Stanley Kubrick Trivia | 110 facts about the director

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Let’s find out more about him!

Father-in-law of Philip Hobbs, stepfather of Katharina Kubrick, & brother-in-law of Jan Harlan.
He wanted to make a film based on Umberto Eco’s novel “Foucault’s Pendulum” which appeared in 1988. Unfortunately, Eco refused, as he was dissatisfied with the filming of his earlier novel The Name of the Rose (1986) and also because Kubrick wasn’t willing to let him write the screenplay himself.
Planned to direct a film called “I Stole 16 Million Dollars” based on notorious 1930s bank robber Willie Sutton. It was to be made by Kirk Douglas’ Bryna production company, but Douglas thought the script was poorly written. Kubrick tried to get Cary Grant interested, which must have proved to be a failure as well, since the film was never made.
Rarely gave interviews. He did, however, appear in a documentary made by his daughter Vivian Kubrick shot during the making of The Shining (1980). According to Vivian, he was planning on doing a few formal TV interviews once Eyes Wide Shut (1999) was released, but died before he could.
He had a well-known fear of flying, but he had to fly quite often early in his career. Because of his hysteria on planes, he simply tried to lessen the amount of times he flew. According to Malcolm McDowell, Kubrick listened to air traffic controllers at Heathrow Airport for long stretches of time, and he advised McDowell never to fly.
Refused to talk about his movies on set as he was directing them and never watched them when they were completed.
One of the founders of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
The controversy around A Clockwork Orange (1971)’s UK release was so strong that Kubrick was flooded with angry letters and protesters were showing up at his home, demanding that the film never be shown in England again. He personally petitioned the studio to pull it from theaters, despite his legal inability to control a film after production. The studio, out of respect for Kubrick, eventually decided to pull the film out of theaters prematurely.
His next project after Eyes Wide Shut (1999) was to be A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), which was taken over by Steven Spielberg. It is dedicated to Kubrick’s memory.
His dislike of his early film Fear and Desire (1953) is well known. He went out of his way to buy all the prints of it so no one else could see it.
In addition to The Seafarers (1953) (shot for the Seafarers International Union), he may have directed another commissioned project in the early fifties, “World Assembly of Youth,” for the United Nations, documenting a UN-sponsored gathering in New York City of young people from throughout the world. No copy of the film has been found and it has never been conclusively proven that it even existed in the first place (as with “The Seafarers,” Kubrick never publicly acknowledged it).
The only author that Kubrick worked with personally was Arthur C. Clarke for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Loved the work of Franz Kafka, H.P. Lovecraft, Carlos Saura, Max Ophüls, Woody Allen and Edgar Reitz (esp. Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany (1984)), among many others.
Was voted the 23rd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. He was the least prolific director on this list, having made only 16 films over the course of a 48 year career.
Kubrick’s favorite pastime was chess and he was said to be a master at it. Many crew members and actors found themselves on the losing end of chess matches with him.
People would come to his door looking for him, and as few people knew what he looked like, he would tell them that “Stanley Kubrick wasn’t home.”
Had an extensive and rich friendship with Malcolm McDowell during the filming of A Clockwork Orange (1971). After filming ended, Kubrick never contacted him again.
Often read about psychology, and knew how to manipulate his cast quite well. A fine example of this is with Shelley Duvall in The Shining (1980).
He reportedly briefly considered leaving England for either Vancouver, Canada or Sydney, Australia.
He was so reclusive that the press would make up wild stories about him. One such story was that he shot a fan on his property, and then shot him again for bleeding on the grass.
According to his wife Christiane Kubrick, he would screen every movie he could get ahold of. One of his favorites was The Jerk (1979). He considered making Eyes Wide Shut (1999) a dark sex comedy with Steve Martin in the lead. He even met with Martin to discuss the project.
He was a big fan of American sitcoms Seinfeld (1989), Roseanne (1988) and The Simpsons (1989). He was also a fan of American football and would have his friends in America tape games and send them to him. In addition to being a sports fan, he was fascinated by the craft of television commercials. He was particularly impressed by how they could effectively tell a story in 30 seconds.
