Does anyone know of Jodorowsky's Dune?

I just spoke to a cinematographer, who is interested in my project, and he suggested I watch "Jodorowsky's Dune", which was never made, but which he says was a great influence on all other sci-fi movies, including Alien and Star Wars.

I've done a google search on it, but can anyone tell me anything about it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOaGoFqTWtw
 
Its a very compelling documentary given its about a film that never happened. Easy to watch (Jodorowsky is a charismatic figure) interesting, and relevant to your goals.

Watch it.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUrd-VWiBZM

It's very misleading to say it was a great influence on alien IMO.
Basically what happened was some dude was an artist and had a bunch of art that you will recognize from alien.

Frist his art was in this dune. then it fell through, same dude's art went to alien instead. But this artist already existed and had his style before either of the movies. The dune movie did not create his style
 
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Thanks, CheeseandChallenge - I'll watch it. :)

Sfoster, I am skeptical about the claim that it influenced Star Wars, because I haven't noticed it in my research. But HR Giger designed both the creatures in this one as well as the Aliens, so I can say that there was some influence, somehow.


What would you like to know?

I've seen the movie several times. It's a wonderful documentary.

Rik, the cinematographer told me to watch it, to get ideas on film production. He also told me to do a production bible, as opposed to a series bible, but I don't know if I can find a good example of a production bible.
 
Jeff made a thread about it earlier. You might like to take a look at:
Jodorowsky's DUNE

I agree with Rik.

I think the doc makes a pretty good case for the would-be film influencing Alien, at least in so far as, or if nothing else, Jodorowsky managed to be a sort of talent scout by bringing that creative team together and bringing them to the attention of Hollywood by showing everyone his pre-production book. I mean, that might be difficult to prove exactly. But the circumstantial evidence seems pretty convincing, at least.

In any case, it seems all good to me. Jodorowsky recognized the talents and skills of those artists and craftsmen. And, perhaps consequently, so did other people...like Ridley Scott. But then, it's true, thanks to this documentary, I've only heard its version of the that story. Maybe there are other versions.
 
Jodorowsky managed to be a sort of talent scout by bringing that creative team together and bringing them to the attention of Hollywood by showing everyone his pre-production book. I mean, that might be difficult to prove exactly. But the circumstantial evidence seems pretty convincing, at least.

Is that pre-production book in print? If not, is there a printed version of the attempt?
 
Oh that would be too awesome.

But I don't think so. It looked like a monster book. I would think that anyone who has a copy of the originals given out to studios when they were shopping it around have one very cool piece of movie memorabilia. And I might suppose it would be quite valuable monetarily.

Hey, I did a quick Google. You could try to see if you have better luck. I tried Ebay. :P Or would it be more of a Sotheby's sort of thing? I tried things like "who owns a copy of Jordorowsky's pre-production Dune book," or "Jodorowsky's pre-production Dune book sold," etcetera. I didn't follow the results too far, though.

This blogger says this:

Additionally, the viewer is given a glimpse into what the film might have looked like had it been able to come together. This is done through digitally animating some of the over three thousand storyboards. The book containing every aspect of the film down to the last detail, of which very few copies exist, was used at the time by the movie’s would be producer, Michael Seydoux, in hopes that it would help sell the film.

If, "...of which very few copies exist...", is true, especially now that this documentary has come out, I gotta think it's something that would fetch a healthy $ value if put up for auction, what with not only Dune fans being interested but also fans of the artists involved and perhaps Alien fans and others.
 
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I just saw the documentary, and I was turned off when Jodorowsky spoke of how he wanted the movie to show the effects of LSD on the audience. I have no patience for surrealistic films, and I definitely have no patience for hallucinogens, so the rest of the DVD was a chore.

I also don't accept their contention that this proposed film influenced all other films - I can accept its influence on Alien and Blade Runner, because the teams from Jodorowsky's proposed project went on to work on these films, but I don't accept it impacting Star Wars. As any copyright lawyer can tell you, there are similar themes all through literature, but that does not mean there's any influence, because most themes are variations on each other.

My proposed project would be more, shall we say, simple - it's asking, what if there were a series of technological changes? This is the central question of science fiction, and I would deal with the impact on civilization as well as on individuals. No surrealism, no magic mushrooms, just some speculation to that question.
 
I don't recall exactly how they linked the influence to Star Wars, so perhaps you're right in that it is exaggerated.

