Adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune don't seem to have much luck.
Unfortunately, there's a long history of failures in the Duninverse that stem back 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 pushed back several times.
While we are certain we will be seeing the film eventually, other adaptations weren't as lucky. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky was supposed to helm his own version back in the '70s, but it didn't quite 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 some of the most psychedelic storytelling in cinema. With an awesome soundtrack too.
While some might only tune 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 succeed. Except for Lynch. Watching a remake would be opening old wounds. But what exactly happened to Jodorowsky's film? Read on to find out.
It Was Just As Star-Studded As Lynch's And Villeneuve's... But With A 14-Hour Run Time
Dune is a culmination of many different stories wrapped into one. It was one of the first groundbreaking sci-fi films that paved the way for franchises like Star Wars, yet its genre doesn't define it.
There's more to it than high-tech machinery and outer space travel. It's everything from Lord of the Rings to Star Trek, with even a little bit of The Godfather sprinkled in.
There's also something psychedelic about the original source material that's translated into the past adaptations. That has a lot to do with the fact that the Duniverse's biggest cash crop is an edible spice called melange, which was based on real-life psychedelic mushrooms. Melange is sought after because of its power to give its users a longer life span and abilities to see the future.
While Lynch's film was eventually trippy, Jodorowsky planned to make his version even more far out. The surrealist director talked about 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 said.
"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 wanted to make something, sacred, free, with new perspective. Open the mind, because I feel in that time myself, inside a prison, my ego, my intellect, I want to open, then I start the fight 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 again, it was a flop. Roger Ebert called the film an "ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing 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 said. "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 learned from Lynch and Jodorowsky's mistakes. It's allegedly premiering on HBO Max, which has disheartened the original Paul, Kyle MacLachlan, but we don't think it'll have a long run time, and the stills look promising. Hopefully, the choice in the cast is better than the others too. But then again, anyone is better than Dali. Thankfully, no one can start a petition for the release of Jodorowsky Cut.