By Mike Selby
“When I made Dune … it was a huge, huge sadness.” — David Lynch.
Although deemed “unfilmable,” Hollywood has taken numerous stabs at filming Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic ‘Dune.’ The first was in 1971, when B-movie producer Roger Corman purchased the rights from Herbert. With a cast and crew ready to film in the Czech Republic, one of Corman’s lawyers starting fine tuning the rights so much that Corman lost them, and the project was scrapped.
‘Planet of the Apes’ producer Arthur P. Jacobs was the next to own the rights, with the intent on having David Lean direct (possibly believing his work on ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ gave him an edge of filming in deserts.) Lean turned him down. With no director attached, Jacobs was going to lose the rights if he didn’t quickly produce a “proof of concept”— legalese for anything showing you were moving ahead in good faith. Jacobs hired screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg to produce a 20-page treatment of ‘Dune’ for him, knowing that Pallenberg had just adapted another unfilmable book —‘The Lord of the Rings’— for British filmmaker John Boorman (that book defeated Boorman, but the sets and costumes he had commissioned were used in his film ‘Excalibur’).
By May of 1973 Jacobs had everything he needed to adapt ‘Dune’ for the big screen, including 15 million dollars in financing (the exact amount ‘Star Wars’ would cost to make). While cast and crew were getting prepared to film in Turkey, Jacobs had a massive heart attack and passed away. There would be no Jacobs adaptation.
After “god” told him in a dream that his next film had to be ‘Dune,’ Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky purchased the rights through a consortium of French producers, despite not ever having read the book. Anchoring his production in psychedelic surrealism, Jodorowsky’s cast included Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, David Carradine, and Mick Jagger. Biomechanical artist H.R. Giger was hired for set and spaceship design; Pink Floyd agreed to provide the soundtrack; and French artist Moebius created 3,000 full colour storyboards of each scene.
Things began to turn south when the consortium flew Frank Herbert to Europe to act as consultant on the film, only to have Jodorowsky refuse to meet with him. Which was probably for the best, as the director had taken large liberties with the story, adding scenes of incest and fecal matter. Also of concern was Jodorowsky’s script, which would create a film 14 hours long.
After spending 10 million in pre-production, the director flew to Hollywood to ask for another 5 million to finish his “masterpiece.” No studio was convinced people would sit for a 14-hour film; all of them passed. Like those before him, Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ was not to be.
Riding high of the success of 1976’s ‘King Kong,’ Dino De Laurentiis purchased the ‘Dune’ rights quite cheaply from the now-ruined French consortium. The Italian mogul hired ‘Alien’ director Ridley Scott to tackle ‘Dune.’ Like Jodorowsky, Scott’s version also focused on an incestuous relationship, which outraged Herbert. After working on it for almost a year, Scott realized the time-commitment needed was far too much, and he quit (he went on to make ‘Blade Runner’). De Laurentiis now needed a new director.
Enter David Lynch.
A painter who stumbled into filmmaking by accident (he had wanted to see one his paintings move), Lynch only had two films under his belt: His disturbing and surreal student film ‘Eraserhead,’ and ‘The Elephant Man,’ which was nominated for 8 Oscars including best director. Hiring Lynch to helm a multi-million dollar science fiction epic may appear crazy, except that he was already George Lucas’s first choice to direct ‘Return of the Jedi.’
Lucas had seen ‘Eraserhead’ at Stanley Kubrick’s place (it was Kubrick’s favorite film of all time), and felt Lynch’s genius would be perfect to helm the third ‘Star Wars’ film. Lynch considered it but ultimately turned it down (he also turned down the offer to direct ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’).
It was De Laurentiis’ daughter Raffaella who—after being brought to tears while watching ‘The Elephant Man’—sent Lynch of copy of ‘Dune’ with the offer to direct. He loved the book and and agreed to write and direct it on one condition: her father had to finance his next project. Lynch spent almost two years writing the screenplay, in addition to preproduction. Actual filming began in March of 1983, at Estudios Churubusco—a bankrupt studio in Mexico, which De Laurentiis could save a small fortune by using.
Lynch found himself in the brutal Mexican heat directing 53 speaking parts, 900 crew members, 20,000 extras, 70 hand-built sets, 150 different department heads, and a small army making 3,000 costumes. Besides the heat, locals had been using the studio to dump their dead dogs. The film crew had to remove thousands of carcasses.
Lynch’s ‘Dune’ was three hours long, which Dino De Laurentiis found untenable. Believing films needed to be under two hours, Dino edited the film himself. This version was shorter, but now made little sense to test audiences. An exec at Universal said the film was a “dog,” and refused to let press and critics see any advanced screenings. Opening in December of 1984, ‘Dune’ was a financial and critical disaster (although—like the old Jerry Lewis joke, they loved it in France). Having his version cut up in combination with it failing, Lynch felt “he died twice.”
Director Peter Berg hoped to remake ‘Dune’ in 2009 as “the ultimate action film” with Robert Pattison slated to star. He told Universal he needed 175 million to film it, which they rejected (they did however give him 200 million to make 2012’s ‘Battleship’—which lost them 150 million). French director Pierre Morel also worked for two years on a 3D version of ‘Dune’ for Paramount. This too fell apart.
It would take French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve to adapt ‘Dune’ properly in the eyes of fans, critics, and box-office receipts. ‘Dune Part 1” opened in theatres and streaming services in 2021. It made 400 million, and won 7 of the 10 Oscars it was nominated for. Villeneuve’s ‘Dune Part 2’ opens next month.
(In one of those wonderful twists of life, Villeneuve became a filmmaker after the “excitement and wonder” he felt after seeing David Lynch’s ‘Dune’ as a teenager).
Mike Selby is Programs & Community Development Librarian at the Cranbrook Public Library