According to his close friend Michael Herr, he watched The Godfather (1972) over ten times and said it was probably the greatest film ever made.
He considered Elia Kazan the best American director of all time. His list of favorite directors included at various times Federico Fellini, David Lean, Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, François Truffaut, and Max Ophüls.
Daniel Waters wrote the original 180 page screenplay for Heathers (1988) intending for Kubrick to direct it, as he believed Kubrick was the only director who could get away with making a three-hour high school film. Kubrick wasn’t interested, and when the film was made the screenplay was cut nearly in half, resulting in a 102-minute film.
Was a lackadaisical student with grades near the bottom of his class.
According to a biography, Kubrick’s wife finally convinced him once to take what she considered a long-overdue vacation. While vacationing, she noticed he was taking copious notes about something. When asked what he was writing, she discovered he was jotting some ideas down about a film project!
Due to his poor grades in high school (67% average) he was not accepted to a university. Although he never enrolled, he would sit in during classes at Columbia University.
He was a huge fan of the New York Yankees.
According to biographer Michael Herr, Kubrick was often noted for wanting to stick to each word of dialogue without changing it or an actor adding lines of his own. The two exceptions were Peter Sellers (with whom he worked on Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)) and R. Lee Ermey (from Full Metal Jacket (1987)).
Seven of his last nine films were nominated for Oscars. He was nominated for Best Director four consecutive times, for his pictures starting with Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and ending with Barry Lyndon (1975).
Ranked #4 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” [2005]
Was an avid feline lover, once having 16 of them at one point. He would often let his cats lay around his editing room after filming completed as his way of making up for time he lost with them while he was working.
By the age of thirteen, he had become passionate about photography, chess and jazz drumming.
At the age of 16, he snapped a photograph of a news vendor in New York the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. He sold the photograph to Look magazine, which printed it. The magazine eventually hired him as an apprentice photographer while he was still in high school.
Starting with Lolita (1962), he independently produced all his films from his adopted home of England, UK.
In 1950, after creating and publishing a photo essay for Look magazine on boxing, he used the proceeds from the sale to the magazine to make his first film, a 16-minute documentary on the same subject entitled Day of the Fight (1951).
Carlo Fiore, who was credited as an assistant to the producer on One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and helped develop the picture, wrote that the firing of Kubrick by Marlon Brando (who went on to direct the film) was perhaps inevitable, as there was only room for one “genius” on the picture. Brando had originally intended to direct the film himself, but Paramount Pictures pressured him to hire a director. Both Kubrick and Brando, at the time, were represented by Music Corp. of America (MCA).
In his 1974 memoir “Bud: The Brando I Knew,” Carlo Fiore Carlo Fiore writing of his experience developing and working on the movie One-Eyed Jacks (1961) with his friend Marlon Brando – said that Kubrick had wanted to hire Spencer Tracy to play the character of Dad Longworth in the film. The part had already been cast with Karl Malden, and Brando countered that Malden was a fine actor. Kubrick agreed, but said that Malden played “losers” and the part needed a heavyweight to balance Brando’s character of Rio. Brando immediately vetoed the idea of Tracy and forbade any more discussion on the topic.
Kubrick and his partner James B. Harris, during the development of Lolita (1962), hired Marlon Brando’s friend Carlo Fiore — whom Kubrick had worked with on the development of One-Eyed Jacks (1961) — to write a screenplay of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Kamera obskura,” which Fiore had optioned himself. Written in Russian in 1932, “Kamera obskura” was first translated into English around 1938 as “Camera Obscura” and again circa 1960 as “Laughter in the Dark.”) The book had elements in common with “Lolita,” and Kubrick — who was worried he was being hustled when Fiore approached him with the rights to the novel — tied up the production of a potential rival film by hiring Fiore. Nothing came of Fiore’s foray into film development, although Tony Richardson later made a movie of the novel with Nicol Williamson starring.
