After Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick said his next project would be 'the proverbial good science fiction movie'. He settled on 2001: A Space Odyssey, working with author Arthur C. Clarke and financed by MGM, which liked that it could be shown in wide Cinerama. The film was shot in England, partly because a British tax scheme, the Eady Levy, rewarded production there, and Kubrick insisted on realistic space rather than the fanciful style of earlier films. Sources of inspiration included Forbidden Planet and Japanese monster films, and MGM even listed Hitchcock, Wilder and Lean as possible replacements.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.