WTF Happened to Dune (1984)?

i want you to hit me as hard as you can over the past couple of decades we as viewers have become quite spoiled when it comes to franchises and sagas star wars has spread from its original trilogy into a perpetual series of movies and tv shows and we've witnessed the marvel cinematic universe begin expand and explode in ways that no other movie series could ever dream let alone one derived from comic books and there are of course adaptations of novels with the lord of the rings as a perfect example hell even the hobbit was stretched out to create a trilogy chronicles of narnia game of thrones harry potter twilight the hunger games you get the idea with the way our culture has become obsessed with sagas one has to look back and wonder what about doom frank herbert's novel not to mention its book sequels is considered one of the greatest science fiction epics of all time but why couldn't it break into the mainstream with a major motion picture it wasn't for lack of trying in 1984 filmmaker david lynch brought us the first live-action version of this story and the results were unexpected and financially underwhelming let's follow the weirding way as we look at what the [ __ ] happened to this movie [Music] with 53 speaking roles 25 leading roles dozens of sets hundreds of crew members and thousands of extras it's easy to categorize dune as an absolute behemoth of a movie it is after all based on the hefty novel dune which is depending on the version almost 900 pages it has been referred to as the anti-star wars where george lucas succeeded in bringing science fiction to the masses with audience-friendly terms like lightsaber x-wing or blaster dune used words like mentats sardikar and prana bindu and there's no period to catch up with these phrases like a longtime reader of the novels the viewer of lynch's dune was expected to simply understand what the terms meant the closest the film comes to giving terminology clues happens in strange voiceovers like this that introductory info dump was the movie's way of cramming a tremendous amount of story in background into a short period of time to summarize the story another way dune is about the feuding houses of atreides and harkonnen and it takes place about 10 000 years in the future the houses are warring over a substance called melange referenced constantly in the film as the spice a type of hallucinogenic that if taken over long periods of time becomes much more the spice is the most valuable substance in the known universe and is only produced on one planet arrakis also known as dune a royal decree awards the planet to duke lato atreides when the harkonnens violently attempt to take back what they believe is rightfully theirs it's up to the duke's son paul to lead the natives of dune in a battle to defend their planet and the spice the mission to bring dune to the big screen started back in the 1970s arthur jacobs the producer of planet of the apes purchased the rights to dune in 1972 on a contract that said he had to make a movie of the book within nine years his attempt was aborted when he passed away a year later then in 1974 the rights were picked up for what would be another failed attempt by a chilean filmmaker named alejandro yodorowski now the yodorowski version of dune is one of hollywood's most famous stories of what could have been with some cinephiles claiming that it's the greatest film never made in 1974 a french producer named michelle sidhu a fan of jodorowsky's surreal avant-garde filmmaking style offered to fund whichever film the director would be interested in making next yodorowski chose a science fiction novel dune to his credit the filmmaker had big dreams for the project he wanted the soundtrack to be provided by pink floyd the design work was set to be done by french artist mobius british artist chris foss and h.r giger later famous for his alien designs jodorowsky had lofty goals for the film's cast as well he wanted the main antagonist baron harkonnen to be portrayed by cinema giant orson welles he approached mick jagger david carradine and even artist salvador dali for starring roles in the film siddhu had rented a castle for jodorowsky to reside in as he finished the script he had storyboards and concept art he had a verbal agreement from salvador dali who requested one hundred thousand dollars an hour to be in the film jodorowsky actually agreed to that [Laughter] sure he ended up rewriting the part so that it would only require one hour of filming but still everything he needed was in place except the money that a studio would provide they were uneasy that this director could pull off such a feat when they expressed a vision of dune as a two-hour film jodorowsky countered and said it would need to be at least 10 to 12 hours and that's when executives pulled the plug nevertheless his ambitious version of dune is still discussed there was even a 2013 documentary aptly titled yodorowski's dune dedicated to his unsuccessful efforts even though jodorowsky's film ultimately never came to be his influence cannot be denied its effects team went on to make alien with ridley scott jodorowsky and mobius made a series of graphic novels based on his writing called the incall his screenplay was passed around hollywood and went on to influence many other science fiction movies like the terminator the fifth element and star wars and speaking of star wars after that film's monumental success hollywood was out for any science fiction property they could adapt