“I want you to be big — Lon Chaney big,” Kubrick instructed Vincent D’Onofrio during the filming of Full Metal Jacket (1987).
Used his favorite piece of music “Thus spoke Zaratustra” by Richard Strauss, recorded by Herbert von Karajan as the music score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Kubrick had started pre-production on Full Metal Jacket (1987) in 1980, a full seven years before it was theatrically released. The success of similar films during that time (particularly Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) and John Irvin’s Hamburger Hill (1987)) left him a bit jaded, feeling like he had been beaten at his own game. This sentiment stayed with him in the early 1990s when he decided to shelve Aryan Papers, his adaptation of the Louis Begley novel Wartime Lies. Kubrick had completed the script and had done a large amount of pre-production work on Aryan Papers; Johanna ter Steege and Joseph Mazzello had been cast in the lead roles and locations had been scouted in Denmark, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Warners officially announced the project as Kubrick’s next film in April 1993 and it was scheduled for a December 1994 release. Around the same time Steven Spielberg was shooting Schindler’s List (1993), and Kubrick thought the Holocaust-based subject matter of the two projects was too similar. The shelving of this project helps to explain the 12-year gap between Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
He directed four of the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Greatest Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) at #15, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) at #39, A Clockwork Orange (1971) at #70, and Spartacus (1960) at #81.
He once called Ken Russell in the early 1970s but ended the conversation abruptly because, according to Russell, he had been frightened by a bee. He then called several days later to ask Russell where he had found the lovely English locations for his period films. Russell told him and Kubrick used the locations in his next film, Barry Lyndon (1975). Russell said, “I felt quite chuffed.”.
He had no intention of having Anthony Burgess’ write the screenplay for A Clockwork Orange (1971), intending to do it himself. In fact, there is little that Kubrick added to Burgess’ work except for editorial decisions such as eliminating the second murder Alex commits in prison and replacing Billy Boy with Georgie as police constable Dim’s partner (the entire last chapter of the novel was jettisoned, but it had been in the American edition of the novel that Kubrick had first read. Americans, as Burgess reasoned, did not like to see their criminals reformed). The dialog was considered by many critics and cineastes as being lifted almost straight from the book (though there are enough differences to dismiss that as a valid criticism of Kubrick the screenwriter). This is the first of the two movies in which Kubrick has sole credit as screenwriter (Barry Lyndon (1975), which immediately followed A Clockwork Orange (1971) is the other). Kubrick was one of the first director-writers to actually take credit on a film. Going back to the beginnings of the film industry, directors had often participated in the writing of their films, but most did not take credit. It might have been the fact that Kubrick used less of Vladimir Nabokov’s credited screenplay and more of his own writing (and the improvisations of Peter Sellers) for Lolita (1962) that influenced him to become a credited screenwriter. Lolita (1962) was shot at the time that the “auteur” theory (which held the director was the main author of a film) was gaining prominence, and from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) onward Kubrick took credit as a screenwriter. Earlier, he had worked uncredited on the screenplays of Paths of Glory (1957) and One-Eyed Jacks (1961), which he had originally been hired by Marlon Brando to direct. As he was one of the greatest masters the cinema has ever had and truly was the author of his films, Kubrick likely was encouraged to go it alone on A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975) (which allegedly he shot in an improvisatory manner after reading sections of the novel, which he carried with him during shooting).
According to “The London Standard” (29 June 1999 edition), Kubrick left £66,000 in cash and his house, Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, England, to his wife Christiane Kubrick in a 24-page will drawn up on 22 July 1974. He also left her £21,000 in personal property. Before his death, Kubrick established a minimum of two private trusts, the Stanley Kubrick Trust Number One and the Children’s Trust, in which his wealth was collected. Proceeds from the trusts will be distributed among his two children and one stepchild.
Out of all of his feature films, Spartacus (1960) is the only one to which he hasn’t contributed in writing the screenplay.
