the two signed a deal on 20 May 1964 (McAleer 1992: 195–97) has, to date, received scarce scholarly attention. Such neglect is surprising given that in the relatively short space between late 1963 and spring 1964, the director was apparently offered a movie project about overpopulation, was nearly co-opted onto a United Nations-funded TV-series, and optioned the rights of a science-fiction radio drama about an invasion...