A great article on Ian Watson’s collaboration with Kubrick on A.I., which has many great bits, including this one:

One day Emilio (red: Kubrick’s chauffeur) was driving me down the M1 motorway in the charcoal-coloured Mercedes en route to the manor house. “Ian,” he said, “Stanley phoned me on Sunday afternoon, even though he promised I could have Sunday afternoon to myself. `I need some string, Emilio,’ he told me. Stanley likes to tie things up with string. Ah but Ian,” continued Emilio, “I know about these things by now. So I said, `Stanley, where are you?’ `I’m in the computer room.’ `All right, Stanley, do you see the wall with the shelves? On the middle shelf in the middle there is a ball of string.’ `I can see it!’ `Wait! Go directly to the shelf, and come back here with the string, and tell me you have it!’ `Ian,’ said Emilio triumphantly, `I have string in every room for situations like this. And I also have extra balls of string hidden in each room as well!” #

And of course this one, which goes out to Martin and Poulsen:

I had written a novel entitled Inquisitor set in the wacky far-future world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000; he wanted a pre-publication printout right away. “Who knows, Ian?” he mused. “Maybe this is my next movie?” I arranged for Games Workshop to send him samples of their games and artwork and obtained for him from fantasy artist Ian Miller a portfolio of drawings of monsters. Anything could be grist to the mill, now or at some future date.

Incidentally, I like inquiring fresh minds what they thought of A.I… What did you think of A.I.?