He joined with directors Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and George Lucas in forming the Film Foundation (promotes restoration and preservation of film – May 1990).
According to Kirk Douglas, Kubrick allegedly wanted to take credit for the Spartacus (1960) screenplay that was primarily written by Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo, who was blacklisted at the time, originally was going to use the alias Sam Jackson. During the production of the film, Otto Preminger announced he had hired Trumbo to write the screenplay for Exodus (1960). Douglas, in turn, announced that he had been the first to hire Trumbo, who would be credited on his film. Preminger’s film was released six months earlier than “Spartacus,” which was released in October 1960. Douglas later said he decided to give Trumbo credit because he was appalled at Kubrick’s attempt to hog the credit. This “recollection” likely was colored by the fact that Kubrick went on to become a great director, and the film was seen as a Kubrick film rather than as the product of Kirk Douglas, who produced it. Douglas viewed the film as a fulfillment of his personal vision. It is highly unlikely that Kubrick would try to take the credit, as Trumbo served as one of the members of the film’s executive committee – screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, executive producer Kirk Douglas and producer Edward Lewis,” according to Duncan L. Cooper’s 1996 article “Who Killed ‘Spartacus’?” Trumbo was a friend of Edward Muhl, the boss of Universal Pictures. which was financing the film. According to Cooper, Howard Fast, a former Communist Party member who wrote the novel the film is based on, worked on the screenplay but received no credit. Walter Winchell had already revealed that Trumbo was working on the film, and it was widely known that Trumbo had won an Oscar using the pseudonym Robert Rich on The Brave One (1956), and that his “front”, Ian McLellan Hunter, had won an Oscar for the story of Roman Holiday (1953) that Trumbo had, in fact, written. In other words, the blacklist was a sham. There were rumors that the House Un-American Activities Committee was going to investigate the movie industry again, and right-wingers began attacking the film. Douglas gave into studio boss Muhl’s idea that the class conflict at the heart of Spartacus (1960) be muted, thus betraying both Trumbo’s screenplay and Fast’s novel. A major battle scene showing the triumph of Spartacus’ slave army over the Romans was deleted lest it seem too provocative, and medium and closeup shots of Laurence Olivier that showed his character – Roman dictator Crassus – experiencing fear over the slave rebellion were replaced with wide shots. Scenes where the slave army was crushed, of course, remain, though their length was cut back to minimize the carnage of the original 197-minute cut. Part of what remains – Olivier’s Crassus looking for Spartacus’ body among the living and the dead slaves – is shot indifferently on a sound stage and seems mismatched with the rest of the scene. Trumbo himself realized the necessity of muting his own passions in order to make the screenplay moderate so the film would be a success at the box office. He told an interviewer, “If the film had failed, neither I nor any other blacklisted writer would ever have been able to work again.” The actions of Preminger and Douglas to give Trumbo credit effectively ended the blacklist, though many blacklisted screenwriters continued to write under pseudonyms until the early 1970s.
His favorite cartoon character was Woody Woodpecker. Kubrick reportedly loved Woody Woodpecker so much that he wanted to feature him in every film he ever made (similar to what George Pal did) but Walter Lantz creator of Woody Woodpecker refused. In the final interview Lantz did he stated that he didn’t regret his decision when he saw films like The Shining (1980) or A Clockwork Orange (1971), but he did regret the decision when he saw films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
Has directed two actors in Oscar-nominated roles: Peter Sellers (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)) and Peter Ustinov (Spartacus (1960)). Ustinov won his Oscar.
Grew up in the Bronx.
According to his daughter, Vivian Kubrick, the family name is pronounced like “Que-brick,” rather than like “koo-brick”.
In 1963 he was asked by the US publication Cinema to compile a list of his favorite films. They were: I Vitelloni (1953) (Federico Fellini, 1953), Wild Strawberries (1957) (“Wild Strawberries” USA title, Ingmar Bergman, 1958), Citizen Kane (1941) (Orson Welles, 1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) (John Huston, 1948), City Lights (1931) (Charles Chaplin, 1931), Henry V (1944) (“Henry V” USA title, Laurence Olivier, 1945), La Notte (1961) (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961), The Bank Dick (1940) (W.C. Fields, 1940), Roxie Hart (1942) (William Wellman, 1942), Hell’s Angels (1930) (Howard Hughes, 1930).
