Jodorowsky's Dune

Last updated

Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky's Dune poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Frank Pavich
Produced by
  • Frank Pavich
  • Stephen Scarlata
  • Travis Stevens
Starring
CinematographyDavid Cavallo
Edited by
  • Paul Docherty
  • Alex Ricciardi
Music byKurt Stenzel
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • May 18, 2013 (2013-05-18)(Cannes)
  • March 21, 2014 (2014-03-21)
Running time
90 minutes [1]
Countries
  • United States
  • France
Languages
  • English
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
Box office$647,280 [2]

Jodorowsky's Dune is a 2013 American-French documentary film directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune from 1971 to 1976.

Contents

Background

In 1971, the production company Apjac International (APJ) headed by film producer Arthur P. Jacobs optioned the rights to film Dune. However, Jacobs died in 1973 before a film could be developed. [3]

In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights from APJ, with director Alejandro Jodorowsky set to direct. [3] Along with French producer Michel Seydoux, Jodorowsky proceeded to approach, among others, Virgin Records with the prog rock groups Tangerine Dream, Gong and Mike Oldfield before settling on Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music; artists H. R. Giger, Chris Foss and Jean Giraud for set and character design; Dan O'Bannon for special effects; and Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Udo Kier, Amanda Lear and others for the cast. [4] Jodorowsky intended his son Brontis, 12 years old at the start of pre-production, to star as Paul Atreides.

Herbert traveled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour film ("It was the size of a phone book", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship.[ citation needed ] After two and a half years in development, the project ultimately stalled for financial reasons since $5 million was still missing to round off the $15-million total budget.

After the film rights lapsed in 1982, they were purchased by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis, who eventually released the 1984 film Dune , directed by David Lynch.

In January 2023, Pavich published an essay in The New York Times about Jodorowsky's Dune that included artificial intelligence art illustrations. [5]

Only 20 copies of the large film-book (30x22x9 cm) were produced with only a handful of copies known to remain. At an auction in 2021 at Christie's in Paris, one of the film-books sold for a world-record price for a storyboard. [6]

Content

French artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud worked with Jodorowsky to create a storyboard composed of 3,000 drawings that depicted the entire film. [7]

Salvador Dalí was set to play the Emperor and claimed he wanted to be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood history. He asked for $100,000 per hour to act in the movie. Jodorowsky accepted, but then reduced the Emperor’s scenes so that Dalí would be needed for no more than one hour with the rest of his lines spoken by a robotic lookalike. [7] Dalí accepted on condition that the plastic lookalike was donated to his museum, and that his throne was to be a toilet made up of two intersected dolphins. [8]

Jodorowsky's refusal to compromise on Dune's running time was one main reason the film did not get made. Hollywood did not want the film's length to exceed two hours. Jodorowsky felt 10 to 14 hours would be more appropriate for the adaptation. [7]

The film notes that Jodorowsky's script, extensive storyboards, and concept art were sent to all major film studios, and argues that these influenced and inspired later film productions, including Star Wars , the Alien series, Flash Gordon , the Terminator series, and The Fifth Element . [7] [9] In particular, the Jodorowsky-assembled team of O'Bannon, Foss, Giger, and Giraud went on to collaborate on the 1979 film Alien . [10]

"It was a great undertaking to do the script," Jodorowsky says in the film. Speaking of Herbert's novel, he says: "It's very, it's like Proust, I compare it to great literature."

The documentary concludes that Jodorowsky's efforts did not go to waste, and that he and Giraud recycled much of their concepts for The Incal , a series of graphic novels that began publishing in 1980. [7]

Production

The project was officially announced in May 2011. [11] Director Pavich filmed an extensive series of interviews with the principal players involved in the failed 1970s adaptation, shooting in France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Release

Jodorowsky's Dune premiered at the Director's Fortnight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in May 2013. [12] Sony Pictures Classics acquired the North American distribution rights to the film in July 2013, [13] and later announced a theatrical release date of March 7, 2014. [14] The film was released on DVD and on-demand on July 8, 2014.

