Over at BoingBoing Ethan Gilsdorf has posted an excellent long read on the aborted Alejandro Jodorowsky adaptation of Dune and the recent documentary about it.
The basic story goes like this: A few years before Star Wars, Jodorowsky raised 10 million dollars, hired some astounding actors (including, of all people, Orson Welles [who came on the promise of a french bistro] ), the best prop and effects people in the industry (Dan O’Bannon, post Dark Star/Pre Aliens), Pink Floyd, Mick Jagger, and a crew of other incredibly talented bands and composers, and set out to make “The most important movie of all time.”It was to be a lavish, indulgent adaptation of Herbert’s Dune. But they couldn’t raise any more money, and they needed another $5,000,000.00 to make it in to theaters in the US. Production shut down before they shot even one foot of film.
I’m a huge fan of the films of this era, in general, and the science fiction ones specifically. So, naturally, this post was exactly my kind of thing. The documentary sounds fascinating, and I’ll be hunting down a copy as soon as I can.
Reading about this bizarre, and confounding adventure makes me salivate for more information, and leaves me half-wishing that something more had come of it. (Seriously guys, Pink Floyd doing the soundtrack for a huge budget, bizarre scifi film before Star Wars came out, can you imagine it? Can you?)
In my mind, this movie is astounding. The fact that it won’t ever leave my mind means that the movie will always be astounding.
Seriously, I’m not normally one for linkblogging, but you owe it to yourself to check out this article. It’s one of the most fascinating pieces of cinema history.