A few days before his abrupt death, he revealed his least and most favorite personal films. He labeled Fear and Desire (1953) as his least favorite personal film, and Eyes Wide Shut (1999) as his most favorite personal film.
In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 9 of Kubrick’s films are listed. He is the director with the greatest percentage of films listed, since Kubrick made only 13 feature films. His listed films are Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980) and Full Metal Jacket (1987).
Shared a love of photography and home movie making with Peter Sellers and they would often photograph each other at work.
Claimed that his IQ was below average. It was rumored, however, that his IQ was around 200.
Shares his birthday with ‘Peter Hyams’, who directed 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), sequel of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which is directed by Kubrick. Also shares his birthday with Blake Edwards both of whom have directed Peter Sellers in multiple films. Further shares his birthday with Leon Vitali who was his personal assistant for almost 25 years as well as appearing in two of his films.
First grew his famous beard during the making of “2001:A Space Odyssey”. He kept the beard for the rest of his life and kept his hair long.
Legendary director Billy Wilder was a great admirer of Kubrick, and claimed that Kubrick “never made a bad picture.” Wilder also once told Cameron Crowe that the first half of Full Metal Jacket was “the best picture I’ve ever seen.”.
Used to skip school to take in double-features at the cinema.
His father was born in New York, to an Austrian Jewish father, Elias Kubrick, and a Romanian Jewish mother, Rosa Spiegelblatt. His mother was also born in New York, to an Austrian Jewish father, Samuel Perveler, and a Russian Jewish mother, Celia Siegel.
While working for, One-Eyed Jacks (1961), in Brando’s home, Brando asked visitors to remove their shoes so as not to scratch the wooden floor. Kubrick often removed his pants as well, choosing to work in nothing but his shirt and underwear.
A heavy chain smoker in his youth, he mostly quit smoking in the 1970s (his forties), but would still smoke occasionally under the pressure of his shoots. On the other hand, he was said to rarely ever drink alcohol.
One of his favorite films was Eraserhead (1977) directed by David Lynch.
Wore a suit and tie every day while directing until the 1970s, when he began to dress in casual work clothes. His wife claimed he didn’t like choosing what to wear, and had a wardrobe full of identical shirts and pants.
When Kubrick bought Simon Cowell’s childhood home, he turned the entire ground floor into a private cinema.
Despite being known for his meticulous methods of filming, he was quite prolific in his earlier years. Beginning with Fear and Desire (1953) and ending with Barry Lyndon (1975), the average time between his films was two years. His last three films took much longer to complete. It took him five years to complete and release The Shining (1980), seven years to complete Full Metal Jacket (1987), and a whopping 12 years to complete Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
Was a close friend of Steven Spielberg.
Resisted conceptual analysis of his films, stating that he didn’t want to have to explain what his films meant, and that he wanted each film to be judged on its own and not in his body of work. He further claimed that his method consisted simply of finding stories that interested him and trying to not repeat himself.
He was known for being a perfectionist, although he denied this. He’d kept doing takes because he felt that his actors, even though they got the right idea, he thought they weren’t happy. When the Shining came out, there was a scene in the ending with Wendy and Danny in the hospital but Kubrick hated it and asked it to be removed just after a week after its release. Dorian Harewood, who played Eightball From Full Metal Jacket, said in an interview that Kubrick was a perfectionist. Kubrick called Harewood a few days later denying that he was a perfectionist.
Among his eccentricities was calling people multiple times a day whenever he had an idea about something, even if it was in the middle of the night. Kubrick himself was a night owl who rarely slept more than a few hours.
Shares his birthday with famed psychologist Carl Jung whose work is cited in “Full Metal Jacket”.