Reception

The film has received critical acclaim. Variety called it a "mind-blowing cult movie" and said that director Pavich "happens upon a compelling theory: that even in its still-born form, the film manifested the sort of collective [consciousness] that Jodorowsky was trying to peddle through its plot, trickling down to influence other sci-fi films that followed". [15] The Hollywood Reporter declared the "entertaining documentary makes the case for this overblown epic as a legendary lost masterpiece". [16] Entertainment Weekly named Jodorowsky's Dune as one of its 10 Best Movies of 2014. [9]

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave Jodorowsky's Dune a 98% approval rating based on reviews from 122 critics, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's consensus states: "Part thoughtful tribute, part bittersweet reminder of a missed opportunity, Jodorowsky's Dune offers a fascinating look at a lost sci-fi legend." [17] Metacritic gives the film a 79% rating based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [18]

Accolades

List of awards and nominations for Jodorowsky's Dune
AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipientsResult
Australian Film Critics Association [19] February 9, 2015Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Boston Society of Film Critics [20] December 7, 2014Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneRunner Up
Chicago Film Critics Association [21] December 7, 2014Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Cinema Eye Honors [22] January 8, 2014Audience ChoiceJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or AnimationSyd GaronWon
20th Critics' Choice Awards [23] January 15, 2015Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Detroit Film Critics Society [24] December 15, 2014Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Fantastic Fest [25] September 24, 2013Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Audience AwardJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Florida Film Critics Circle [26] December 19, 2014Best Documentary FeatureJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Houston Film Critics Society [27] January 10, 2015Best Documentary FeatureJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Imagine Film Festival [28] April 19, 2014Syfy Silver Scream Audience AwardJodorowsky’s DuneWon
National Board of Review [29] January 10, 2015Top 5 DocumentariesJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Night Visions Film Festival [30] November 6, 2013Audience AwardJodorowsky's DuneWon
Satellite Awards [31] February 15, 2015Best Documentary FilmJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
San Francisco Film Critics Circle [32] December 14, 2014Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneNominated
Sitges Film Festival [33] October 19, 2013Audience AwardJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Special Jury PrizeJodorowsky’s DuneSpecial Mention
Utopiales [34] November 6, 2013Grand PrixJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Grand Prix du PublicJodorowsky’s DuneWon
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association [35] December 8, 2014Best DocumentaryJodorowsky’s DuneNominated

Top-ten lists

The film appeared on several critics' year-end lists. [36]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dune</i> (1984 film) 1984 film directed by David Lynch

Dune is a 1984 American epic space opera film written and directed by David Lynch and based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel Dune. It was filmed at the Churubusco Studios in Mexico City and the soundtrack includes the rock band Toto. Its large ensemble cast includes Kyle MacLachlan's film debut as young nobleman Paul Atreides, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Virginia Madsen, José Ferrer, Sting, Linda Hunt, and Max von Sydow.

<i>Dune</i> (novel) 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert

Dune is a 1965 epic science fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966. It is the first installment of the Dune Chronicles. It is one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels of all time.

<i>The Fifth Element</i> 1997 film by Luc Besson

The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, as well as co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, and Chris Tucker. Primarily set in the 23rd century, the film's central plot involves the survival of planet Earth, which becomes the responsibility of Korben Dallas (Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major, after a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his cab. To accomplish this, Dallas joins forces with her to recover four mystical stones essential for the defence of Earth against the impending attack of a malevolent cosmic entity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Giraud</span> French comics author (1938–2012)

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was a French artist, cartoonist and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius for his fantasy/science-fiction work, and to a slightly lesser extent as Gir, which he used for the Blueberry series and his other Western themed work. Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alejandro Jodorowsky</span> Chilean-French filmmaker

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films El Topo and The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Villeneuve</span> French-Canadian film director and screenwriter (born 1967)

Denis Villeneuve is a French-Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, winning for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2009, Incendies in 2010 and Enemy in 2013. The first three of these films also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, while the latter was awarded the prize for best Canadian film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Association.

