The Sword and Laser discussion

If anyone has a chance to see the documentary JODOROWSKY'S DUNE, take it. The back story -- in the 1970s, insane cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky was given carte blanche by a French multi-millionaire to make anything he wanted, and Jodo chose DUNE. French comic book artist Moebius was hired to do thousands of illustrations -- almost every single frame of eventual film -- and design along with scifi novel cover artist Chris Foss and a creepy up and coming nobody named HR Giger. Dan O'Bannon (Dark Star, Night of the Living Dead, Alien) was hired to do effects. Orson Welles ws cast as Baron Harkonnen, with Mick Jagger as Feyd and none other than Salvador Dali as the Emperor. It was to be the biggest, most expensive science fiction film ever made, in an era before blockbusters and big budget scifi.

And then mere days before shooting would have commenced, the entire thing fell apart.

If you're fan of Jodorowsky, of Dune, or just like utterly batty tales of glorious madmen taking on an insane project, the documentary does a wonderful job of telling the story, how it all unraveled, and how much of an impact this unmade movie had on the future f science fiction film.

The trailer

I haven't seen it yet (will as soon as it hits Netflix), but it sounds like Jodorowsky and Terry Gilliam should form a support group.

Moebius & O'Bannon made a comic story called The Long Tomorrow, which inspired Blade Runner. Moebius designed the astronaut suits in Alien (Giger did the alien itself)(O'Bannon wrote it). Moebius and other French artists worked on The Fifth Element. Moebius and Jodorowsky had a comic called The Incal, which they tried to unsuccessfully sue the Fifth Element director for copying.

So you see, Jodorowsky is in the underpinning of American culture.

There's a montage at the end of shots from famous scifi films, and almost identical illustrations from Jodo's Dune. It is crazy to play thought exercises with the movie -- if it had been made and flopped, it would have almost certainly killed off big budget scifi, which means Foz probably would have pulled the plug on Star Wars.

If it had been made and been a hit, it might have meant that big budget scifi strove to be as weird as possible, instead of going the "action film in space" route.

And if the project had never existed, O'Bannon, Moebius, and Giger might never have met, so no Alien.

Fozzy Bear made Star Wars?

Haha. It would explain many of the attempts at comedy

in search of Moebius (has Jodorowsky and O'Bannon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNas9...

Moebius and Mezieres designing for The Fifth Element
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcEQz...

proposed animated Incal (comic by Moebius and Jodorowsky) trailer (wow) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Vky...

And who would Keith Richards have portrayed in this near made movie? The Reverend Mother Mohiam? Hell maybe he would have pulled out the guitar and played a ballad as Paul stuck his hand into the gam jabber (or however he spelled it. I can't remember.).

Just saw it. Really well-done doc: excellent interviews (Dan O'Brannon's story of meeting Jodorowsky was especially funny), I loved the way they animated some of the storyboards and paintings to give you feel of what could have been, and Jodorowsky himself is magnetic and often hilarious.

It's actually incredible the film got as far as it did (heck, I still don't understand how his Holy Mountain got made - has to be one of most high-production value/elaborate surrealist film ever made - but then again he was riding the perfectly favorable counterculture wave at the time), and all the collaborative creativity he inspired with his vision and personality is inspiring.

If he *had* pulled together that last $5 million dollars, who knows? Given some of the intricate and huge set pieces in Holy Mountain, I'm convinced he could have pulled off some of his dream, but it seems likely the technology of the time would have brought other parts of his batty, soaring vision crashing down. But it's fascinating to think about...