Kubrick loved animals. When he died, he had a Highland Terrier. seven Golden Retrievers. one Scotch Terrier, eight cats, and four Fern Donkeys.
Kubrick’s wife and Jan Harlan, founders of the Stanley Kubrick Estate feel that Michael Herr’s book on the director is the most accurate personal account and Alison Castle’s book by Taschen is the most comprehensive.
Kubrick considered adapting Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume, which he had enjoyed; however, the idea was never acted upon. The novel was later adapted for the screen by Tom Tykwer, as Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006).
In a March 2013, Tony Frewin, Kubrick’s assistant for many years, wrote in an article in The Atlantic: “He [Kubrick] was limitlessly interested in anything to do with Nazis and desperately wanted to make a film on the subject.” The article included information on another Kubrick World War II film that was never realized, based on the life story of Dietrich Schulz-Koehn, a Nazi officer who used the pen name “Dr. Jazz” to write reviews of German music scenes during the Nazi era. Kubrick had been given a copy of the Mike Zwerin book Swing Under the Nazis (the front cover of which featured a photograph of Schulz-Koehn) after he had finished production on Full Metal Jacket (1987). However, a screenplay was never completed and Kubrick’s film adaptation plan was never initiated (the unfinished Aryan Papers was a factor in the abandonment of the project).
Following J.R.R. Tolkien’s sale of the film rights for The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1969, The Beatles considered a corresponding film project and approached Kubrick as a potential director; however, Kubrick turned down the offer, explaining to John Lennon that he thought the novel could not be adapted into a film due to its immensity. The eventual director of the film adaptation Peter Jackson further explained that a major hindrance to the project’s progression was Tolkien’s opposition to the involvement of the Beatles.
In 2016, longtime assistant of Kubrick’s, Emilio D’Alessandro addressed that prior to his death, Kubrick was considering making a movie of Pinocchio. D’Alessandro said that Kubrick sent him to buy Italian about the subject. “He wanted to make it in his own because so many Pinocchios have been made. He wasted to do something really big… He said; ‘It would [be] very nice if I could make children laugh and feel happy making this Pinocchio.'” (Kubrick eventually used the project based on Brian Aldiss short story as his “Pinocchio film.”) D’Alessandro also stated that Kubrick’s lifelong fascination in World War II led to an interest in The Battle of Monte Cassino. D’Alessandro said, “Stanley said that would be an interesting film to make. He asked me to get hold of things … like newspaper cuttings and find out the distance from the airport, train stations. He had a friend who actually bombarded Monte Cassino during the war … It is horrible to remember those days. Everything was completely destroyed.”.
Following a 2010 announcement about the development of the Lunatic at Large project, plans for the prospective production of two other unrealized Kubrick projects were also announced. As of August 2012, Downslope and God Fearing Man were in development by Philip Hobbs and producer Steve Lanning, in partnership with independent company Entertainment One (eOne). A press release described Downslope as an “epic Civil War drama”, while God Fearing Man is the “true story of Canadian minister Herbert Emerson Wilson.”.
In 1956, after MGM turned down a request from Kubrick and his producer partner James B. Harris to film Paths of Glory (1957), MGM then invited Kubrick to review the studio’s other properties. Harris and Kubrick discovered Stefan Zweig’s novel The Burning Secret, in which a young baron attempts to seduce a young Jewish woman by first befriending her twelve-year-old son, who eventually realizes the actual motives of the baron. Kubrick was enthusiastic about the novel and hired novelist Calder Willingham to write a screenplay; however, Production Code restrictions hindered the realization of the project. Kubrick had previously expressed interest in adapting a Willingham novel Natural Child, but was also prevented by the Production Code on that occasion.
