Hacker Cinema
Jodorowsky's Dune
2013 · Film · documentary · 87 min
Directed by Frank Pavich
In 1974, Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky embarked on the quixotic project of adapting Frank Herbert's influential novel Dune (1969) for the big screen. After investing two years, and millions of dollars, the gigantic project ended in failure; but the artists Jodorowsky brought together to carry it out continued to work together, and ended up laying the foundations for modern science fiction cinema.
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If you enjoyed the Fifth Element absolutely watch Jodorowsky's Dune
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
On the cover it's a story about the failed production of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune script but the deeper story was the aggregation of an unbelievably talented pool of visual artists including Jean "Moebius" Giraud (mentioned as central artist in 5th element), H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Salvador Dali, & Dan O'Bannon.
That group would go on to centrally influence the visual style of a huge body of science fiction work including Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Star Wars, The Matrix, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc etc.
The art and creativity on display in the film is absolutely sonic.
Kind of like the original PayPal mafia!
Along similar lines - it's worth seeking out Kurt Stenzel's – Jodorowsky's Dune (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
https://www.discogs.com/master/921405-Kurt-Stenzel-Jodorowskys-Dune-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack
An imagined view on what this OST would have sounded like to accompany to documentary (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/).
Regardless of whether the storyboards are in the public domain, I'm sure that someone will eventually "make" Jodorowsky's Dune using AI tools. Feed in the artwork, novels, and actors to get a complete movie out. This will be technically possible within a few years. It will probably look good (at least for casual viewing) but the human performances will still seem a little odd.
I'm not claiming that this will necessarily be a good thing from an artistic or legal perspective. But there are enough Dune fans out there with access to AI video tools that someone will eventually do it.
+1 for Jodorowsky's Dune. It's a fascinating study of "the greatest sci fi movie never made". You can see its DNA in Star Wars, Bladerunner, Alien and more.
I hope some day Moebius and Jodorowsky's storyboards are published in the public domain
And Lynch's Dune looks like it does, probably in no small part due to Jodorowsky, Giger and Mobius.
I recommend everyone interested in Dune to take a look at Jodorowsky's Dune [0], the documentary which explains how they did the preproduction of Dune, and pitched it to the studios. All the deals eventually fell through, but the pitch decks circulated all the studios for years afterwards, and inspired countless other movie makers.
The best things about the new Dune installments imo is the art, but all, or most of it feels like copy pasted ideas from what came before them. CGI is a huge asset to actually get it working though.
0: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1935156
You need to watch both of them: Jodorowsky's Dune and H.R Giger's documentary "Dark Star: HR Gigers Welt". Giger was a true artist to the bones, his house was like a macabre gothic castle from dracula, full of statues, books and art.
Jodorowsky hired Dan O'Bannon, HR Giger, Jean Giraud Moebius, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd... not to mention his own son.
He and Moebius created L'Incal and Metabarons, one of the wildest rides in the realm of european comics. Moebius was one of the most talented artists in the history of the Franco Belgian comics scene of France.
Surreal that Jodorowsky's Dune never materialized. I think it would have been truly amazing and far better than Lynch's Dune. I won't even mention the modern adaptation. How can the guy who made Blade Runner 2049 fails to deliver something so important for Science Fiction? Villeneuve was saved by legitimate actors on blade runner.
It's worth watching "Jodorowsky's Dune" if you haven't to see the direct-line connection - Jodorowsky happened to see "Dark Star" playing at a film festival while out in California and wanted whoever did the special effects to come work on his doomed "Dune" adaptation. He hired O'Bannon, who came out and met future Alien collaborators HR Giger and Moebius. It's fair to say Alien would not have happened, (or would not be the Alien we know now), if not for Dark Star.
If you enjoyed, or at least "got" something out of the Lynch, you might also the film documentary 'Jodorowsky's Dune'. Is a man with a fantastic vision he is unable to instantiate, an artist? Asking for a friend.
