Stanley Kubrick, the Ultimate Outside-the-Box Director, Gets a New Box (Set)

Stanley Kubrick was extremely particular about boxes. The ones that stored his massive archive were specially ordered, his name stenciled on the outside. In 2008, they even became the subject of their own documentary: Jon Ronson’s Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes. Now you can have your own Stanley Kubrick box, sort of. The containers have inspired the packaging for Criterion’s The Complete Kubrick, which brings every film he directed together for the first time. Arriving Oct. 20, the 30-disc collection contains all 13 Kubrick features and three shorts, plus more than 25 hours of interviews, documentaries and behind-the-scenes material. Courtesy Of Criterion Associate producer Michael Chaiken worked with Kubrick’s daughter Katharina and brother-in-law Jan Harlan to secure access to that material. The estate approved transfers of Lolita screen tests with James Mason and Sue Lyon, among other new discoveries. Chaiken also obtained permission from artist Philip Castle’s estate to reproduce an unused airbrush design for the Full Metal Jacket poster. The packaging includes theatrical poster art, rare photographs and documents covered in Kubrick’s handwritten notes. “It’s orderly, but it’s also messy,” Chaiken says of the archive and the collection it inspired. “His fingers are all over everything.” Graphic designer Drusilla Adeline suggested Ronson’s documentary as a starting point for the package, charmed by the boxes’ “military surplus aesthetic.” The collection began with a smaller assignment. At the end of 2024, Chaiken was working on the archive of Paul Morrissey, the filmmaker associated with Andy Warhol, when Criterion executive producer Kim Hendrickson called. The company wanted to undertake a Kubrick project, starting with a restoration of Eyes Wide Shut, which had never before received the 4K treatment. Lolita (1962). Courtesy Of Criterion Chaiken, who has worked with Criterion for about a decade, accepted immediately. “There was no deliberation,” he says. As work progressed, the conversation expanded to a complete collection. Criterion had relationships with the various studios that controlled Kubrick’s films and had worked directly with the director on laser disc editions. But the early shorts and Kubrick’s first feature, 1953’s Fear and Desire, presented additional problems: They had been independently produced, and there were questions about rights and the location of original film elements. “It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that it was going to be a complete set,” Chaiken says. A roughly 70-minute anti-war film, Fear and Desire also required the estate to approve the inclusion of a movie he had withdrawn from circulation. It had appeared in bootlegs and received an edition from Kino, but Chaiken says this is its first estate-authorized release. The family agreed that leaving it out would defeat the purpose of the collection. Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Courtesy Of Criterion Several titles already had studio restorations, while others needed new masters. Criterion also worked with Warner Bros. on adjustments to The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and 2001: A Space Odyssey, with estate approval, and restored Kubrick’s original mono soundtracks. Chaiken describes the changes as minor, though he expects devoted viewers to notice. “If you’re obsessive about these films,” he says, “you’ll know what they are.” The supplements include new commentaries from filmmaker Lee Unkrich and author Michael Benson, archival interviews with collaborators including Kirk Douglas and Peter Sellers, and Harlan’s Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, narrated by Tom Cruise. The international version of The Shining is included, along with a new transfer of Vivian Kubrick’s documentary about its making. Vivian’s behind-the-scenes Full Metal Jacket footage also appears. The Shining (1980). Courtesy Of Criterion (Chaiken agrees with her recent rejection of claims that 20 minutes are missing from Eyes Wide Shut. Having spent considerable time examining the film’s archival material, he says, “There isn’t some grand conspiracy” tying the film to headlines about Jeffrey Epstein.) For collectors, the draw is having every film alongside the screen tests, handwritten notes and unused artwork that reveal how Kubrick worked. The harder part may be explaining why they need another copy of The Shining. At a $599.95 list price ($479.96 through Criterion), they’ll want to rehearse that conversation. This story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.