2001: A Space Odyssey (film) Dawn" inspired the film's "Dawn Of Man" sequence. Kubrick and Clarke privately referred to the project as "How the Solar System Was Won", a reference to MGM's 1962 Cinerama epic "How the West Was Won". On February 23, 1965, Kubrick issued a press release announcing the title as "Journey Beyond The Stars". Other titles considered include "Universe", "Tunnel to the Stars", and "Planetfall". In April 1965, eleven months after they began working on the project, Kubrick selected "2001: A Space Odyssey"; Clarke said the title was "entirely" Kubrick's idea. Intending to set the film apart from the "monsters-and-sex" type of
Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey as "orbiting satellites carrying nuclear weapons" Actor Gary Lockwood (astronaut Frank Poole) in the audio DVD commentary says the first satellite is an armed weapon, making the famous match-cut from bone to satellite a "weapon-to-weapon cut". Several recent reviews of the film mostly of the DVD release refer to armed satellites, possibly influenced by Gary Lockwood's audio commentary. A few published works by scientists on the subject of space exploration or space weapons tangentially discuss "2001: A Space Odyssey" and assume at least some of the orbiting satellites are space weapons. Indeed, details worked out with input from space industry