Adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune don't appear to have much luck.
Unfortunately, there's a long history of failures in the Duninverse that stem again to the '70s. David Lynch's adaptation flopped in 1984, there was a failed mini-series, and now Denis Villeneuve’s new Dune remake has been driven back several instances.
While we are sure we will be able to be seeing the film in the end, other variations were not as lucky. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky was supposed to helm his own model again in the '70s, but it didn't reasonably get see to see the light of day.
Plenty of films peak too soon in pre-production and don't get made, but Jodorowsky had a vision for his Dune that would have put audiences on board with a few of the most psychedelic storytelling in cinema. With an awesome soundtrack too.
While some might only track in to watch Villeneuve's film to see its star-studded cast, including the internet's boyfriend, Timothée Chalamet, others are eagerly awaiting a Dune that will be triumphant. Except for Lynch. Watching a remake would be opening outdated wounds. But what exactly happened to Jodorowsky's film? Read on to in finding out.
It Was Just As Star-Studded As Lynch's And Villeneuve's... But With A 14-Hour Run Time
Dune is a end result of many different stories wrapped into one. It was considered one of the first groundbreaking sci-fi films that paved the way for franchises like Star Wars, but its style does not outline it.
There's more to it than high-tech machinery and outer house commute. It's the entirety from Lord of the Rings to Star Trek, with even somewhat little bit of The Godfather sprinkled in.
There's additionally something psychedelic about the unique supply material that's translated into the previous variations. That has so much to do with the truth that the Duniverse's greatest money crop is an fit for human consumption spice known as melange, which was based on real-life psychedelic mushrooms. Melange is wanted as a result of its energy to give its users an extended life span and skills to see the long term.
While Lynch's film was in the end trippy, Jodorowsky deliberate to make his model much more some distance out. The surrealist director mentioned his plans for his film in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.
"I wanted to do a movie that would give people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating," Jodorowski stated.
"I did not want LSD to be taken, I wanted to fabricate the drug's effects. This picture was going to change the public's perceptions. My ambition with Dune was tremendous. They gave me all the economic means to do whatever I wanted. So what I wanted was to create a prophet. I want to create a prophet to change the young mind of all the world.
"For me, Dune will be the coming of a god. Artistical, cinematographical god. For me it was not to make a picture, it was something deeper, I sought after to make one thing, sacred, loose, with new perspective. Open the thoughts, as a result of I feel in that time myself, inside a jail, my ego, my mind, I want to open, then I start the struggle to make Dune."
Vice wrote that despite its grandiosity, this vision seemed a little vague. The film was "obese in scope," having over 1,000 pages of script, resulting in a 14-hour run time. The extremely long psychedelic adventure would have been even trippier with music scored by Pink Floyd.
Apart from the script, the only other thing Jodorowsky had underway was a tentative casting, meaning nothing had been made official. He wanted the equally surrealist painter Salvador Dalí to play Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, Orson Welles as the Baron Harkonnen, and even Mick Jagger. Jodorowsky also wanted his 12-year old son to play Paul.
Dali allegedly wanted to become the highest-paid actor of the time and therefore demanded a $100,000 per hour salary. To get out of this agreement, Jodorowsky proposed $100,000 per minute and cut the Emperor's scenes down to 3 to 5 minutes. For the rest of his lines, Jodorowsky planned to replace him with a robot lookalike. Dali agreed to this as long as he got the robot for his museum.
Meanwhile, Jodorowsky had his artists produce 3,000 pieces of artwork for his vision as well, asking them for "jewels, machine-animals, soul-mechanisms... womb-ships, antechambers for rebirth into other dimensions..."
All of this made the film seem like some really elaborate avant-garde experimentation rather than a viable movie-going experience. He was just too ambitious. There was no amount of money that could make this film.
Herbert himself checked in on it in 1976 and found that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production. So ultimately, the project started to stall after that.
The project did not go to waste, however. The script, storyboards, and concept art went to major studios where they were used as influences for other sci-fi greats, and Jodorowsky's used it as inspiration for his graphic novels.
Lynch's 'Dune' Didn't Do Any Better
In between Jodorowsky's and Lynch's projects, Star Wars had been dominating the box office. So they jumped on its coattails. Lynch's film did have a rockstar in the cast, and there was also a very trippy soundtrack from famous artists like Brian Eno and Toto.
But once more, it was a flop. Roger Ebert referred to as the film an "unsightly, unstructured, useless tour into the murkier realms of one among the maximum complicated screenplays of all time."
It also ran a bit long, which resulted in him not being able to have a final cut. “That’s the big lesson," Lynch later mentioned. "Don’t make a film if it can’t be the film you want to make. It’s a sick joke, and it’ll kill you."
Let's hope that Villeneuve's realized from Lynch and Jodorowsky's errors. It's allegedly premiering on HBO Max, which has disheartened the unique Paul, Kyle MacLachlan, but we don't think it's going to have a long run time, and the stills look promising. Hopefully, the selection in the cast is healthier than the others too. But then again, someone is healthier than Dali. Thankfully, no one can get started a petition for the unencumber of Jodorowsky Cut.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuoZmkYrWivM%2BepZ6cXam8bsDHnmSdrZ6aeqe1y6ZkraCRqXq4rdJmqq6ooKTAprCMraZmq6SWv26%2FwKWtmpyfp3qlrcuiZg%3D%3D