For nearly three decades, David Lynch has effectively disowned his 1984 film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel “Dune”.
Far more a messy experimental rock opera compared to the much more carefully structured operatic aria that was Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 film version (of the first half of the book), there are still plenty of fascinating and much wilder elements at work in Lynch’s take.
For years Lynch has generally avoided talking about it, or only addressed the film with the harshest of dismissals and certainly has expressed no desire to ever revisit it.
In a new interview with AV Club though to promote the new director’s cut of “Inland Empire,” his stance seems to be softening a little as he expresses an openness to the idea previously not there – even as he thinks it’s not likely to happen:
“Dune – people have said, “Don’t you want to go back and fiddle with Dune?” And I was so depressed and sickened by it, you know?
I want to say, I loved everybody that I worked with; they were so fantastic. I loved all the actors; I loved the crew; I loved working in Mexico; I loved everything except that I didn’t have final cut. And I even loved Dino [De Laurentiis], who wouldn’t give me what I wanted [laughs]. And Raffaella, the producer, who was his daughter – I loved her.
But the thing was a horrible sadness and failure to me, and if I could go back in I’ve thought, well, maybe I would on that one go back in.
The outlet then asked him “Really?” to which he responded: “Yeah, but I mean, nobody’s…it’s not going to happen.” Then quizzed about his lack of openness to the idea in the past he says:
“Yeah, I wanted to walk away. I always say, and it’s true, that with Dune, I sold out before I finished. It’s not like there’s a bunch of gold in the vaults waiting to be cut and put back together. It’s like, early on I knew what Dino wanted and what I could get away with and what I couldn’t.
And so I started selling out, and it’s a sad, sad, pathetic, ridiculous story. But I would like to see what is there. I can’t remember, that’s the weird thing [laughs]. I can’t remember. And so it might be interesting – there could be something there. But I don’t think it’s a silk purse. I know it’s a sow’s ear.”
There is certainly additional material there. The final film clocks in at 137 minutes, but a TV version clocked in at 177 minutes and Lynch’s original intention was reportedly to have a film that clocked in at over three hours.
Right now Lynch is focused on something more promising as according to IndieWire he has launched a $500 million mental health program under his David Lynch Foundation, which aims to provide training for Transcendental Meditation for 30,000 college students.