Though it does seem superficial to find the film "a chore" just because you don't like hallucinogens. Do you listen to the Beatles? Pink Floyd? Eric Clapton? Hell almost any rock n roll? Ray Charles? Do you read the poetry of Wordsworth or Coleridge? Think Steve Jobs was pretty clever? Admire the work of Jack Nicholson? Matt Groening?

The list goes on - the point is whether or not you think drugs are ok, it's superficial to dismiss a work because it was influenced by hallucinogens.

(note I don't take any drugs , drink, smoke, etc, but art can be valuable regardless of how it was derived)
 
I don't recall exactly how they linked the influence to Star Wars, so perhaps you're right in that it is exaggerated.

Though it does seem superficial to find the film "a chore" just because you don't like hallucinogens. Do you listen to the Beatles? Pink Floyd? Eric Clapton? Hell almost any rock n roll? Ray Charles? Do you read the poetry of Wordsworth or Coleridge? Think Steve Jobs was pretty clever? Admire the work of Jack Nicholson? Matt Groening?

The list goes on - the point is whether or not you think drugs are ok, it's superficial to dismiss a work because it was influenced by hallucinogens.

(note I don't take any drugs , drink, smoke, etc, but art can be valuable regardless of how it was derived)

You're right, but I still didn't find the documentary interesting. That said, when I first read William Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade", I found it depressing, for some reason, but, after a while, I didn't. The same may happen to me with this documentary.

One more thing - if I remember correctly, one person said that Jodorowsky's Dune was the first project to view the scene from the point of view of a robot. He should have watched 2001, where there was such a scene with HAL watching the astronauts in an enclosed space, as and it was reading their lips.

I'll reserve judgement, and maybe I'll watch it after awhile. Thanks CheeseandChallenge. :)
 
One reason the project failed was because of the cost, and the cost was high because Jodorowsky wanted to get the most famous people to appear, from Salvador Dali to Orson Welles to Mick Jaggar. Well, those stars would not have guaranteed success, because Star Trek and Star Wars became famous even without superstars.

So I think he was taking the wrong approach. If he wanted to tell a good science fiction story, he should focus on the story.

One more thing - he couldn't work with a special-effects wizard, but that's OK, because people may not be able to work with each other, but they can still remain friends. What's important in gathering a team together is that the members have chemistry with each other. I've learned that over the past decade.
 
Here's a web page that provides the music for the movie that was never made. I remain skeptical as to whether it would have been such a great magnum opus, because, if nothing else, Jodorowsky didn't seem to be a science fiction fan.
 
I was expecting to not care for it. But the samples actually sound pretty cool.

But I'm not clear on what this is. What are we talking about here? What does "original" mean? They made this back when they were trying to develop the film? Or is this something actually made recently?

I have yet to see one of Jodorowsky's films, so I'm not too sure how his Dune would have turned out. Maybe it would have been really cool. Maybe I would have really dug its unconventional-ness and artsy-ness. Or maybe it would have been unsatisfying. Unfortunately it looks like we'll never know.

Did the doc' say anything about how Herbert felt about Jodo's effort? I don't recall. I know there's that interview on YouTube in which he seems quite supportive of Lynch's film.

I would love the one sheet size poster...but not folded!
 
I was expecting to not care for it. But the samples actually sound pretty cool.

But I'm not clear on what this is. What are we talking about here? What does "original" mean? They made this back when they were trying to develop the film? Or is this something actually made recently?

I was wondering about that - are these the scores from 40-odd years back? I don't know.
 
I just saw the documentary, and I was turned off when Jodorowsky spoke of how he wanted the movie to show the effects of LSD on the audience. I have no patience for surrealistic films, and I definitely have no patience for hallucinogens, so the rest of the DVD was a chore.

I also don't accept their contention that this proposed film influenced all other films - I can accept its influence on Alien and Blade Runner, because the teams from Jodorowsky's proposed project went on to work on these films, but I don't accept it impacting Star Wars. As any copyright lawyer can tell you, there are similar themes all through literature, but that does not mean there's any influence, because most themes are variations on each other.

My proposed project would be more, shall we say, simple - it's asking, what if there were a series of technological changes? This is the central question of science fiction, and I would deal with the impact on civilization as well as on individuals. No surrealism, no magic mushrooms, just some speculation to that question.

What's wrong with surrealism? What about Lynch, Bunuel, Cronenberg?
 
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