First Footage From Jodorowsky’s Dune Isn’t, As You Might Have Expected, From Jodorowsky’s Dune

In the early 1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky mounted an infamous attempt to translate Frank Herbert‘s epic space opera Dune into a feature film. After two years of hard work, the project collapsed and we never got a movie.

But we’re getting one now. Just not, necessarily, the first one we’d want.

Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about precisely what you’d think it’s about. Here’s the first clip:

Okay, this is potentially very interesting.

Some of the best little snippets of discussion about this particular Dune-that-never-was lurks on the special features discs of the Alien Anthology. There’s a strong direct line of influence from what Jodorowsky and his designers were working on and what ended up in Ridley Scott’s film.

To illustrate this (insufficiently, but it’s a start), here’s a clip of Dan O’Bannon, one of the links between the two projects.

Thanks to Quiet Earth for the first clip, and this press release for the Jodorowsky doc:

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).