23 Amazing Behind the Scenes Photos From the Making of the Film "2001: A Space Odyssey"

Nearly 50 years after its release, here's a collection of 23 amazing behind-the-scenes photos from the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The photographs recently giving light to the combination of precision, craftsmanship, and behind-the-scenes silliness that went into creating Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece.

The majority of filming took place at MGM Borehamwood, Elstree and Shepperton Studios in England.

Stanley Kubrick was an extremely hands-on director.

The film opens with a group of shrieking apes in the 'Dawn of Man' sequence.

William Sylvester plays Dr. Heywood R Floyd in the second 'act' of the film.

Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood star in the third 'act' as two astronauts on a voyage to Jupiter.

The astronauts take a break on-set.

Kubrick and Sylvester enjoy a cigarette break.

Edwina Carroll, Penny Brahms and Heather Downham as stewardesses onboard the space station.

Kubrick asked companies to provide designs for futuristic products to be used in the movie, such as this prototype car.

The wooden construction that would form the film's Moonbus vehicle.

NASA engineers were consulted during the design process for the Discovery One spacecraft.

Kubrick collaborated with science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke to create the screenplay, based on Clarke's short story The Sentinel.

Science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke on the film set.

Kubrick and his team employed numerous photography techniques during filming, including "slit-scan", which blurs and distorts the image.

Despite hundreds of people working behind the scenes, only 27 crew members were credited at the end of the film.

Constructing the rotating centrifuge for the Discovery spaceship cost $750,000.

Gary Lockwood, a long-time fan of Kubrick's work, started out his film career as a stuntman.

The primary coloured space suits were used onboard the Discovery, along with a fourth green suit.

Front projection, where pre-filmed footage is projected onto a reflective surface, was used for a lot of the outer space scenes.

An EVA (extra-vehicular activity) pod, carried on board the Discovery One spacecraft.

Dr Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) leaves the spacecraft to replace a faulty unit, but is attacked by malfunctioning artificially intelligent computer HAL 9000 and sent hurtling into outer space.

Dr Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) has to enter HAL's logic and memory center to disconnect its higher brain functions.

The "star child": Dullea's character is transformed into this open-eyed fetus at the end of the film.

(via Telegraph)