Thirteen years have passed since Stanley Kubrick’s death, but he still manages to fascinate a new generation of cinema buffs. First there was the announcement last August that three of his unproduced projects were finally being developed for film and television. Then there was Room 237, Rodney Ascher’s documentary on the sometimes crazy, but never boring theories surrounding Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. Now another Kubrick-related curiosity has surfaced, and while it’s not as significant as the first two, it does give some insight to the enigmatic filmmaker’s creative process.
ScreenCrush reported on a list of 15 unused titles for his war satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and they definitely don’t disappoint. The names were deciphered from the scrawls out of one of Kubrick’s notebooks, but the legendary title never appears among them. My favorite is Dr. Strangelove’s Secret Uses of Uranus. I like it because it’s nonsense. See complete list below:
Doctor Doomsday
Don’t Knock the Bomb
Dr. Doomsday and his Nuclear Wiseman
Dr. Doomsday Meets Ingrid Strangelove
Dr. Doomsday or: How to Start World War III Without Even Trying
Dr. Strangelove’s Bomb
Dr. Strangelove’s Secret Uses of Uranus
My Bomb, Your Bomb
Save The Bomb
Strangelove: Nuclear Wiseman
The Bomb and Dr. Strangelove or: How to be Afraid 24hrs a Day
The Bomb of Bombs
The Doomsday Machine
The Passion of Dr. Strangelove
Wonderful Bomb
One can see how the director eventually came to settle on the final product, but it’s interesting to see that even Stanley Kubrick needed time to ruminate.
What’s your favorite alternative Dr. Strangelove title?