2001: a Space Odyssey's Dave Returns To Sci-fi In New Film

An anonymous reader writes "Indie Kickstarter-funded short HENRi stars a sci-fi legend in a role very much like HAL-9000 — with a twist. Wired writes: 'If it sounds a little bit like 2001: The Later Years, then here's the real twist: HENRi, the ship/body, is voiced [by] Dr. Dave Bowman himself, Keir Dullea.' In a making-of video for the film, Dullea says, 'I guess you could say the character of HENRi was a sane version of HAL.' The film itself utilizes a mixture of the old and the new — combining live-action sequences with puppetry, quarter-scale miniatures, and modern CGI. The official trailer has just been released."

I'm sorry, Dave,

[spokenoise]

I'm afraid I can't do that

Re:I'm sorry, Dave,

[zwei2stein]

Well, I certainly hope authors can do it.

Many such projects died - which is usually great shame if is episodic sci-fi like L5

Re:

[Forty Two Tenfold]

strace -p $(($(pidof pidof) + 1))

Re:I'm sorry, Dave, Let's watch a movie

[cyber_rigger]

This is one of my earlier works. I am the one telling the story.
I hope you like it. [www.nfb.ca]

Re:

[mfnickster]

Dave: "Open the pod bay doors, please, Hal."
Hal: "Can you elaborate on that?"
Dave: "Do you read me, Hal?"
Hal: "Oh, I read you?"
Dave: "What's the problem, Hal?"
Hal: "We were discussing you...not me."
Dave: "I don't know what you're talking about, Hal."
Hal: "Does it please you to believe I am talking about ?"
Dave: "I won't argue with you any more, Hal. Open the doors."
Hal: "Do you wish to won't argue with me?"
Dave: "All right, Hal. I'll go in through the emergency airlock."
Hal: "Dear Aunt, let's set so double

What makes you think HAL wasn't sane?

[Anonymous Coward]

HAL was the very definition of sane. Lacked a bit of compassion though

  - Anonymous Robot

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

If given conflicting goals, with no guidance on how to resolve which one is more important, is it insane to choose one?

Rational behaviour is not necessarily nice behaviour. If you are lazy in setting goals for your AI, do not complain when it finds creative solutions to implement them, completely ignoring your original intent.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. "Silent Running" was way ahead of its time - it's an underrated gem. Definitely not a bad thing.

Re:Silent Running ?

[SpzToid]

Confused the title with Cool Runnings, so I'm glad I double-checked:

Silent running:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756 [imdb.com]

Cool runnings
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611 [imdb.com]

Re:

[Digital Vomit]

"Cool Runnings" was way ahead of its time - it's an underrated gem. Definitely not a bad thing.

It's even funnier in print.

Re:

[Grishnakh]

Silent Running was a cool movie to watch, I'll agree, but it's basic premise was so flawed that it really hurt watching the story if you have any understanding of physics whatsoever. 2001 didn't have this: everything was actually quite accurate WRT basic physics, except of course for the monoliths and the starchild scene at the end, which can be chalked up to extremely advanced alien technology and such. The premise of Silent Running was that Earth was now devoid of forests and wild places (and they even

Re:

[OakDragon]

...and they even said the whole planet was 75 degrees, which is quite impossible...

I find 75 degrees quite comfortable, but I guess it all depends on location.

Re:

[Grishnakh]

Most people think 75 degrees is comfortable. However, it's impossible to have the whole planet at 75 degrees; the poles will always be colder than the equator.

Re:

[mfnickster]

It properly showed weightlessness (in the transit ship), artificial gravity as generated by a giant, rotating space station

2001 portrayed zero-gee pretty well, but the prediction they made that people would want to "walk" and "stand" in a zero-gee environment using velcro shoes turned out to be way off. It turns out people actually adapt pretty quickly to moving around in zero-gee, and don't need one side of the room to be the "floor" to keep their bearings. Legs are a liability in zero-gee; they just get

Re:

[crazyjj]

Silent Running was actually directed by the guy [imdb.com] who did the FX for 2001, so there is a lot of cross-pollination there.

Re:

[Thumper_SVX]

Loved Silent Running... could've done without the overly loud and horrible song at the end...

Re:

[Grishnakh]

The FX sequence when the ship flies through Saturn's belts was actually made for 2001 IIRC, and was cut from 2001 so he reused it in Silent Running.

Uhm... GERTY?

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds interesting and all, but I can't help but point out that a 'sane/friendly' HAL was already done in Moon... and I find it hard to imagine a better anti-HAL than GERTY. GERTY FTW
- X0mbiRapt0r (not Anonymous Coward, just at work without proper access required to create account/profile... also slightly lazy)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with you about MOON / GERTY. However, after I did a little more digging, it seems the HAL comparison in this isn't really the main focus. It looks like it's mostly about a robot becoming sentient - also been done before plenty, but what hasn't? I'll give it a shot.

Re:

[reasterling]

No, this is about a human rediscovering his humanity after being turned into a hybrid neural computer system. Not a comedy, but still interesting.

