Kubrick bought the rights to five or six stories from Clarke and then decided, after lengthy discussions with Clarke, that he would use The Sentinel. (Clarke bought back the rights for the ‘unused’ stories.)
It was then agreed that Clarke would write 2001 as a novel first and then he and Kubrick would turn that into the screenplay. IIRC, in the end this worked out that way that the novel and the screenplay were written sort of concurrently to each other, and the book was released shortly after the premiere of the film.
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