For years, stories of failed film productions have tantalized and fascinated audiences the world over. Their intricate tales of woe can prove to be far more valuable and insightful than the original projects that were perhaps never meant to be.
Jodorowsky’s Dune examines Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ambitious attempt to bring Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction novel to life on film long before David Lynch made a very different adaptation that has garnered some cult status but was never critically well received. Instead, this imagining, which was being developed in the mid-70s, would have starred the likes of Orson Welles and Salvador Dali with a score provided by rock bands including Pink Floyd.
Assembling personal and in-depth interviews with Jodorowsky himself and the original production crew, including producer Michel Seydoux and concept artist Chris Foss, director Frank Pavich weaves a spellbinding tale about a movie that could perhaps be best be described as ahead of its time. It was, however, never given the financial backing by studios to see whether the gamble would pay off. Science fiction aficionados will revel in the painstaking detail of the film’s designs, which are meticulously detailed thanks to sketches, paintings and storyboards, serving as the documentary’s centerpiece bible of “what could have been.”
Jodorowsky’s Dune provides a fascinating glimpse at an artist who was hampered by bean counters, a man so consumed by his own visions that his lament is palpable. It makes for gripping viewing.