<i>Dune</i> (franchise) American science fiction media franchise

Dune, also known as the Dune Chronicles, is an American science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert and has continued to add new publications. Dune is frequently described as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. It won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award in 1966, and was later adapted into a 1984 film, a 2000 television miniseries, and a two-parter film series with the first film in 2021 and a sequel in 2024. Herbert wrote five sequels, the first two of which were concomitantly adapted as a 2003 miniseries. Dune has also inspired tabletop games and a series of video games. Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn's moon Titan.

<i>Santa Sangre</i> 1989 film

Santa Sangre is a 1989 avant-garde surreal horror film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni. It stars Axel Jodorowsky, Adán Jodorowsky, Teo Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Thelma Tixou, and Guy Stockwell. An international co-production of Mexico and Italy, the film is set in Mexico, and tells the story of Fenix, a boy who grew up in a circus and his struggle with childhood trauma. It is signed on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

Donald Rosenfeld is an American film producer who was the president of Merchant Ivory Productions from 1986 through 1998. Rosenfeld was the lead producer on the major Merchant Ivory films created in what is now considered their golden decade. Along with Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Rosenfeld worked on the creation of the well-received films Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, among others. Rosenfeld was the youngest producer ever to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1992. He's now the publisher of County Highway, a magazine in the form of a 19th-century newspaper founded by David Samuels and Walter Kirn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Winding Refn</span> Danish filmmaker

Nicolas Winding Refn, also known as Jang, is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Seydoux</span> French businessman and film producer (born 1947)

Michel Seydoux is a French businessman and film producer. He is also the former president and chairman of French professional football club Lille OSC.

The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Documentary Feature is a retired award given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Broadcast Film Critics Association from 1995 to 2015. In 2016, the association started a new set of awards for documentary features called the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards.

<i>The Dance of Reality</i> 2013 film

The Dance of Reality is a 2013 Chilean-French semi-autobiographical musical fantasy drama film written, produced, and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, starring Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, and Jeremias Herskovits. It is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first film in 23 years. The film screened at Directors' Fortnight during the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film is based on an earlier work by Jodorowsky first published in Spanish under the title La danza de la realidad: Psicomagia y psicochamanismo (2001).

Founded in 2010 by Travis Stevens, Snowfort Pictures is a boutique film production company specializing in the development, financing and production of commercial genre films.

Brontis Jodorowsky is a Mexican-French actor and theatre director. He is the son of Chilean-French writer, director and actor Alejandro Jodorowsky and French actress Bernadette Landru.

<i>Endless Poetry</i> 2016 film

Endless Poetry is a 2016 French-Chilean drama film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is a sequel and the second part of Jodorowsky's film autobiography, which began with The Dance of Reality (2013), which focused on Jodorowsky's childhood in Tocopilla. Endless Poetry, in turn, depicts the adolescence and youth of Jodorowsky in the bohemian Matucana neighborhood of Santiago, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Frank Pavich is a Croatian-American film director and producer.

<i>Flee</i> (film) 2021 animated documentary film

Flee is a 2021 independent adult animated documentary film directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. An international co-production with Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden, it follows the story of a man under the alias Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time. Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau serve as executive producers and narrators for the English-language dub version.

