Stanley Kubrick personally requested that Ministry feature in ‘A.I.’
The late auteur Stanley Kubrick and industrial pioneers Ministry are two names that seem far removed at first mention. However, the pair remain inextricably linked by Kubrick’s passion project A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Famously, A.I. was directed by Steven Spielberg, with both the screenplay by the Jaws mastermind and the screen story by Ian Watson based on Brian Aldiss’ 1969 short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long. Although Spielberg helmed and directed the 2001 film, Stanley Kubrick first endeavoured to adapt Aldiss’ work into a movie, acquiring the rights to the story as far back as the early 1970s. Kubrick even hired numerous writers for the project, including Aldiss himself, Bob Shaw, Sara Maitland and Ian Watson. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan, and the project became suspended in development hell for years.
However, it must be said that some of the problems fell at the feet of Kubrick himself. Notorious for being a perfectionist, the director felt that computer-generated imagery was not sufficiently developed to create the protagonist David, the robot child seeking to experience love. Compounding this creative impasse, the auteur also believed that no child actor would play David convincingly.
Several other factors plagued the project, but Kubrick deciding to hand the rights over to Spielberg as director in 1999 proved to be a masterstroke. Unfortunately, Kubrick passed away in March of that year, leaving it up to Spielberg to finish his old friend’s work. He remained close to the project until the end, with it eventually dedicated to Kubrick.
Whilst A.I. is one of the most storied movies in history, one of its remarkable yet overlooked elements is that industrial pioneers, Ministry, appear as the Flesh Fair band. Not done there, they also have a duo of songs on the soundtrack. Even more surprisingly, years after the film’s release, it was revealed by Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen that the band’s appearance came at the personal request of Kubrick.
Kubrick was a big fan of Ministry, and during an interview with Songfacts, Jourgensen recalled how their work on A.I. came to fruition via the man himself. He said: “I had like three songs on that film. But yeah, that was all initiated by Stanley Kubrick who called me up out of the blue and said he was a big fan, and he had this screenplay that he sent me and he wanted us to be the band and to write the music for it.”
Jourgensen further explained: “Well, first of all, I hung up on him. I thought it was a crank call. His secretary was calling, and I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ Click. And then he called back personally and then talked to me, and I was just freaked out. I mean, who wouldn’t be freaked out? Here’s this eccentric American God living in the countryside of England, and he’s calling me up in Austin, Texas, and saying he wants me to do the music for his film, and he wants me to be in his film, and he’s famous and all that. I didn’t even believe it.”
Ministry continued their involvement with the project after Kubrick’s death. However, things weren’t so simple. Jourgensen and Spielberg endured initial friction, partially due to the Ministry leader’s prank when he claimed that he was told “A.I.” stood for “Anal Intruder” and threatened to depart because it wasn’t a porn movie.
Despite this tension, Jourgensen and Spielberg would eventually have a friendly relationship. The Ministry pieces, ‘What About Us’ and ‘Dead Practice’, made it onto the soundtrack alongside their appearance, adding a completely different dimension to the blockbuster.
