- 2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and it was inspired by multiple short stories by Clarke, including “The Sentinel” (1951). Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film’s release. 2001: A Space Odyssey stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain and follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.