Jodorowsky's Dune

[area23]

Exactly what Donpimpom says. I admire Jodorowsky for his comics (the White Llama!), books and films (Santa Sangre!) But for what I've read his Dune version would be a total lysergic surrealist bomb. Lovely idea for any kind of story, but not Dune, thank you!

There already are a few interviews with him about Dune on Youtube.

[NurgleHH]

The truth about it is, that not Jodorowsky was the first guy, who wanted to make the movie. Arthur P Jacobs (Planet of the apes) made a deal with Frank Herbert and the book should be written by Robert Bolt (Papillon) and directed by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) and Franklyn D. Scheffler (Planet of the Apes). Very Interesting, but never made real. Jacobs died before the start in 1973. The Idea of Jodorowsky with Giger, Dali and all the other stars, was only an idea, not more.
@Sir Captain Blood: Jackson is brilliant, but not a god. I think Michael Bay or Christopher Nolan would be better for this story. One problem is still the coverage of the story. Six books is too much for the big moie-companies, I'm afraid. But We are young and full of hope...

[Vermis]

I know a wee bit about the project, and Giger's designs for it. Wouldn't mind finding out a bit more.

One day, Peter Jackson will make the original Dune trilogy as a series of movies, and it will be glorious.

(Yes, I know not everyone will agree with this, but leave me alone to dream... )

Each of the six books will be turned into a trilogy of 3-hour movies; spice will be practically radioactive in it's influence and be upstaged in importance by weirding modules anyway; Fremen will make Superman look soft; anyone who's not an Atriedes or Arrakeen (with the exception of Yueh) will be such a stunted, cackling, two-dimensional caricature of a villain as to make the book's Harkonnens look like paragons of virtue and any pretence of bluff or twists an impossibility; and Stilgar will be reduced to comic relief and the butt of tossing jokes. Probably involving sietch reservoirs.

Then Weta will make Arrakis look all shiny and pretty, and PJ will get the credit for it.

 

[Doomsdave]

As a Dune aficianado I am intrigued by this.  I'm not sure it would have been a great movie, but like all great books I think there is room for many visual interpretations.  I just wish someone would publish a thick art book (I'm looking at you Taschen) of all the notes, photos and sketches by the team.  I would love to have that. 

[Dr Mathias]

I'm a fan of the first book- and I like the imagery of the Lynch version quite a bit to be honest. Weird enough to put it into the far future. Although from another franchise I'm going to quote Trevor Goodchild: "We have already evolved so much that our actions would be incomprehensible to a human from a thousand years ago."

In contrast the TV miniseries just seems like good old fashioned human actors... I'm a decadent Harkonnen, like the Greeks of old! Tee hee!

I'd probably give a new movie to Guillermo del Toro if he had the money and time to do it right.

Thanks for the tip at any rate, I'll certainly keep it on my radar. I have a bunch of Giger's big ass books and the Dune stuff is intriguing

[Pentaro]

I'm a fan of the first book- and I like the imagery of the Lynch version quite a bit to be honest.

Same here.

Lovely idea for any kind of story, but not Dune, thank you!

Agreed. I'm only familiar with his comics and I love them, even if he repeats the same ideas every time. I think we would have seen very cool designs and ideas, but not a very good film, or at least not a good Dune film. David Lynch's has a similar problem...

David Lean, really??

Nowadays pretty much everything gets made into a film, or a remake if it already was, so I'm pretty sure we'll see a new Dune movie (or saga) sooner of later.

Kilian Eng made this beautiful poster for the documentary:

http://dwdesign.tumblr.com/post/32206302789/poster-for-the-upcoming-documentary-about

[FramFramson]

I'd learned about this many years ago from the stories Moebius has told about it now and again (I'm a huge, huge fan of Moebius and he has collaborated with Jodorowsky on occasion - my favourite of those collaborations being "The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart").

It really is fascinating how elements of the movie or individuals who worked on it went on to feed into so many other great sci-fi movies of the 1970's and 1980's.

Had the movie ever been made, it might not have been true to Frank Herbert and it might not have even been a great movie, but it would have been an incredible, ground-breaking spectacle, one that would have massively raised the standards for sci-fi movies (much as Star Wars eventually did, only possibly even more so).

It's funny how these stories of wildly ambitious movies that were never made are coming out now. Like the backstory of Argo being Jack Kirby's designs for the wild-eyed film version of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light.

[Captain Blood]

Each of the six books will be turned into a trilogy of 3-hour movies; spice will be practically radioactive in it's influence and be upstaged in importance by weirding modules anyway; Fremen will make Superman look soft; anyone who's not an Atriedes or Arrakeen (with the exception of Yueh) will be such a stunted, cackling, two-dimensional caricature of a villain as to make the book's Harkonnens look like paragons of virtue and any pretence of bluff or twists an impossibility; and Stilgar will be reduced to comic relief and the butt of tossing jokes. Probably involving sietch reservoirs.

Then Weta will make Arrakis look all shiny and pretty, and PJ will get the credit for it.

 

Yes, this is the Dune movie series I want to see! (But only 9 movies based on the original trilogy please - I thought the later books were nowhere near as good as the original and its two follow-ups)

 

[Mr Tough Guy]

For the Dutch LAFers that want to see it it's playing at the upcoming Imagine film festival in Amsterdam in april

http://www.imaginefilmfestival.nl/node/2224

there's even a double bill with Lynch's Dune

[FramFramson]

Am I a horrible person for quite liking all of Frank Herbert's Dune books? I thought he was one of the very few sci-fi writers to ever really manage to come something close to successfully conveying the passage of thousands of years or distances of trillions of miles in a story and to my mind the later books are very much a part of that experience.

The later books don't compare to the first one of course, but when I read them, they still feel like decent sequels, rather than some George Lucas prequel level of fiasco.

Don't talk to me about the offal created by his son, Brian Herbert, though. The "Dune prequel" stuff is tolerable and maybe no worse than the worst of Dune's sequels, but the Butlerian Jihad books were simply horrible.

[Vermis]

Am I a horrible person for quite liking all of Frank Herbert's Dune books?

I dunno. I think you might have self-esteem issues though.

I read the first book once upon a time, then decided to try to get and read the six original books in order, in one go. I got about halfway through God-Emperor of Dune and my brain started to melt down. Threw it to one side and haven't tried again since.
Probably should, though. They're not bad, but boy are they dense, and a bit unintelligible at times.

I think it prepared me for tackling A Song of Ice and Fire, though.

[Captain Blood]

 

Good point Vermis 

[area23]

I just remembered that I once saw a concept design of an ornithopter by Ron Cobb, famous 70's cartoonist. It got ditched by Jodo for being too American, iirc. The whole thing of not reading a book but still making an interpretation based on acid visions IS typical 60's/70's counterculture cinema.

[Westfalia Chris]

I got about halfway through God-Emperor of Dune and my brain started to melt down. Threw it to one side and haven't tried again since.
Probably should, though. They're not bad, but boy are they dense, and a bit unintelligible at times.

That one took me 16.5 years to finish (and I usually plough through the Silmarillion in a weekend every couple of years).

[NurgleHH]

I am with you, vermis. Iz was not really a pleasure to read dune. Sometimes it seems, that Herbert was writing it only as fragments and not a complete story. Songs of ice and cream seems to be the same. But a good movie can make it easier. Like Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the ring. Book was not really a pleasure, some parts are too long, but the movie was brilliant.

There is still an owner of the movie-rights, but no company (paramount stoppt it in 2011)...