10 Things You Didn't Know About 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. Kubrick Tried To Put “Alien Insurance” On The Film
Stanley Kubrick has become known as an odd maverick of a filmmaker, and one of the many strange things he has done was attempting to take out “alien insurance” prior to the release of 2001.
Kubrick is known for being a detailed perfectionist, and he prided himself on putting an awful lot of work into creating the most accurate and realistic depiction of alien life as possible.
He then became very nervous that actual extraterrestrial life would be discovered in real life before the film’s release, making the film - and all of his work - obsolete. It sounds mad, but this is the sort of strange paranoia that was going around in the '60s.
In order to recoup any financial losses that came at the expense of aliens being discovered, Kubrick attempted to take out an insurance policy at the Lloyd’s Bank in London. That’s right, really.
However, Lloyd’s declined the offer to write such a policy, as the chance of accidentally stumbling on extraterrestrial life before the film’s release was way too small.