Jodorowsky’s Dune
‘Dune’ is considered one of the (if not the definitive) best sci-fi novels there is, as well as the best-selling. The book was released in 1965 by Frank Herbert and has been adapted thrice. The 1984 David Lynch film, the 2000 Syfy miniseries, & Denis Villenueve’s 2021 & 2024 films. The book also has a ton of sequel and prequel stories (some penned by Herbert and many from other authors), most notably ‘Dune Messiah’ & ‘Children of Dune.’ The 2003 miniseries adapted the two stories together and a film version of ‘Messiah’ is currently in the works from Villenueve, so ‘Dune’ has become a powerhouse franchise on every front. However, before all these films existed there was another attempt that never made it to screen. This my friends is the story of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune.’
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean-French filmmaker is a staple filmmaker of cult classic films, thought may be unfamiliar to the average filmgoer, as none of his films are extremely recognizable. He had two Western hits in the 1970s ‘El Topo’ & ‘The Holy Mountain’ before he set his sight on the planet Arrakis. The film rights to ‘Dune’ originally belonged Apjac International, but was continually stalled in favor of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ sequels, and due to the death of their head, Arthur P. Jacobs. After Jacobs’s death, the rights were purchased by Jean-Paul Gibon who chose Jodorowsky to direct. The chronicle of the failed attempt was chronicled in the 2013 ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ which I would absolutely recommend as it featured interviews from many of the involved crewmembers. Many folks knowledgeable on the subject attest that had the film come to fruition it would have had the impact & popularity ‘Star Wars’ would eventually get, but who knows if that’s the case.
Since the film had it’s director, it now needed the rest of its crew. French producer Michel Seydoux signed on and helped Jodorowsky assemble the rest of the team. For the soundtrack they originally considered German composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, the English rock group, Henry Cow, & the French band, Magma, before finally settling on Pink Floyd. The pre-production unit also featured a design team of Chris Foss, a British illustrator known for various sci-fi novel covers, Swiss artist, H. R. Giger, & French cartoonist, Jean Giraud (also known as Moebius). They also hired on Dan O’Bannon to head up the special effects department.
The above image is official artwork from pre-production showing various character designs. Some specific ones I’d like to point out include Duncan Idaho (furthest left), Gurney Halleck (the short one second from the left), Paul Atreides (white hair, third from the left), Lady Jessica (fifth from the left in green), Baron Harkonnen (front middle), Reverend Mother (middle back with the staff), & Rabban (in the tall hat back right of the Baron). This site contains more of the official art: https://www.iamag.co/the-art-of-jodorowskys-dune/
When pre-production started, Jodorowsky himself had never read the novel & has said that the film wasn’t meant to be an adaptation of Herbert’s work, but was inspired by it. $2 million went into pre-production and one of the results was a 3000 page picture book full of storyboard drawings that depicted the whole film. Two copies of the book still exist, though few have seen it’s contents. Jodorowsky wanted to film the movie in Algeria and use the Algerian army as extras, though fresh out of their war of independence from France, Algeria would’ve served as a problematic place to film in.
Now to the cast, which to me is one of the most interesting parts of this story. Just so you understand my formatting I’m listing the character and then the actors that played them in the ‘84 film, ‘00 series, & ‘21 & ‘24 films.
Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan, Alec Newman, Timothée Chalamet): AKA Muad’Dib AKA Lisan al-Gaib AKA Usul AKA The Preacher AKA the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul is the central protagonist of the story who evolves from the young ducal heir to the foretold messiah of the galaxy/tyrant ruler, Jodorowsky penned his 12 year old son, Brontis Jodorowsky, for the role. Early into pre-production he began having Brontis undertake extreme training in martial arts, weapon training, & tutoring for the role.
Duke Leto Atreides (Jürgen Prochnow, William Hurt, Oscar Isaac): Paul’s father and the Duke of House Atreides, Leto takes over Arrakis and surprises its people by being a much more fair and considerate ruler than their previous regime. Jodorowsky cast the man who would become a staple of B-movies & martial arts films, David Carradine, in the role.
Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis, Saskia Reeves, Rebecca Ferguson): The mother of Paul & concubine of Duke Leto, Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit who defied her direction to produce Leto with only daughters due to her love for him and his desire for a son. Her doing so produced the Kwisatz Haderach, who has been the ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program for thousands of years. Jodorowsky landed on Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of Charlie Chaplin) to play the role, though his initial choice was Charlotte Rampling who would play the Reverend Mother in Villenueve’s films. Rampling declined the role due to a scene in the script in which 200 extra defecate themself.
Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Miguel Ferrer, Giancarlo Giannini, Christopher Walken): The ruling emperor of the known universe, Shaddam IV orchestrates the pass of the planet Arrakis from House Harkonnen to House Atreides with the plan to take out House Atreides. One of the major antagonists of the story, Jodorowsky’s choice is certainly interesting. He wanted Salvador Dalí for the part. Dalí was quite an eccentric individual and he claimed he wanted to be the highest paid actor in the history of Hollywood. He demanded $100,000 per hour to act in the film. Jodorowsky accepted, but reduced the Emperor’s scenes so Dalí would not be needed for more than an hour. He intended to have the rest of the lines spoken by a lookalike robot and Dalí himself agreed to this condition as long as he could have the robot afterwards for his museum. He also had the request that the Emperor’s throne be a toilet made up of two intersected dolphins, which again, Jodorowsky accepted. Needless to say, the artist had no idea what ‘Dune’ was and didn’t care to.
