Fans of science fiction and especially of Frank Herbert know the 1984 version of the film with Sting. Serious fans also know the 2000 mini-series and the 2003 follow up Children of Dune. There is also, according to IMDB, another version in development. However, no one has gotten to see the best version of Dune. According to those who were involved, Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s 1975 version of Dune was so amazing that we’d still be talking about it today as the forerunner of the great sci-fi film of the late 20th century.
In the trailer below, Jodorowsky says that he was trying to create something that would make people feel like they were on acid, without taking any acid. According to people involved in the design, elements from the almost-made version of Dune were borrowed for Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner and many other pieces of sci-fi gold to follow. Among those lined up to star in the film were Marlon Brando, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and David Carradine.
If anything it appears that Jodorowsky’s vision was a bit too big. By 1976 $2 million had already been spent in pre-production and the script was coming it at 14 hours (roughly the length of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy). The film eventually stalled for financial reasons and in 1982 the rights lapsed and were picked up by Dino DeLaurentiis who made the 1984 version with David Lynch.
Last year the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” was released to tell the story of one of the greatest films that never was.
This is the trailer …
Via TIFF