Tag: Apollo

by Scott Wenger

I’ve been researching the Apollo program for the past two years. Here are a few things I learned on my own that seem to suggest Kubrick may have had some direct or indirect involvement in the Apollo presentations:

– According to researcher Bill Wood, NASA heavily subsidized Stanley Kubrick when he produced the movie “2001”. Wood claims 2001 was used to develop the special effects needed to fake a lunar landing and its purpose, when it premiered in 1968, was to show the public what a real lunar landing was supposed to look like.

– Kubrick worked on 2001 with the help of NASA experts Fred Ordway and Harry Lange.

– Ordway had contacts within the aerospace community (including IBM, Honeywell, Boeing, General Dynamics, Grumman, Bell Telephone, and General Electric.) Many of these companies provided documentation and hardware prototypes free of charge in return for “product placements” in the film 2001.

– During a remastering of the film 2001, Senior NASA Apollo administrator George Mueller and astronaut Deke Slayton nicknamed “2001’s” Borehamwood, England production facilities “NASA East” after seeing all of the hardware and documentation lying around the studio.

– Ken Adam, production designer on “Dr. Strangelove” and “Barry Lyndon”, said he was not asked to work on 2001 because Kubrick had already worked for a year with experts from NASA and had done a lot of research; Adam said he would have been “too far behind.” (Note: Ken Adam did production design for the 1971 movie “Diamonds are Forever” that includes a moonscape.)

– In Kubrick’s movie “The Shining” there’s a scene where the little boy is seen wearing a shirt with the word “Apollo” on the front.

– In Kubrick’s movie “Eyes Wide Shut,” the main character (and witness to an event) is told that it was “staged, a charade, fake” and he receives a warning to “stop asking questions.” There is a theme of secrecy in that movie.

– One of the lines in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” is as follows:

“Did you never consider the possibility that the whole thing might have been nothing more than a charade?”

– Kubrick wanted his movie “Eyes Wide Shut” released on the 30th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 (July 16, 1999) and the North American release of “Eyes Wide Shut” was July 16, 1999.

– Dustin Hoffman plays a character named Stanley in the movie “Wag the Dog.” That movie is about a director who is called upon to do a secret film project for the government. In “Wag the Dog,” the director wants — but is told he cannot have — “credit” for his work in the secret production. The character named Stanley might be a reference to Stanley Kubrick. The Stanley character in “Wag the Dog” completes a secret film project for the government.

– According to a reviewer, the movie “AI” (Artificial Intelligence), developed by Kubrick but directed by Spielberg, is a sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio with a few “out of place” references to the moon.

– There’s a trip to the moon in Kubrick’s 2001.

– The dialog in 2001 includes such things as “complete security,” a “cover story,” and “formal security oaths.” In the movie, someone asks how long the “cover story” must be maintained.

– Kubrick’s 1968 blockbuster “2001” proved that special effects technology certainly existed prior to the alleged 1969 moon landing.

– Actor Ed Bishop played the part of a Lunar shuttle captain in Kubrick’s 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Interestingly, Ed Bishop also played the part of Klaus Hergersheimer in the 1971 movie “Diamonds are Forever” (and his part was uncredited in that movie.) Ed Bishop is the actor who hands Sean Connery a dosimeter after Sean Connery (as James Bond) breaks into a secret facility in Nevada where fake moonwalking is being filmed. Some people believe Apollo moonwalking could have been filmed at the Nevada Test Site or inside a hangar at nearby Area 51.

– Douglas Trumbull, head of Trumball Film Effects, and creator of many of the effects for the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” also worked on CBS coverage of the Apollo 11 presentation. Trumball worked in Studio City, California for six weeks to prepare for the Apollo 11 broadcast. Trumbull developed a “graphic display projection system” that composed sentences, created moving diagrams, and simulated events for CBS television news coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. (Source: October 1969 issue of “American Cinematographer” magazine, page 984.) Trumbull’s involvement in the Apollo broadcasts means that some of the same talent was involved in 2001 and Apollo.

– I sent an email message to Stanley’s widow (Christiane Kubrick) on July 15, 2004. This was the question I asked Christiane:

“Did your husband know any of the Apollo astronauts?”

This was her reply (on July 16, 2004):

“I think he had some letters from two of them. I can not remember who it was.”

– Christiane (his widow) claims Stanley had no involvement in the Apollo presentations.

– Scott Wenger