Thursday, September 11, 2014

DOUGLAS TRUMBULL SAYS KUBRICK "DIDN'T DESERVE" 2001 OSCAR

Special effects maven Douglas Trumbull tells The Guardian (UK) via The Hollywood Reporter that Stanley Kubrick - his boss on 2001: A Space Odyssey - did not deserve the Special Effects Oscar he won for that film, although...
Trumbull made it clear he felt the UK-based film-maker should have won many more garlands from the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his writing and directing work over five decades. But he said Kubrick had not been involved in creating the effects for 2001, one of his best-known films.
Considering the quality of the work Trumbull produced after working with Kubrick, on films as diverse and occasionally wonderful as Silent Running and Blade Runner (perhaps the only science-fiction film to ever "top" 2001 in visual terms),  I consider his opinion to carry substantial weight on this particular subject. For all his many great qualities, it can also be said of Kubrick that he was something of a glory hog, always far too eager to take sole and singular credit for the work produced by his employees.

1 comment:

  1. Kubrick was also notorious for being the biggest control-freak in the history of cinema. That means his fingerprints are on every aspect of his films, and he pushed the people he worked with harder than they ever would have done on their own. As for Trumbull, he had over 30 years to publicly dispute the credits on 2001 while Kubrick was still alive. He didn't start this talk until over a decade after Kubrick's death. Maybe that's a coincidence and maybe it isn't, but it's awfully convenient that he didn't make these claims until after he knew he couldn't be rebutted by the other party.

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