A number of screenplays that were written by Kubrick, who was either hired on a commission basis or was writing for his own projects, remain unreleased. One such screenplay is The German Lieutenant (co-written with Richard Adams), in which a group of German soldiers embark upon a mission during the final days of World War II. Other examples of unreleased Kubrick screenplays are I Stole 16 Million Dollars, a fictional account of early 20th century Baptist minister turned safecracker Herbert Emmerson Wilson (the film was to be produced by Kirk Douglas’ company “Bryna”, despite Douglas’ belief that the script was poorly written, and Cary Grant was approached for the lead role); and a first draft of a script about the Mosby Rangers, a Confederate guerrilla force that was active during the American Civil War. Kubrick was also interested in adapting to the screen Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, but it was cancelled due for the explicit incestuous relationship between the two main characters.
In between Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Kubrick was interested in making a film, for children and young adults, based on the viking epic novel, Eric Brighteyes.
After the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Kubrick planned a large-scale biographical film about Napoleon Bonaparte. He conducted research, read books about the French emperor, and wrote a preliminary screenplay which has since become available on the internet. With the help of assistants, he meticulously created a card catalog of the places and deeds of Napoleon’s inner circle during its operative years. Kubrick scouted locations, planning to film large portions of the film on location in France, in addition to the use of United Kingdom studios. The director was also going to film the battle scenes in Romania and had enlisted the support of the Romanian army; senior army officers had committed 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 cavalrymen to Kubrick’s film for the paper costume battle scenes. In a conversation with the British Film Institute, Kubrick’s brother-in-law Jan Harlan stated that, at the time, the film was ready to enter the production stage and David Hemmings was Kubrick’s favored choice to play the character of Napoleon, although Jack Nicholson was eventually cast in the role. Audrey Hepburn was his preference for the role of Josephine, but she wrote back to Kubrick kindly declining the role. In notes that Kubrick wrote to his financial backers, preserved in the book The Kubrick Archives, Kubrick expresses uncertainty in regard to the progress of the Napoleon film and the final product; however, he also states that he expected to create “the best movie ever made.” Napoleon was eventually cancelled due to the prohibitive cost of location filming, the Western release of War and Peace (1965), and the commercial failure of Waterloo (1970). A significant portion of Kubrick’s historical research would influence Barry Lyndon (1975), the storyline of which ends in 1789, approximately fifteen years prior to the commencement of the Napoleonic Wars. In March 2013, Steven Spielberg announced his intention to create, in conjunction with Kubrick’s family, a television miniseries based on Kubrick’s screenplay.
In the early 1960s, Kubrick, a keen listener of BBC Radio, heard the radio serial drama Shadow on the Sun; written by Gavin Blakeney, Shadow on the Sun is a work of science fiction in which a virus is introduced to earth through a meteorite landing. At a time when Kubrick was looking for a new project, the director became reacquainted with Shadow on the Sun. Kubrick purchased screen rights from Blakeney in 1988 for £1,500. Thereon, Kubrick read and annotated a script before moving onto A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). The tone of the unrealized project, as described by Anthony Frewin in The Kubrick Archives, is a cross between War of the Worlds and Mars Attacks! (1996).
In 1976, Kubrick sought out a film idea that concerned the Holocaust and tried to persuade Isaac Bashevis Singer to contribute an original screenplay. Kubrick requested a “dramatic structure that compressed the complex and vast information into the story of an individual who represented the essence of this man-made hell.” However, Singer declined, explaining to Kubrick, “I don’t know the first thing about the Holocaust.” In the early 1990s, Kubrick nearly entered the production stage of a film adaptation of Louis Begley’s Wartime Lies, the story of a boy and his aunt as they are in-hiding from the Nazi regime during the Holocaust-the first-draft screenplay, entitled Aryan Papers, was penned by Kubrick himself. Full Metal Jacket (1987) co-screenwriter Michael Herr reports that Kubrick had considered casting Julia Roberts or Uma Thurman as the aunt; eventually, Johanna ter Steege was cast as the aunt and Joseph Mazzello as the young boy. Kubrick traveled to the Czech city of Brno, as it was envisaged as a possible filming location for the scenes of Warsaw during wartime, and cinematographer Elemér Ragályi was selected by Kubrick to be the director of photography. Kubrick’s work on Aryan Papers eventually ceased in 1995, as the director was influenced by Schindler’s List (1993). According to Kubrick’s wife Christiane an additional factor in Kubrick’s decision was the increasingly depressing nature of the subject as experienced by the director. Kubrick eventually concluded that an accurate Holocaust film was beyond the capacity of cinema and returned his attention to A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).