References

  1. "Jodorowsky's Dune (12A)". British Board of Film Classification . January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  2. "Jodorowsky's Dune". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Dune: Book to Screen Timeline". Duneinfo.com. Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  4. Jodorowsky, Alejandro (1985). "Dune: Le Film Que Vous Ne Verrez Jamais (Dune: The Film You Will Never See)". Métal Hurlant . DuneInfo.com. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  5. Pavich, Frank (January 13, 2023). "This Is the 'Greatest Film Never Made': This Film Does Not Exist" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  6. "World Auction Record for Dune Storyboard at Christie's Paris | Fine Books & Collections".
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Barber, Nicholas (March 14, 2019). "Is Jodorowsky's Dune the greatest film never made?". BBC . Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  8. Jodorowsky, Alejandro. "The Film You Will Never See". DuneInfo. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  9. 1 2 Nashawaty, Chris (December 12, 2014). "10 Best/5 Worst Movies of 2014". Entertainment Weekly . No. 1341. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  10. Scanlon, Paul; Cross, Michael (1979). The Book of Alien. London: Titan Books. ISBN   1-85286-483-4.
  11. Kit, Borys (May 12, 2011). "Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune Will Finally Hit Screens". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  12. Keslassy, Elsa (April 23, 2013). "U.S. Fare Looms Large in Directors' Fortnight". Variety . Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  13. "Sony Classics Acquires Cannes Docu Jodorowsky's Dune". Deadline Hollywood . July 11, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  14. Cecchini, Mike (August 25, 2013). "Jodorowsky's Dune Gets a Release Date From Sony". DenofGeek.us. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  15. Debruge, Peter (May 19, 2013). "Cannes Film Review: Jodorowsky's Dune". Variety . Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  16. Dalton, Stephen (May 19, 2013). "Jodorowsky's Dune: Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  17. "Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  18. "Jodorowsky's Dune". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  19. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Australian Film Critics Association, February 9, 2015
  20. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Boston Society of Film Critics, December 7, 2014
  21. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Chicago Film Critics Association, December 7, 2014, archived from the original on November 27, 2015, retrieved June 29, 2015
  22. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Cinema Eye Honors, January 8, 2014
  23. Film Prize "Best Documentary", 20th Critics' Choice Awards, January 15, 2015
  24. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Detroit Film Critics Society, December 15, 2014
  25. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Fantastic Fest, September 24, 2013
  26. Film Prize "Best Documentary Feature", Florida Film Critics Circle, December 19, 2014
  27. Film Prize "Best Documentary Feature", Houston Film Critics Society, January 10, 2015
  28. Film Prize " Syfy Silver Scream Audience Award ", Imagine Film Festival, April 19, 2014, archived from the original on October 28, 2014
  29. Film Prize "Top 5 Documentaries", National Board of Review, January 10, 2015
  30. Film Prize "Audience Award", Night Visions Film Festival, November 6, 2013, archived from the original on July 20, 2015, retrieved June 29, 2015
  31. Film Prize "Best Documentary Film", Satellite Awards, February 15, 2015
  32. Film Prize "Best Documentary", San Francisco Film Critics Circle, December 14, 2014, archived from the original on January 19, 2018, retrieved June 29, 2015
  33. Film Prize "Grand Prix", Sitges Film Festival, October 19, 2013
  34. Film Prize "Grand Prix", Utopiales, November 6, 2013
  35. Film Prize "Best Documentary", Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, December 8, 2014
  36. "Best of 2014: Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic.
  37. "The Best Movies of 2014". Asbury Park Press .
  38. "We Pick the Year's 5 Most Intriguing Documentaries". Wired .
  39. "The top 10 films of 2014, as decided by Globe film critic Liam Lacey". The Globe and Mail . December 18, 2014.
  40. "Neil Rosen's Top 10 Best Films of 2014". NY1. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  41. "Mike's Picks for The Best & Worst Films of 2014". MediaMikes.com. December 29, 2014.
  42. "Angry Nerd's The 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2014". Wired .
  43. "Top 10 Best Movies". Time . December 3, 2014.
  44. "The Top 10 Best Films of 2014". Cincinnati City Beat.
  45. "Top 10 films of 2014: in search of originality". The Japan Times . December 24, 2014.
  46. "Top 10 movies of 2014 include Birdman, Whiplash, The Lego Movie". Tampa Bay Times .
  47. "2014's best films". San Francisco Examiner . Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  48. "10 Best/5 Worst Movies of 2014". Entertainment Weekly .
  49. "Erik's 15 Favorite Movies of 2014". Portland Mercury .
  50. "10 Movies manage to Glitter Amid Dark Year at Multiplex". Portland Mercury .
  51. "Verniere: Here's my list of year's best films". Boston Herald . December 26, 2014.
  52. "Best Movies of 2014". The Commercial Appeal .
  53. "Top 10 Movies of 2014". Fort Worth Weekly . December 30, 2014.
  54. "Brian Miller's 10 Favorite Movies of 2014". Seattle Weekly .
  55. "The best movies of 2014: Boyhood, Force Majeure, Selma and more". Washington Post .
  56. Scott, A. O. (December 11, 2014). "A. O. Scott's Top 10 Movies 2014: Boyhood and More". The New York Times .