in 1978 herbert's novel was still incredibly popular and italian producer dino de laurentis sought out and purchased the rights the next director to take a shot at this seemingly impossible task was ridley scott in 1979 the film was meant to be his follow-up to the wildly successful alien it made sense with his alien effects team coming from the previously unproduced incarnation of dune but scott left the project when his older brother frank passed away suddenly he realized that a dedication to dune would require far more of himself than he was willing to give at that point in his life it would be some time before he'd focus his creative energy again eventually to 1982's influential blade runner dino de laurentis wanted dune to be made quickly before the rights could once again be up for grabs his daughter rafaela suggested a young up-and-coming director by the name of david lynch lynch was making a name for himself thanks to his distinctive debut film eraserhead and its follow-up the elephant man which got him his first oscar nomination that honor had him on the lips of every hollywood producer and he was being considered for multiple projects including return of the jedi ultimately lynch would agree to adapt dune which to this day remains his only adapted work you could say lynch wasn't a fan of dune when he took the directing gig but he actually admitted he had never even read the book but lynch was attracted to the weird world of dune he first saw it as two separate movies some sources say that was the condition that convinced him to sign on and that studio pressure later forced him to cave and do it all as one movie when members of the cast were hired they were actually contracted for three movies as virginia madsen put it in a 2016 interview the people behind dune thought they were making quote a star wars for grown-ups principal photography on dune finally began in 1983 shooting in mexico things went pretty smoothly well except for everything that didn't the film was shot on nearly 100 sets that were built on the sound stages of churro busco studios with exteriors in the dune fields of mexico all of that may sound quite pricey for a production and it was but delaurentis notoriously conserved money where he could mexico was selected to take advantage of the exchange rate and lynch actually shared his location and his crew with another delaurentis production filming at the same time conan the destroyer many of dune's cast and crew were hospitalized from stomach illness during the first weeks of production prompting the producers to bring in an italian chef and establish their own restaurant for the remaining months at the studio the location itself could be uncooperative with unreliable electricity and phone service it would rain in mexico city every day during the summer interrupting outdoor shooting at one point during production there was an ancient volcano that was supposed to be used as a location but that didn't really work out when they discovered it had become a dumping site for dog carcasses in the area making the characters blue within blue eyes was difficult mostly because no one could figure out how to do it during filming the original plan was to use contact lenses but they would get infected very quickly from the poor local air quality producer rafaela delaurentis herself tried to test blue dye hoping it would be a quick cheap solution and that decision ended up blinding her for two days the eye effect was ultimately achieved through a painstaking process of frame by frame rotoscoping but the real issues for lynch's dune didn't take place until the film moved to post-production the movie was edited from march to november of 1984. lynch did not receive final cut of his film there are three official cuts of dune out there plus numerous fan edits but there is no director's cut or special lynch version of the film which the director considers an additional loss what the hell massive chunks of the film were left on the cutting room floor elements of the plot were established and discarded characters were introduced and forgotten telling the story of the first novel in two hours simply wasn't possible at least if you wanted a cohesive narrative lynch's rough cut had been three and a half hours there were so many elements that had to be included producers had to find creative ways to include background which led to virginia madsen's prologue viewers on opening weekend were even given a printed glossary to help them follow plot points and vocabulary used in the film universal released dune in december of 1984. it opened behind beverly hills cop on its second weekend before grossing a total of 27 million dollars far from its reported budget of 42 million it was the biggest failure in hollywood that year and is still considered to be one of the biggest flops in film history to those familiar with the novel the film felt like a highlight reel of its most memorable moments mashed together unfortunately for those not familiar with the novel which was the majority of the movie-going audience it was impenetrable if the studio and filmmakers had hoped dune would become a star wars sized pop culture phenomenon well let's just say there probably weren't many kids playing with paul atreides and baron harkonnen action figures that christmas the movie also couldn't benefit from any star power it was kyle mclaughlin's first role aside from screen legend max von siedau the most recognizable face in the cast at the time was probably that of the police