>Tbh I thought David Lynchs Dune captured the oddity of the universe, the cruelty of the universe, and did it's own stuff as well.
Wait till you hear about Jodorowsky's Dune[1][2], the best film never made.
With Pink Floyd doing the soundtrack, H.R. Giger doing the visuals, Jean "Moebius" Geiraud creating the story board, Dan O'Bannon on VFX, and Salvador Dali agreeing to play the Emperor, you'd get a lot to say about the oddity and cruelty of that universe.
...had anyone had the guts to actually fund Jodorowsky on that one. Alas, after assembling the all-star team, doing the pre-production, securing the rights, and being ready to go, he simply didn't get the funding to implement his vision.
Giger, who hasn't been involved with film till that point, went on to make Alien with O'Bannon; and the project - despite never been made! - has influenced all subsequent space sagas.
The documentary about it[3] is fascinating.
[1]https://www.jodorowskysdune.com/
[2]https://www.openculture.com/2016/10/14-hour-epic-film-dune-that-alejandro-jodorowsky-never-made.html
[3]https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
Jodorowsky's Dune - not only is it the best dune movie never made, but it gives you a really good look at how hard it is to do Dune and give it justice, as well as giving a new perspective on Star Wars: Lucas had pretty much everything handed to him due to Jodorowsky's attempt to make Dune.
I wept for Jodorowsky's Dune version. At least, there's a great documentary about it https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
There is also the failed attempt of Jodorowsky to make a Dune movie:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky's_Dune
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)#Early_stalled_attempts
The documentary is pretty fascinating. Jodorowsky managed to put together a stellar team, among them H.R. Giger, Dalí and the script writer who would later write Alien.
This movie is honestly pretty terrible, and I say that as a Lynch fan. It's entertaining, but often in the same way The Room is.
I've been meaning to watch Jodorowsky's Dune [1], a documentary about Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make a Dune film. He's even more of a nut than Lynch...I wonder what he would have done with the material.
This YouTube video is blocked for me in the US, but for anyone else curious about the book and it’s history:
It not a copy of Dune, but a copy of a book created to show the vision of one of the first (failed) movie adaptations. French director Jodorowsky had an official adaptation of Dune (and had collaborated with Herbert) [0]. The adaptation failed after running out of money. Notable is the scope of the adaptation: 14 hours and millions poured into pre-production.
Subsequently, a documentary [1] was made about this failed adaptation. I think the parent link is to this documentary.
[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)#Early_stalled_attempts
[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky's_Dune
Well, not the worst book to spend that much money on. If anyone hasn't seen the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune I highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfJi2sfduqk
Dune was cool, but it really sent me into a deep cycle of researching Jodorowsky's Dune and how much more visionary it was by comparison. 2021's Dune is beautifully shot and tells the story in a different, more personal tone (which I'm happy to accept for a story about familial conflict), but it never quite flaunts it's scope like the book does. The Dune experience should be expansive and mind-blowing, too big to fit on my paltry TV set, and Jodorowsky's psychedelic visuals really stuck with me. It seemed like the kind of movie that would have had a shot at really changing things up.
Bit of a stretch. Lynch disowned Dune as they denied him final cut privileges, i.e. his artistic vision. It may have been great otherwise but as it was it failed to capture the philosophical mystique I got from the books.
Jodorowsky's Dune could have also been great but his ambition outstripped practicality and the movie never got made as a result.
I've heard Villeneuve's version is good and will be watching it on release. He is one of my favorite directors so I have a lot of confidence in his rendition.
A better option is rereading the book ahead of the movie.
Side note, if this latest version is good I hope Villeneuve directs any sequels, all the way through at least God Emperor of Dune as that was my favorite.
> One of the more entertaining things about Dune is that it's been relatively bad at attracting fanfic and cosplay.
well, unless you consider the "prequels" and two subsequent novels as "fanfic", which I do, and am apparently not alone since they seem to want to change canon so much.
