Space Odyssey influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey

Written alongside each other rather than one after the other. Clarke and Kubrick began in 1964 from Clarke's 1951 short story The Sentinel, and Clarke drafted the novel as the screenplay developed, with each feeding the other. The film premiered in April 1968; the novel was published a few months later. The arrow points from the book because that is where the material came from, not because of the dates. Clarke's prose came first and Kubrick shot from it. Where they differ is instructive: the novel explains everything, states plainly that the destination is Saturn and that Bowman passes through a star gate. The film explains nothing and goes to Jupiter because Saturn's rings could not be made convincing.