frontman sting who only has a minor but revealing role before his death in 1986 frank herbert said that he was actually mostly pleased with lynch's film and called it a visual feast it certainly wasn't a true representation of the novel but it did bring certain elements of the story to life and did so vividly the sets were large in scale and beautiful in design the costumes were perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the film designs for the dune outfits were used when tim burton created the suit for the 1989 batman the work done for the iconic sand worms was expensive but brilliant as the creatures seemed simply gargantuan on screen what do you expect when you hire carlo rambaldi designer of e.t the sand worm design was so good it was borrowed for beetlejuice by you guessed it tim burton however some effects weren't quite as fortunate especially anything that happened to take place in space this is 1984 after both the star wars trilogy and star trek had made space travel exciting yet in dune the effect is reduced to technology that seems decades behind what was current part of that was intentional on lynch's behalf production designer tony masters had said that lynch hates anything that looks like star wars or any other movie ever made he comes up with weird ideas that make no sense when we put them in they do make sense in the overall scheme that's what people like picasso do while the scope of the film is grand it's also dimly lit and muted in color also deliberate on lynch's part the director admitted he would have loved to make dune in black and white and was often urging cinematographer freddie francis to desaturate or go darker with dino de laurentis constantly countering to go lighter reviews for the film were dismal roger ebert wasn't shy in his review saying this movie is a real mess an incomprehensible ugly unstructured pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time the new york times was a little harsher stating several of the characters in dune are psychic which puts them in the unique position of being able to understand what goes on in the movie ouch and those are actually some of the kinder reviews a lot of the critical disappointment came from the potential dune held the promise of being a truly special cinematic engagement it was based on one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time it had a young up-and-coming director who had done great things and would go on to do greater things when david lynch reflected on the film in future years he actually admitted he felt he was selling out by taking the job not just for the money but because he saw tremendous potential in what he could do creatively and he'd have the budget to do it ultimately not all of dune was a failure for lynch it established his working relationship with kyle mclaughlin which eventually led to one of the most beloved television shows of all time you're gonna let me in on whatever the hell is going on here sure we got a lot to talk about in fact lynch's experience with dune's budget almost assuredly helped inform exactly what he would need for the anticipated return of twin peaks which itself carried a budget of 41 million dollars very close to dunes 1984 budget in his storied career those two projects remain the largest budgets lynch has ever had admittedly dune can be a difficult watch yet even with its flaws there's still something very compelling about it underneath it all even the most uninterested of viewers can see that there's an amazing story to be told and one that we're yearning to see jodorowsky attempted it lynch attempted it there were even attempts on television a sci-fi channel mini-series in 2000 and children of dune in 2003. hey it's james mcavoy directors like peter berg and pierre morell were also involved with recent film adaptations that never materialized entered director denis villeneuve during interviews for the release of his film arrival in 2016 the director was quoted multiple times saying that adapting dune was a lifelong dream of his and unlike the many failed attempts before him villeneuve is being given exactly what he asked for more than one film to tell the story turns out david lynch had the right idea from the beginning villeneuve argued strongly that the details and scope are what make the story so powerful and that great care must be taken in sharing those details with the audience he acknowledges the weaknesses of lynch's film while also praising the strengths such as the costume design which inspired his upcoming film as well in 2021 dune will once again hit theaters in a larger-than-life film that covers only the first half of the novel the second half is planned but not yet officially given the green light let's hope this time we actually get to see the whole story of dune thank you for watching if you 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Channel: JoBlo Originals

Views: 1,007,845

Keywords: David Lynch dune, David Lynch movies, Denis Villeneuve, Denis Villeneuve dune, Kyle MacLachlan, Muad'Dib, Oscar Isaac, Patrick Stewart, Paul atreides, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean young, Timothy chalamet, dune, dune 1984, dune 2021, dune HBO Max, dune streaming, dune trailer, frank Herbert novel, frank herbert, joblo, joblo videos, movie, sandworms, sci-fi, toto dune, dune remake, dune 1984 soundtrack, dune explained, dune 1984 ending, dune 1984 sandworm, dune 1984 baron harkonnen

Id: mvc0EsFtLQA

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2020