inri222

On the Santa Sangre Blu-Ray he speaks about his hatred of Dino De Laurentiis and how he admires David Lynch. He says that the film is De Laurentiis' vision not Lynch's and that is why it is so bad.

Why So Blu?

Damn, I gotta check that commentary out. I have Santa Sangre on Blu-ray, too.

inri222

I have not listened to the commentary yet, it's on one of the interviews in the special features.

Why So Blu?

Ah, gotcha.

hanshotfirst1138

I recently watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Parallels." I was about a series alternate quantum realities with differences, some subtle, some significant, and offering near endless possibilities. In none of these parallel universes, however, was any version of Alien 3 a better film Prometheus, of that I am fairly certain.

Dr. DVD

Prometheus was actually pretty good until the last third, when the characters became inexplicably stupid.

Solid Snake

Depending on what you consider the time code of the third act... The scientists went stupid early on. That was what? Still the first act?

I actually really like Prometheus but... It's a fucking flawed as fuck film in its narrative. Map dude gets lost. Biology dude decides to touch snake alien. Holloway decides to take off his helmet cuz it seems ok. So so stupid. LOVED David though. He was awesome.

Supermallet

Ah, you must be from the single quantum reality where Ridley Scott made more good movies than bad ones. In all the rest (including this one), it's the other way around.

inri222

hanshotfirst1138

They were morons the whole way through.

Um, I did not say that Ridley Scott made more good films than bad ones. You really can't say that unless this is 1981. I did, however, say that Prometheus was probably a better film than Alien 3. That's a distinctly different thing.

Supermallet

Yeah, Alien 3 is ten times the film Prometheus is. Even with some of the suspect early '90s special effects.

Dr. DVD

I enjoyed Prometheus more than Alien 3, but I have only watched Alien 3 once because I didn't really care of the story, and the effects aren't up to the level of the others.


On actual thread topic, has anyone actually seen this documentary yet?

Supermallet

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/12027104-post38.html

Doctor Gonzo

Very interesting story.

The documentary about the project opens March 21...
------------------------------------------------------------------


The Weirdest Film Never Made


By Don Steinberg


Updated March 14, 2014 1:04 a.m. ET


"Jodorowsky's Dune" tells the story of a lost film masterpiece, or maybe just the weirdest unmade movie of all time. The documentary, which opens March 21, chronicles the failed mid-1970s effort by avant-garde director Alejandro Jodorowsky to create the first movie out of the science-fiction novel "Dune." Mr. Jodorowsky's version almost surely would have been more bizarre than the "Dune" movie that did get released (and flopped) in 1984, directed by David Lynch ("Eraserhead," "Blue Velvet"), starring Kyle MacLachlan and Sting, with music by Brian Eno and the band Toto. Mr. Jodorowsky's "Dune" was set to star Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dalí.

Frank Pavich, who produced and directed the documentary, makes a case that even though Mr. Jodorowsky's project fell apart just before filming, its vivid design ideas and ambitious teaming of behind-the-camera talent—two years before "Star Wars"—influenced Hollywood science fiction that followed, from "Alien" to "Blade Runner" to "The Matrix."

Alejandro Jodorowsky, born to Ukrainian-Jewish parents in Chile in 1929, got his start creating avant-garde theater in Mexico. His films "El Topo" (1970) and "The Holy Mountain" (1973) were trippy, perverse, and blasphemous. In one scene in "The Holy Mountain," a Jesus figure defecates a chunk of gold while a nude woman, covered with Hebrew-letter tattoos, plays the cello. The films, jabbing at religion and militarism, did well as midnight movies in art-house theaters (audience use of mind-altering substances may have been involved). They were successful enough that in 1974 French producer Michel Seydoux offered to finance the start of Mr. Jodorowsky's next project. The filmmaker chose "Dune" without having read the book.

"I wanted to make something sacred. A film that gives LSD hallucinations without taking LSD," Mr. Jodorowsky says in the documentary. Alive and well and living in Paris, he comes across in the film as passionate but not crazy.

Frank Herbert's "Dune," published in 1965, is one of history's best-selling science-fiction books but often reads more like a political tract than an action movie. Set about 20,000 years in the future, it involves a multi-planet conflict among quasi-royal families (Duke Leto, Baron Harkonnen ) and a quest to control a consciousness-expanding "spice" called melange found on the desert planet Arrakis. The book includes a 20-page glossary explaining its terminology.

Mr. Jodorowsky assembled an eclectic, X-Men-like dream team of collaborators—cast and crew members with unique traits whom he wanted to be fellow "spiritual warriors" on a "mission for humanity." He wanted Salvador Dalí to play the mad emperor of the galaxy. Mr. Dalí's demands supposedly included use of a helicopter and "a burning giraffe," a recurring motif in his paintings. Mr. Jodorowsky agreed to pay Mr. Dalí $100,000 a minute for his screen time, intending to use only three minutes or so. To secure Orson Welles, Mr. Jodorowsky offered to hire the chef of the prodigious actor's favorite Paris restaurant as his personal chef during the film shoot. Mick Jagger came in via a connection to Andy Warhol. David Carradine in his "Kung Fu" days was another cast member.