> I think Jodorowsky's Dune would have been a real game changer for SF movies
even as far as he got was an amazing game changer for SF movies. the teams he put together, his story boards, and almost every aspect of what he created went on to define the sci-fi genre at the time. it's no coincidence that so many of those involved in Star Wars had been involved in Jodorowski's Dune adaptation.
Thanks, I enjoyed that a lot more than I enjoyed the actual movie. (although I enjoyed that too) A bit like Burden of Dreams vs Fitzcarraldo[0]. In both pairs, the fictional story seems trivial in a lot of ways compared with the real story. Maybe that's often or usually the case? Well, I don't think it's likely I would've enjoyed Terry Gilliam's Quixote or Jodorowsky's Dune more than I did the amazing documentaries about them. (Lost in La Mancha and Jodorowky's Dune)
[0] Fitzcarraldo (1982) is a Werner Herzog movie about a guy who wants to build an opera house in the jungle, which plan involves hauling a ship over a hill between 2 rivers. Burden of Dreams is Les Blank's documentary about the making of the movie.
I'm hopeful about the news that a new Dune adaption is currently in the works.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14471312/dune-movie-adaptation-director-denis-villeneuve
Does anyone have other news about this? (Anticipated release date?) Googling around, the bits of news seem to indicate it will be a movie that covers only the first half of the Dune book.
In the meantime I'll need to check out the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune", which appears to have been well received.
I offer Tor's contrary opinion [1] about Jodorowsky's Dune adaptation.
Another comment in this thread is correct: he was not even closely faithful to the original Herbert story.
There are good reasons that no one wants to finance a project as big as Dune for someone as mainstream controversial/unstable as Jodorowsky. His nuttiness might play well to an art house crowd, but there is no way you would ever get your money back for a mainstream film done by him, and for the lavishness of his vision of Dune, the size of the bankroll requires a mainstream audience to pencil out the numbers.
In my linked article, there was a great comment about him: the dude rolled a natural 20 on charisma. But he's off the charts weird would be the kindest characterization. There are far more malign and dark claims made about him that you can search up on him on the Net, but none substantiated enough to land him behind bars to date. Though that one screen-capped tweet in the comments alone makes him pretty odious to my sensibilities. The descriptions of him sounds like a sociopath to me personally, but I don't know the guy so I can't tell what is really going on. Other than I wouldn't bank a wooden nickel on him.
[1] https://www.tor.com/2017/05/02/jodorowskys-dune-didnt-get-made-for-a-reason-and-we-should-all-be-grateful/
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
Riding Solo to the Top of the World (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903013/
The Atomic Cafe (1982) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083590/
At Sea (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1829648/
The Vietnam War (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877514/
Lessons of Darkness (1992) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104706/
Tim's Vermeer (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/
Weiner (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5278596/
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379357/
The Art of Japanese Life (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7002974/
The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493420/
The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires (1996) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115398/
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4299972/
One of the most unexpected & interesting "history of space aesthetics" to me came from the recent documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune" (which is awesome!).
The film recounts the attempt by avant-garde director Alejandro Jodorowsky to turn Dune into an epic, 12 hour film in the mid 70s.
He assembled an incredible cast of conceptual artists and designers including Moebius (jean giraud), Chris Foss, HR Giger , and others and designed a giant illustrated tome laying out the shot-by-shot epic, largely penciled by Moebius and filled in with art from the other contributors.
Producers scoffed at the scope of the vision but ultimately the team of people that Jodorowsky got together went on to design the art & aesthetic for seminal credited films including Alien, AI, Gaurdian's of the Galaxy, Tron, etc.
And even more broadly this group is credited with the inspiration behind the aesthetic of Star Wars(1), Blade Runner(2), and more recently Fifth Element.(3) as their giant tome of incredible, outstanding sci-fi conceptual art was passed through Hollywood in the giant, fabled Tome.