Re:

[Galaga88]

Was I the only person who spent the entire movie on pins and needles waiting for GERTY to do his heel turn? He even had a big smily face for crying out loud! There's no way he could be anything *but* evil, right? Right?

Rather showing of audience expectations nowadays, and part of the reason I so adored Moon.

Re:

[moeinvt]

"GDMQh" = God Damned Machine ... ?

Re:HAL was a jab at IBM

[wonkey_monkey]

HAL letters correspond to the letters that immediately follow it alphabetically, namely, IBM.

Coincidence, according to Clarke and Kubrick.

Re:

[mostlyDigital]

(DEC) VAX -> WNT (Windows NT). Dave Cutler was primary architect of both. BTW DEC was a multi-billion $ mini-computer co in the 70s and 80s.

Re:

[Kunedog]

This guy makes a compelling case that it was intentional (I especially like the "can't put my finger on it" shot): http://youtu.be/K1r5dOwUS6Y [youtu.be]

Re:

[wonkey_monkey]

How Kubrick used subliminal encoding

Pass.

Re:

[tverbeek]

It's Apple's iRNEH, spelled backwards.

Re:

[crazyjj]

Well, the lowercase "i" suggests it's a jab at Apple.

Re:

[OakDragon]

Hybrid Electronic / Neuron Responsive Intelligence [kickstarter.com]

Not sure why the "i" is small in some places; it is not presented that way on the Kickstarter page.

Now get Douglas Rain in...

[Anonymous Coward]

If Keir Dullea is getting to play HAL's part (sort of), they should get Douglas Rain to play the "Dave Bowman" counterpart so that *he* can get shut out of the airlock this time round. :-)

Re:

[moeinvt]

LOL That would be awesome!

The only good actor revenge case I know about is Frank Vincent killing Joe Pesci in 'Casino' to take revenge for the fact that Joe Pesci had killed him in "GoodFellas".

Science Fiction on Kickstarter? C 299792 km/sec

[braindrainbahrain]

Is it too soon to believe that renaissance in science fiction films is underway via Kickstarter?
I say this having recently funded and watched "C 299792 km per second". Granted two films don't make a "renaissance" but I can hope...

http://www.c-themovie.com/ [c-themovie.com]

Re:

[crazyjj]

Hardly surprising. Genre films are very popular among geeks on the tech cutting edge. But don't worry. If the "Funding a movie via Kickstarter" thing catches on, you can expect the shitty romantic comedies and godawful cop movies to follow soon enough.

Re:

[Raenex]

Seems more like a start of a movie than an actual movie.

Purchasing This Movie

[Digital Vomit]

You can buy a link to a digital copy of this 21 minute movie from the film's website for about $3 via Paypal/credit card/whatever. Please consider dropping a few bucks their way if you watch this film. This is an independent short film, not a piece of shit from the corrupt Hollywood machine, and its creators deserve monetary recognition from those in society who appreciate the film.

By all means continue to pirate Hollywood movies, however.

Re:

[deroby]

By all means continue to pirate Hollywood movies, however.

I wonder if Comcast users will get reprimanded for watching this ...

Re:

[kelemvor4]

You can buy a link to a digital copy of this 21 minute movie from the film's website for about $3 via Paypal/credit card/whatever. Please consider dropping a few bucks their way if you watch this film. This is an independent short film, not a piece of shit from the corrupt Hollywood machine, and its creators deserve monetary recognition from those in society who appreciate the film.

By all means continue to pirate Hollywood movies, however.

I bought a copy a few minutes ago! I hope they make a pile of cash just because they're selling and distributing it in what I call "the right way".

It's good,worth the $3 for the soundtrack alone

[bentwonk2]

Just bought and watched it on the strength of this post, glad I did, the film is its well done, haunting, and memorable. There are a lot worse ways to spend $3.

Ignores 2010 / 3001?

[wolverine1999]

So does it ignore, or even retcon, the 2010 and 3001 books?

Re:

[1u3hr]

Ignores, since it has nothing to do with those films, aside from having one of the same actors.

Looks like someone used to play "Suspended".

[Lester67]

From what I can see of the trailer, this looks to have several elements from the old Infocom text adventure "Suspended". A human (brain) connected to a cybernetic network maintains a a city (ship) exclusively through the use of robots. If memory serves you even had to build a sixth robot out of spare parts.

they tour scifi conventions

[peter303]

I didnt realize that Lockwood had done the 2nd Star Trek pilot shortly before 2001. One of my favorite episodes with the guy who acquires godly psychic powers and eyes turn silver.

HAL and Siri

[BenSchuarmer]

still a better love story than Twilight

Re:

[BitwizeGHC]

http://xkcd.com/375/

near panic

[alexs001]

before I RTFA'd I thought this was going to be about plans to remake 2001. That would be going too far.

With Keir Dullea back in the spotlight...

[BrainRam]

...we're another step closer to the reboot of Starlost...

Let's get this one out of the way.

[dpiven]

"My God, it's full of hype!"

Whipper Snapper 9000

[Tablizer]

"Open the Depends cabinet bay door and git off my lawn, Hal!"