What if I also told you that this film would have starred Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and Orson Welles, been designed by the creators of "Alien," and scored by Pink Floyd?
In 1965, Frank Herbert wrote the wildly popular science fiction novel, "Dune." It had taken the world by storm, winning the Hugo Award in 1966, and by 2003, became the world’s best-selling sci-fi novel. But this isn’t about the novel, this is about a visionary, yet greatly disturbed man from Chile who had a vision for the most ambitious science fiction film ever made, trumping "2001: A Space Odyssey."
In the mid-1970s, Alejando Jodorowsky had made a name for himself in the surrealist genre of that time. With titles such as "Fando y Lis," "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain," he was known for his abstract concepts, strange visuals and sometimes grotesque style. Due to the huge commercial success of his previous picture, "The Holy Mountain" — which was the second most-popular film in Italy under the latest James Bond film — he was approached by French producer, Jean-Paul Gibon, who wanted to produce Jodorowsky's next film no matter the subject. Jodorowsky, without pause, said “DUNE!” This begins a short and seemingly tragic tale that follows.
Jodorowsky, a true business man, had a knack for persuasion. With his new project underway, he created, with the help of French artist, Jean Giraud, a 3,000-panel storyboard, meticulously illustrating the entire film. He took many liberties with the source material and basically made it his own original concept. They had originally approached special effects master, Douglas Trumbull ("Blade Runner," "2001" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture") for the grand space drama, but due to creative differences chose Dan O’Bannon. O’Bannon would be later known for his writing credits on films such as "Return of the Living Dead," "Alien" and "Total Recall." At that time he was in special effects and had just gotten off the John Carpenter film, "Dark Star." Jodorowsky also enlisted art direction from sci-fi novel artist, Chris Foss. With his “spiritual warriors” (as he referred to them) in place, Jodo now sought acting talent.
His first wish was for infamous surrealist artist, Salvador Dali to play the Emperor of the Galaxy. Upon approaching Dali, the artist demanded $100,000 for every hour on set. They devised a bit of a loophole to this predicament: They promised Dali $100,000 for every minute that he was to be on screen. Dali immediately accepted, believing that to make him the highest paid actor of all time. Little did he know, he was slated to only be in about four to five minutes of the final film. The problems with Dali did not stop there, he also demanded a helicopter, a burning giraffe and a robot servant for his character. Next, Jodorowsky enlisted both Mick Jagger and Orson Welles.
Mick Jagger accepted immediately, but Welles was a bit more tricky. At the time, Welles was known for his immense size, sometimes jeopardizing his films due to his extensive eating and drinking habits. Jodorowsky, knowing this, discovered his favorite restaurant and went in for the kill. There was Welles, alone at a table with three bottles of wine and a full-course meal in front of him. Jodo had the waiters send him his favorite wine, and Welles requested his company. Welles, at first was reluctant, seeing as the character he was to portray was very strange and slightly gross. Jodi, being the clever business man he was, promised along with his actors salary, to hire the restaurant staff as his personal chefs. Welles immediately accepted.
Now, growing in size, Jodorowsky’s project was also growing in potential cost. The film was expecting to cost $9 million to make and at the time could have been a 14-hour long film. The search continued, leading to the additions of H.R. Giger and Pink Floyd. Jodo had wanted an ever-expanding soundtrack for "Dune." He wanted a band for every planet represented in the film. Along with Pink Floyd, he brought on the French band, Magma to portray the villain planet. Dali had originally turned Jodo onto Giger, the man behind the design for the future Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise. He was to design everything that had to do with the antagonists. His designs, now, resemble many of the later Alien designs.
With others rounding out the team, the film was ready to be pitched. Jodorowsky pitched it to the likes of Warner Bros, Universal, MGM and many others. The response was unanimous, “this is a fantastic concept you have here. Everything is planned out to the most minute detail, everything looks promising… except your director”.
As Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive," "Only God Forgives") believes the executives were scared of Jodorowsky’s ideas. They were scared of his capacity and his plan to delve deeper than the average film. Maybe it was that AND the 14-hour running time. Nonetheless, after years of planning, sparked genius and dreaming, "Dune" tanked. The budget was simply too big and the expected value simply too low. There are only two of Jodo’s "Dune" books left in existence. One under his ownership and one that was shipped around to studios throughout the mid-1970s. Due to that, there is speculation that some of Jodorowsky’s incredibly original ideas were used in films such as "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," "Alien," "Blade Runner," "Flash Gordon," "Masters of the Universe" and "Prometheus." Granted, three of those films featured "Dune" alumni. In fact, almost the entire "Dune" team, minus Jodo, collaborated along with Ridley Scott to create "Alien." "Dune" was made, on a smaller scale however, by director, David Lynch ("Twin Peaks," "Mulholland Drive") and largely flopped at the box office.
So needless to say, "Dune" is largely regarded as the best film never made by film critics and movie buffs. Its seeds can be in so many other films and if made, could have changed the face of science fiction cinema forever, even more than it already has. I strongly urge you to see the fabulous documentary on this story, "Jodorowsky’s Dune." Shot in almost four different countries and interviewing most everyone involved, this documentary tells a much more in depth story and mostly from Jodo himself. Surrounded in mystery and intrigue, this film may have had more of an impact not made than the opposite. At any rate, it’s definitely a gem in film history that deserves to be known.
