Remember that scene from Independence Day when U.S. President Bill Pullman is told by the excellent character actor James Rebhorn that Area 51 does indeed exist and the knowledge of which has been covered up by special intelligence for decades?

That must be how Doug Trumbull feels today. The visual effects veteran who worked on ’2001′ in the 60′s and last week boldly announced that 17 minutes of lost footage that Stanley Kubrick had, by his own accord, cut from his final vision of the film, had been found in a salt mine in Kansas.

Now, Warner Bros. have released a statement saying they knew about the footage all along;

“The additional footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey has always existed in the Warner vaults. When [director Stanley] Kubrick trimmed the 17 minutes from 2001 after the NY premiere, he made it clear the shortened version was his final edit. The film is as he wanted it to be presented and preserved and Warner Home Video has no plans to expand or revise Mr. Kubrick’s vision.”

For now, they don’t want to share. But don’t fret, you can guarantee when they get around to making an Ultimate Kubrick Blu-ray Box Set, the footage will be included then but for the foreseeable future, they aren’t going to pay for an expensive, glossy, ultimate edition of 2001 to once again be released on Blu-ray. Not when the film has already existed in the format for a couple of years.

As I said last week… only those Obsessed With Film will care about the footage to double-dip and WB Know this, so it’s gonna be a while before we see it.

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