Kubrick was fascinated by the career of Nazi filmmaker Veit Harlan, his wife’s uncle, and contemplated creating a film of the social circle that surrounded Joseph Goebbels. Although Kubrick worked on this project for several years, the director was unable to progress beyond a rough story outline.
Kubrick once deliberated on adapting Robert Marshall’s novel All the King’s Men, a dramatic account of a British intelligence service operation during World War II.
On November 1, 2006, Kubrick’s son-in-law Philip Hobbs announced that he would be shepherding a film treatment of Lunatic at Large. Kubrick had commissioned the project for treatment from noir pulp novelist Jim Thompson in the 1950s, but it had been lost until Hobbs uncovered a manuscript following Kubrick’s death. As of August 2011, this project is in development for future release, with the involvement of Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell, and U.K. screenwriter Stephen Clarke.
While working with Ian Watson on the story for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Kubrick asked Watson for a pre-print copy of his Warhammer 40,000 tie-in novel Inquisitor. Watson quotes Kubrick as saying, “Who knows, Ian? Maybe this is my next movie?”.
Was nominated for Producing, Directing and Writing three Oscar Best Picture nominees: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975).
His 1956 screenplay, Burning Secret, co written with Calder Willingham and based on Stefan Zweig ‘s work, was discovered in 2018.
There was a character in 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) named Dr. Chandra. The Chandra X-Ray telescope was launched on July 23, 1999, just three days before Kubrick’s birthday.
He has directed six films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant: Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980).
One of his all-time favorite films was Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), which would serve as one of the main influences for his film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Never recorded an audio commentary for any of his films for their home releases, as he didn’t want to explain the lore and mystery of his films and spoiling them for viewers. He wanted his films to speak for themselves.
A celebrated conspiracy theory claims that NASA, impressed by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), hired Kubrick to fake the moon landings for them, and that he then dropped hints to this in The Shining (1980). Imagine Dragons: On Top of the World (2013) pokes fun at this by having a bearded, intense film director make the band stage multiple takes of the moon landings while Richard Nixon and the secret service watch.
According to his daughter Katharina, he had an intense dislike for The Wizard of Oz (1939).
His favorite films included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), An American Werewolf In London (1981), Metropolis (1927), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Citizen Kane (1941), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and The Silence of The Lambs (1991).
According to assistant Anthony Frewin, Kubrick was a stationery and typography freak, and the two would argue about the merits of various typefaces.
Considered the collaboration between Anthony Michael Hall and John Hughes as “the most promising since James Stewart and Frank Capra”. He also wanted to cast Hall as Private Joker in Full Metal Jacket (1987), but disagreements with the salary and scheduling conflicts prevented this.
Took over the direction of Spartacus after Anthony Mann had a major disagreement with Kirk Douglas.
A popular joke among fans in reference to the conspiracy theory that he helped fake the moon landing is that NASA hired Kubrick to direct a fake moon landing but Kubrick was such a perfectionist that he insisted they actually shoot on location on the moon to make it look believable.
Production of Barry Lyndon was moved from Ireland to England after Stanley Kubrick received word that his name was on an IRA hit list for directing a film featuring English soldiers in Ireland consequently a number of scenes were dropped.
Kubrick owned much of his own 35mm cinema camera equipment, which allowed him to make custom modifications to achieve particular effects. It also helped reduce the budgets of his films, since none of the cameras or lenses had to be rented.
Although he made a number of films with politically progressive themes, his own actual political views were quite complex and have long been a matter of debate. Most biographers agree that he was for the most part a right-leaning centrist who grew more conservative over the years.
Expressed his frustration at never having the time to learn German fluently.