The 2001 File: Harry Lange and the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction Film Hardcover – September 30, 2015

I've lost count of the times I've seen 2001: A SPACE ODDESEY, but it has never failed to thrill, intrigue and stun me. Its grand scale look, terse and minimalist dialogue and mesmerizing special effects are to this day hallmarks of genius-level filmmaking. This book--handsomely bound--gives the reader an insider's view of the meticulous design of the film. In an age where CGI is the standard, the practical effects of 2001 remain unmatched. Tremendous book!

Being a huge fan of 2001. I am in heaven.Making of books for this film are very rare, much like Bladerunner.It is large and full of production drawings and rare pictures.The text is informative and you get to see what went into the making of this historic Sci-Fi masterpiece.Well worth the price.

A must read and see for the 2001 aficionado. It vividly shows the imaginative collaboration to depict a future that was wholly possible but still remains distant for lack of a pioneering resolve of an increasingly stagnant culture. This history honors the skill and talent of those that had faith in what man could achieve, perhaps one day we will catch up to them.

This was a present for a friend and he loved it! He's a 2001 mega fan and was impressed with the early sketches and the inspirational drawings that Lange did for the film's pre-production.

It seemed like it wasn't long ago that virtually every aspect of 2001: A Space Odyssey's production was shrouded in mystery. Now there's a whole slew of behind-the-scenes books, collections of production art, and tell-alls available. "The 2001 File" is probably the most direct of the bunch. The first 100 pages focus on Harry Lange's early career and the production of the film, much of it derived from interviews with a number of participants, most notably head science advisor Frederick Orway. The rest of it consists of hundreds of sketches, diagrams, and pieces of artwork which were created during the film's production, all from Lange's substantial archive.If you've owned any of the three editions of Bizony's book, you've already seen a fairly sizeable selection of the material presented in this book. What's more remarkable is how exhaustive it is; for example, we get 19 unique sketches of the "bell" shaped "Discovery," 13 designs for the Orion's passenger seats, 25 pages of space station concepts, 17 monolith shape studies, eight pages devoted to the helmets...well, you get the picture. Here's a list of some of the more interesting inclusions:-Various versions of the Orion spaceplane featuring detachable winged second stages.-Sketch designs of the cockpit of each spacecraft shown in the film.-A variety of lunar surface craft which were never shown on screen, including a mobile docking vehicle, tracked vehicles, and an excavation craft.-Several designs for wheeled "Moonbuses," one with a complete floor plan.-A photograph of the TMA-1 set before filming began, showing that the "monolith" was originally a pyramid.-A huge number of "Discovery" sketch designs, many with large radiator panels or large cylindrical fuel tanks.-Early designs for the EVA pod which bear a strong resemblance to the "travel pod" from the original series Star Trek movies.-Ten pages of sketches depicting Discovery's interior, including toilets, sickbay, gymnasium, medical center, control panels, and consoles.Unfortunately, as in-depth as it might be, "The 2001 File" can't totally escape its art book trappings. The sketches are chopped up with excessively high-contrast screenshots from the movie, which go through the binding, and don't really add much of interest. The captions are extremely brief and don't really provide much detail outside the obvious. It's a shame that both Harry Lange and Frederick Ordway have passed away; their technical commentary would have added immensely. "2001: The Lost Science" provides a wealth of detail on the film's hardware, but unfortunately used copies are obscenely expensive.Is this book worth buying for the serious "2001" fan? Definitely. It's not flawless, but the number of illustrations is impressive, their reproduction is excellent, and there's quite a bit that I haven't seen elsewhere. Now if only they'd republish "The Making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey" without the obnoxious monolith format...

This is a really nice book and I think a must have for 2001 and Stanley Kubrick fans!

The perfect gift for the "2001" geek like myself who has loved the space program and how science fiction is so closely tied to engineering.

Loved the depth of information and thequality of art work included.