As a nod to the importance of Moebius' designs in particular, the imperial probe droid in Empire Strikes Back is a direct copy transfer of one of his creations (4)
I was already a hopeless fan-boy of Moebius & Jodorowsky thanks to "The Incal" - which in and of itself is one of the most inspiring pieces of storytelling and graphic art I've come across, but Jodorowsky's Dune cemented to me that the early works by these teams are the true inspiration for much of the visual sci-fi aesthetic that has predominated 50+ years of pop culture.
(1) https://kitbashed.com/blog/chris-foss-and-the-triangular-totalitarianism & http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/7-famous-sci-fi-movies-influenced-by-jodorowskys-dune/
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tomorrow_(comics)
(3) https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376571
(4) https://kitbashed.com/blog/moebius
All documentaries by: Scott Noble (available free at his site http://metanoia-films.org/), Patricio Guzman, Werner Herzog, Adam Curtis, The Yes Men.
Other great documentaries: Man with a Movie Camera, Sherman's March, Burden of Dreams, Bus 174, My Winnipeg, How to Start a Revolution, Merchants of Doubt, Silenced (2014), the Corporation (2003), Man on Wire, The Parking Lot Movie, Land of Look Behind, Intangible Asset No. 82, Brasileirinho, Jodorowsky's Dune, Revolution OS, Facebookistan, The King of Kong, Kumaré, McLibel, Harlan County USA
Why? Because they're amazing, important, will change your life etc. Sorry I don't have hours to go into detail. Enjoy!
ps I found a lot of these by googling best documentaries lists, IMDb lists etc. I judge whether to watch movies/docos by reading 2 or 3 pages of user reviews on IMDb, occasionally Ebert or Urban Cinefile etc also.
It's a Messiah story set in the far future. I included it here because it had an impact on the way I understand history (I prefer to leave that a bit cryptic).
As a work of fiction I'd call it good but not great. But at the moment I can't think of a work of fiction I'd call great, so I'm probably not the best critic on that point.
Everybody seemed to hate the 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch but I think it's pretty good. The Syfy miniseries got much better reviews but I thought it was only so-so. The film doesn't really spoil the book, which is kinda cool, but may be easier to follow and more fun to watch after having read it. Last but not least, I really enjoyed the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune...
I remember reading that script, some years ago. I feel like it would've ended up like Jodorowsky's Dune if they'd tried in a serious way to make it - failing that, like Lynch's, with the same heroic but ultimately foredoomed struggle to carry a burden of story and symbolism that's just too heavy for a feature film to bear.
I think one of the reasons why "Jodorowsky's Dune" is such an amazing documentary is that it describes an impossibly ambitious film, something so awesome that you're drawn into believing in it with the director himself.
If it really _were_ made however, yeah, it could _only_ have be a disappointment in comparison to what the documentary about it suggests.
Jodorowsky's version of Dune is perhaps the greatest film that was never made and, ironically, it is better this way.
>Have you seen the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune"?
I find it hard to praise as a lot of what gets passed off as Jodorowsky's 'work' is actually Moebius's work and as a big Moebius fan its disheartening to see the narrative downplay his achievements here to create this 'mad genius' Jodorowsky character. Yes it makes for good entertainment, but its not really fact and the documentary is very wary about giving credit where credit is due. Worse, the ending that showed future art as being derivative of this production was completely disingenuous. That art shown was already the established style of the people involved. Jodorowsky and his crazy Dune ideas didn't inspire Moebius, Giger, O'Bannon and others, they simply took their talents elsewhere. Of course the drawings and set ideas look alike, these people were already established artists at this point in their careers with established styles.
Jodorowsky's Dune was a phenomenal documentary.
This film that never got made is the stuff of nightmares for project managers and money people, but damn, Jodorowsky's contagious inspiration was (and still is) off the charts. We need more Jodorowsky's in the world.
