"In 1966, Dan Richter was struggling to make a living as a mime artist in London when he received a call summoning him to discuss with director Stanley Kubrick the incomplete opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. From that fateful meeting, Richter went on to choreograph and star as the man-ape, Moonwatcher, in what has became famous as "The Dawn of Man" sequence of the classic film.".

"This is Richter's story, and the stories behind 2001's landmark achievements in make-up, costume, choreography, and cutting-edge cinematography under the command of one of the film world's most innovative and demanding captains.

At once the tale of Kubrick and his probing vision, the 2001 team and their interactions, and Dan Richter's personal triumph under intense pressure, this is an inside look at eighteen unique minutes of filmmaking, climaxing in the longest flash-forward in cinema's history - three million years, from bone to space station, in a twenty-fourth of a second - as Moonwatcher hurls man's first weapon into the sky and launches the episode into the stratosphere of film's greatest moments."--BOOK JACKET.