Princess Irulan (Virginia Madsen, Julie Cox, Florence Pugh): The daughter of the Emperor, Irulan serves as the narrator of the story which oft presents itself as her diary entries. She goes on to enter a loveless marriage with Paul after he kills her father. Interestingly enough, the actress Jodorowsky cast was a huge fan of the book and was Dalí’s muse and close friend, Amanda Lear.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan, Ian McNeice, Stellan Skarsgård): The primary antagonist and current head of House Harkonnen, the Baron is an obese, gluttonous man who schemes with the Emperor to take down Leto. Jodorowsky wanted an actor with levity to take on the role and targeted Orson Welles. Welles initially declined, but Jodorowsky offered to hire the chef of Welles’s favorite restaurant (Welles gained significant weight in his later year and was constantly eating or drinking) to make him personal meals daily, so Welles agreed.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Sting, Matt Keeslar, Austin Butler): The nephew of Baron Harkonnen, Feyd-Rautha was originally meant to take over Arakkis for his uncle. The sadistic young man was to be played by Mick Jagger in Jodorowsky’s film and funny enough would instead be played by fellow rock star, Sting, in Lynch’s film.
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Siân Phillips, Zuzana Geislerová, Charlotte Rampling): The Emperor’s lead advisor and leader of the Bene Gesserit, the Reverend Mother has a direct connection to Paul & Jessica throughout the story, and was to be played by Oscar nominee Gloria Swanson.
Duncan Idaho (Richard Jordan, James Watson, Jason Momoa): The weapons master of the Atreides court and a mentor to Paul, Idaho is one of the more beloved characters from the novel, so much so he was revived as a ghola and is the only character to appear in all 6 of Herbert’s original novels. He was to played by French actor, Alain Delon.
Gurney Halleck (Patrick Stewart, P. H. Moriarty, Josh Brolin): The baliset player and warrior is another mentor of Paul’s who plays an important part in both halves of the ‘Dune’ story. One of the wilder picks of Jodorowsky, he wanted Gurney to be played by Hervé Villechaize. Yes. That Hervé. Of ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ & ‘Fantasy Island’ fame.
Piter de Vries (Brad Dourif, Jan Unger, David Dastmalchian): The final cast member revealed is Udo Kier as Piter. Piter was the mentat (human computer) of the Harkonnen family who contributes to the Baron’s scheme.
Some notable characters whose picks by Jodorowsky are unknown include: The Atreides Fremen housemaid, Shadout Mapes (Linda Hunt, Jaroslava Šiktancová, Golda Rosheuvel), the Atreides family mentat, Thufir Hawat (Freddie Jones, Jan Vlasák, Stephen McKinley Henderson), the Fremen leader, Stilgar (Everett McGill, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Javier Bardem), Feyd-Rautha’s older brother, Glossu ‘The Beast’ Rabban Harkonnen (Paul Smith, László I. Kish, Dave Bautista), the Atreides family physician, Dr. Wellington Yueh (Dean Stockwell, Robert Russell, Chang Chen), Arakkis planetologist & Fremen, Dr. Liet Kynes (Max von Sydow, Karel Dobrý, Sharon Duncan-Brewster), Fremen warrior, Jamis (Judd Omen, Christopher Lee Brown, Babs Olusanmokun), Paul’s younger sister who is born in the middle of the story with the knowledge surpassing that of a grown adult, Alia Atreides (Alicia Witt, Laura Burton, Anya Taylor-Joy), another Bene Gesserit and friend of the Emperor, Lady Margot Fenring (she only appears in ‘Dune: Part Two’ played by Léa Seydoux, who is the great niece of Michel Seydoux, producer on Jodorowsky’s film), & most notably, the Fremen woman who becomes Paul’s concubine, Chani (Sean Young, Barbora Kodetová, Zendaya).
Jodorowsky took significant creative liberties from the book. Some examples include Paul being conceived from Leto’s blood entering Jessica, Paul being killed at the end of the story by Lady Fenring and his consciousness becoming a living planet. He also envisioned the Emperor as an insane man who would ‘live in symbiosis with a robot identical to him. The resemblance is so perfect that the citizens never know if they are opposite the man or the machine.’
Not only would Jodorowsky not let the source material influence him, he also refused to let any studios do so. He appealed to a variety of studios for additional funding. While they all liked the idea, artwork, & effects none of them understood or could get behind Jodorowsky as the director. Another issue they encountered is that the studios wanted the film to be max two hours. The current script would’ve resulted in a 14 hour film, and Jodorowsky refused to cut the film to less than 10 hours. The film continued in development for 2.5 years, but eventually they ran out of money.
In 1982, the rights lapsed and were purchased by Dino de Laurentis who would make David Lynch’s version. Jodorowsky used many of his ideas for the story in various comic series he would develop. Jodorowsky notes from the film were sent to many major film studios and directly influenced ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Alien,’ ‘Flash Gordon,’ ‘Terminator,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ‘Master of the Universe,’ ‘Contact,’ & ‘The Fifth Element.’ Jodorowsky’s team of O’Bannon, Foss, Giger, & Giraud also went to work together on ‘Alien.’
Jodorowsky was critical of both later versions. He said Lynch’s movies was just bad and was clearly taken over by producers and that Villeneuve’s films were predictable & took no chances. Audiences and critics shared a similar opinion on Lynch’s film. It grossed only $30.9 million on a $40 million budget and has a 37% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. However with a 65% audience score, the film is considered a cult classic and actually received one Oscar nomination for Best Sound. Lynch himself has widely disassociated himself from the film. Villeneuve’s films on the other hand are widely successful. The two films grossed $407 million on a $165 million budget & $714.4 million on a $190 million budget. The first film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won 6 (Original Score, Sound, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Visual Effects). The second film is on track to receive similar accolades and is widely considered better than the first.
Jodorowsky has said that his picture would now work better as animation since the technology is doable and he hoper someone will make it, even if it’s after his death. Since he is 95, that unfortunately feels more likely.
Thanks for reading!