I also love Lynch's Dune. I've seen the extended version once a long time ago. From what I remember there was scenes of voiceovers and art explaining more of the universe and the houses and their relationships.
Have you seen the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune"? If you're a Dune fan, or a fan of 70's and 80's era sci-fi films, I highly recommend it. What I found most interesting about that documentary is how the director created this amazing team to work on his Dune project, which eventually failed, but ended up influencing the style/art of so many subsequent Sci-fi films because that team dispersed and they worked on so many prominent films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg4OCeSTL08 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky%27s_Dune
I recently saw a documentary on the early years of Kraftwerk; it was one of those when you start watching it without expectations just to get your mind blown and busy for weeks after watching it.
I'd love to see a collection of these; the visionaries of the 70s and 80s, and I might include Jodorowsky's Dune at the end.
The "6-hour version of Dune" is probably confusing the Lynch treatment with Jodorowsky's attempt at a Dune film -- which was never filmed (the script wasn't even finished!), but whose production was documented in the 2013 Jodorowsky's Dune:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky's_Dune
It may also be confusing Lynch's film with the 2000 Sci-Fi miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, which totalled roughly 5 hours across three episodes.
Random side note, but the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, about a version that was never made, is excellent.
"Jodorowsky's Dune" is a recent documentary about the aborted pre-lynch production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29#Early_attempts
You've got your dates mixed up there mate.
>before the Lynch movie
Lynch - 1984
>"Jodorowsky's Dune"
2013
So not before. But yes thats the one I mean with the pink tiger strips.
The miniseries in between those two was actually pretty damn good imo. Capture the essence well. Wish they had kept going.
It would have been amazing if Jodorowsky's Dune actually got made and released. He really was too far ahead of his time for the studio.
I feel that in order to make a roughly 2-hour long film on as complex a subject as what the novel portrays, the only way to illustrate that complexity properly is to ascribe to surrealist elements. That is the only form that can provide the necessary density, if done properly. Lynch knew this, which is why he took on the project, but was later pressured by the studio and his vision was lost. He did a pretty admirable job considering.
Lynch's pedigree speaks for itself:
Blue Velvet: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_23 Lost Highway: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_16 Mulholland Drive: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_14 Twin Peaks... etc...
>pink tiger strips on spaceships
That sounds like you're talking about an earlier aborted adaption, before the Lynch movie. There was an (amazing) documentary about it last year.
"Jodorowsky's Dune" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
A related epic failure, that gave so much to film even though it was never made:
Jodorowsky's Dune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg4OCeSTL08
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky's_Dune
They discuss Lynch's version in the film. Highly recommended viewing for all sci-fi enthusiasts.
And if interested in Jodorowsky and Moebius, watch Jodorowsky's Dune. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Y'all have seen Jodorowsky's Dune, right? This documentary changed my life:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/reference
Sad to see him go, great artist!
If you have a chance, check "Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune". They have one of his last interviews talking about how he got started and how that failed movie was the seed for his ideas for Alien with Jean Giraud.
For those interested in his work, I really recommend viewing the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, a failed film project Giger and several other proto-luminaries worked on (inspiring much of the iconic imagery in Alien, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones). Giger appears throughout the documentary. I believe it's still playing in the Bay Area.
Some years ago I watched a fascinating documentary on Jean Giraud (Moebius), one of the visionaries mentioned here that Jodorowsky gathered under his banner for a time. Before watching this film, I had no real idea how all these guys who were involved in or inspired some of my favourite science fiction had come together. The doco mentions how the original screenplay by Dan O'Bannon for Alien was what he did after the collapse of Jodorowsky's Dune project and that much of the team that had assembled for Jodorowsky's Dune (Giger, O'Bannon, Giraud) went on to work on Alien.
I highly recommend this doco if you are interested in the topic of this post and am pleased to find that it can be viewed here:
http://www.cgexplorer.com/2009/05/05/moebius-redux-video/