10 Movies That Were Re-Edited After Release (And Why)

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001 A Space Odyssey
MGM

Stanley Kubrick strove for perfection with all of his films, and his dedication to the art of filmmaking resulted in some of the most influential movies ever made, from The Shining to Full Metal Jacket. This also meant that he would often tinker with his films after they released, as was the case with sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

After the film had its world premiere on 2 April 1968, it opened in limited release in a handful of theatres. Shortly after, Kubrick cut approximately 19 minutes of footage from the film, before this new version expanded to more cities in the U.S. and internationally.

The scenes Kubrick edited out were assorted, including Bowman recovering a spare part from a corridor, more space walk sequences, and a scene where HAL cuts radio contact between the Discovery and Poole, before killing him. Supposedly, the director axed these scenes because they created pacing problems, and considering that the film is quite dense as it is, this makes sense.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!