agentorange [Celluloid 02.11.12] scifi documentary



When Jodorowsky famously set out to turn Frank Herbert's Dune into a feature film, he had more than a modest movie in mind. Not only did he want it to be the greatest halucinatory experience of all time, rivalling the actual effects of LSD, but he wanted the film to be like the coming of a new God. An experience so enlightening that it would awaken the mind of the world art large.

Goddamn I wish he had made that movie. I mean, Lynch's flick is good, but...

The entire saga of how Jodorowsky's labour of love came and went is being turned into a documentary and below you'll find the first two minutes of interview footage from the film.


About the film:
The documentary covers cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky and his 1974 attempt to create a big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's seminal science fiction novel, DUNE. While the ambitious production collapsed after two years, Jodorowsky's team of then relatively unknown concept artists continued exploring the themes and styles started on the project and ended up changing modern science fiction forever: H.R. Giger went on to Ridley Scott's masterpiece ALIEN, Dan O'Bannon wrote ALIEN and TOTAL RECALL, Jean "Moebius" Giraud created artwork and futuristic worlds for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, TRON, and THE FIFTH ELEMENT and Chris Foss would go on to work on ALIEN and SUPERMAN.

Jodorowsky, whose films SANTE SANGRE, EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN have recently been released on Blu-Ray in the U.S. is excited to share his vision of what might have been, "Failure simply makes you change your way. And I hope, in this picture, the audience will be able to see what I did. It's an incredible world."

Director/Producer Pavich researched JODOROWSKY'S DUNE with producer Stephen Scarlata. The two previously worked together on the cult-underground music documentary N.Y.H.C. Pavich also co-produced DIE MOMMIE DIE (Special Jury Prize - Sundance 2003) before concentrating on television production. Scarlata has mainly focused on feature screenplays. The film is being produced by Travis Stevens of Snowfort Pictures (A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, THE AGGRESSION SCALE), executive produced by Donald Rosenfeld (THE TREE OF LIFE) and co-produced with Michel Seydoux of Camera One (PATER).

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Umberto (1 year ago) Reply

The best movie never made... :-(

loci (1 year ago) Reply

The worst movie never made... :-)

Diggler (1 year ago) Reply

Without a doubt this would have been the the most under appreciated movie never made. Jodorowski's vision was so far off centre that people just would not have gotten it.

Flatulata (1 year ago) Reply

Everything else Jodorowsky has made has sucked donkey balls.... This almost travesty would have also.

Diggler (1 year ago) Reply

I have to disagree with you Flatulata. Jodorowski was a visionary director that really brought art, mysticism and drug culture together into a kaleidoscopic tunnel of awe inspiring scenes. The man took $750'000 and made a movie that surpassed most movies that cost 10 times that amount.

While you may not like his films, you can not deny that he had was extremely talented in the realms of surrealism, set design and costumes.

James Robert Smith (1 year ago) Reply

Well, he had the right idea. The point of the novel was the rise of so-called "great" men and the pointlessness of following them.

I'd have been curious to see what he would have done.

Jimsin (4 weeks ago) Reply

For me The Holy Mountain remains the greatest film ever made by some considerable margin. The more I hear about his vision of Dune, the more I believe that it would have eclipsed everything. Such a travesty that such a momentous project wasn't allowed to flourish.