Friday, February 14, 2014

Dana's Diatribe: Trailer for Jodorowsky's Dune documentary

I know The Dork is a big fan of the Dune books, so I thought he might appreciate this:

To be released in the US later this year is Jodorowsky's Dune, documentary directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt to adapt Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel Dune to the big screen, during the mid-1970s.





Wikipedia says this about the ill-fated Alejandro Jodorowsky adaption:

"In 1973, film producer Arthur P. Jacobs optioned the film rights to Dune but died before a film could be developed. The option was then taken over two years later by director Alejandro Jodorowsky who proceeded to approach, among others, Peter Gabriel, the prog rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music, artists H.R. Giger and Jean Giraud for set and character design, Dan O'Bannon for special effects, and Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson and others for the cast.


Frank Herbert traveled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The project ultimately stalled for financial reasons. The film rights lapsed until 1982, when they were purchased by Italian filmmaker Dino DeLaurentiis, who eventually released the 1984 film Dune, directed by David Lynch."

Some of Jean Giraud's(also known as Moebius) concept artwork for the film:





One of several posters for the documentary.

2 comments:

Kal said...

I am all over this one because I too am a huge fan of Dune and all the movies that have already been done. This Jodorowsky production would have been amazingly off the hook.

The Dork said...

I'm right there with ya Kal! I'm a fan of the movie but not the mini-series. I wish Netflix, HBO, or BBC would turn Dune into a series - give it a Game of Thrones treatment. Season one Dune, season two Dune Messiah, season three Children of Dune etc. Imagine if Steve Moffat or David Simon did it.