Mr. Jodorowsky recruited H.R. Giger, known for his nightmarish illustrations, to design characters and sets. Chris Foss, who illustrated classic sci-fi book covers, was brought in to imagine wild spacecraft. French cartoonist Jean "Moebius" Giraud helped create storyboards that presented Mr. Jodorowsky's script as a graphic novel with 3,000 illustrations. It was all bound in a giant hardcover book, of which multiple copies were made.

"It was the entire movie, every camera move, every costume, every bit of dialogue," says Mr. Pavich. Twenty copies of the art book were produced to show to potential backers. Only two are known to still exist. The documentary reveals many of the drawings from the book and animates some of them to dramatize would-be scenes.

After being snubbed by special-effects artist Douglas Trumbull, who had worked on Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," Mr. Jodorowsky enlisted Dan O'Bannon, who had done effects for the cheesier space film "Dark Star" as a film-school project with classmate John Carpenter.

With personnel in place, the planned $15 million "Dune" production ran out of money before shooting was to begin in Algeria. No Hollywood studio would kick in the final $5 million to film a movie that, if made true to its storyboards, would have run at least 12 hours.

"Studios said to Jodorowsky, 'We don't want to make this kind of movie, and we don't like the movies you make'," Mr. Pavich says. "But then a year or two later comes 'Star Wars.' Everything is space, space, space. And when they do decide to make 'Dune," who do they get but the Jodorowsky of the '80s, David Lynch?"

Mr. Lynch's "Dune" was one of the biggest-budget movies ever made at the time, at a reported $40 million. There were "Dune" action figures and Topps trading cards (and a glossary handed out in theaters). Critics and audiences didn't like it much. Mr. Jodorowsky, whose career faded after the "Dune" debacle, says in the documentary that he resisted watching someone else's realization of his dream, but when he did see it, he was gratified "because the picture was awful."

The documentary has a happy ending. Crew members whom Mr. Jodorowsky had brought together went on to bigger things. Mr. O'Bannon wrote "Alien," a film for which Mr. Giger won an Oscar for designing the monster. The documentary ends with a montage of other films—"Star Wars," "The Terminator," "Contact," "Prometheus," even "Raiders of the Lost Ark"—that could reflect the influence of the unmade "Dune" and its lavish storyboards, which had been circulated to every studio.

It's legitimate to guess that had it been made in 1975, Mr. Jodorowsky's "Dune" might be considered a campy relic today. By failing to come to life, it became legend.

Dr. DVD

Don't use search engine that much do you?

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...dune-film.html

james2025a

I watched the documentary last week and have re-watched it 3 times since then. Incredibly fascinating and a lot of fun. This movie could have been so incredible if it had been made. The decisions being made by Jodo are crazy....but genius crazy. So left field that they are absolutely the correct choices. Pink Floyd, Orson Wells, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, Chris Foss, Moebius, O'Bannon......just incredible talent involved and so right for this project. I hope someone takes him up on the idea he still has for it to be an animated movie. I know they did the Incal, but to see an animated movie of this would be incredible. However, to have had the ultimate movie it needed to be done at the time when the artists asked to be involved were all at the height of their brilliance (well maybe not Wells.....but he would have been perfect as the Baron).

Mondo Kane

So surprised this is arriving from netflix tomorrow. I was certain it would already be in "Very long wait". If there's features abound on this disc, I might make it a "Very long wait" for someone else.

d2cheer

^ I believe it is streaming as well on Netflix. That could have reduced the wait.

Giles

true - but I'm very curious in seeing the additional 43 minutes of deleted footage.

Solid Snake

Fuck. It ain't streaming. Shit. It isn't on there. Ugh. I wanted to see this so bad.

Why So Blu?

I just watched it via Amazon Prime and it was fucking fantastic! Man, what a funny and exciting ride. One of the best documentaries of all time, imo.

It was $4.99 well spent. In HD, too.

Mondo Kane

This doc also benefits by having Richard Stanley in it. As with Jodorowsky, I never tire of hearing this guy speak on the constant battles of getting an artist's TRUE vision on display for the world to see.

Some of this doc almost is! There's 2 big sequences that are presented this way (Most notably, the KILLER opening shot)

Paul_SD

I have a $25 Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket and haven't been able to make up my mind between getting this, or Under The Skin next week.

Eager to see both- and both are from studios that drop their prices dramatically after about 6 months.
If this had offered a better suite of supplemental content I likely would have already sprung for it already.

Supermallet

I really like this documentary, but get Under The Skin. That's a film you'll be able to dissect for years.

Dr. DVD

Just finished this after I downloaded it from Amazon Prime. I have to say, if this had actually been made the way they wanted, it would have been something for the ages. Interesting how so much of the stuff seen in many movies over the past few decades seemingly first appeared as concept for this project.
I truly hope that one day we get to see an animated version of this movie, or maybe a motion comic. Jodorowsky has already given his blessing for it to happen even if he's long dead, so I am crossing my fingers I might see it in my lifetime. I think it's a damn shame Ralph Bakshi is up there in the years as well. He would have been the perfect choice for an animated adaptation of this adaptation.