5 ms·

The Most Influential SF Movie Never Made

110 points by rick_2047 16y ago

TorKlingberg 16y ago
Interesting topic, but the blog post is milking it for two long. It could be shortened to one paragraph with no loss in information.
aw3c2 16y ago
I am currently reading Dune and I promised myself to never watch the movie so I can keep the images alive in my head. Did the same with His Dark Materials. And even though the movies were good epic movies, I miss my own Lord of the Rings.
- sigzero 16y ago
  I enjoyed the LOTR because I understood the compromises that were made and why they were made. Doesn't replace what my imagination came up with though. I still love to read a story over watching it.
moolave 16y ago
I liked Dune. The PC game and movie. It could be imminent that a Hollywood remake is in the works.
- ovi256 16y ago
  It's safe to say that the new Hollywood remake will be quite successful, but never influential.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Why's that?
- sabat 16y ago
  Two (fairly bad) versions aren't enough? They need to trash it again?
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    I think a Dune project aimed squarely at capturing Jodorowsky’s original vision would have tremendous traction. It would be perfect for the 3D techniques developed for Avatar. The techniques in Pixar's palette would be awesome if turned to this purpose, especially if they used a different art director for each planet/culture. Lord of the Rings was covered by Bass and Rankin and Ralph Bakshi animations before WETA's LotR movies. It was LotR that finally did full justice to those properties. (Though I really like Bakshi's movie. He just didn't have enough funding to do 3 movies.) If I were a Pixar competitor, I would look seriously at Dune. The religious/economic/political issues Dune covers would really resonate right now.
    - jcl 16y ago
      FWIW, some Pixar guys are currently looking at John Carter of Mars (although it's going to be a non-Pixar film). Like LotR, it has a mottled history of attempted adaptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars_%28film%29
JustinSeriously 16y ago
Reading just the title, my guess was Blade Runner.
- ams6110 16y ago
  Never, not ever. I read it as ever myself, at first glance.
thunk 16y ago
As awesome as this movie might have been, I'm content with _Dune_ remaining a book -- a beautiful, mind-blowing book. Thank god there weren't any other attempts to adapt it for screen.
- Ixiaus 16y ago
  It's too awesome in scale and depth to be adapted for a three hour film or "Sci-Fi Miniseries". I love the book, it is my all time favorite. What I would like to see, however, would be small focused shorts; that could go over well I think (sort of how Neill Blomkamp and Jackson did those Halo shorts).
  - jerf 16y ago
    The Sci-Fi miniseries is decent, if and only if you understand it as "a pretty decent theatrical adaptation recorded on film" rather than "a movie". For instance, the Baron's theatrical monologues should be understood as exactly that: theatrical monologues. The use of color in lighting is also very theatrical.
  - devinj 16y ago
    The Dune miniseries was wonderful. I watched it as a kid and never got over it. It's a very nostalgic thing for me. Maybe it doesn't match up to the book, but if I ever read the book it would only be because of the miniseries and comments that the book is even better.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- duskwuff 16y ago
  I guess you're probably happier not knowing about the David Lynch film, then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29
_mattb 16y ago
Anyone know of good commentary on the causality between sci fi art/books/film and technology? As in, is the artists' work often inspiration for tech or are the artists just making predictions?
RevRal 16y ago
I very highly recommend the graphic novel The Incal by Jodorowsky and Mobius. After Dune fell through, the pair went on to use their Dune inspiration on an incredibly epic and beautiful story. Jodorowsky is known for his mysticism, the story of the Incal is loosely based on the Tarot cards and mixes elements of fantasy, sci-fi, satire, and metaphysics. Jodorowsky doesn't mess around with his stories. This is a man who released a movie in Mexico which caused full scale riots, and was subsequently banned for its corrupting content. The Incal may be a little hard to find these days, but it is worth the effort to find and read just to see the work of two men brimming with imagination.
- thunk 16y ago
  > The Incal may be a little hard to find these days It may take a Bit, but its Torrent of insight is worth it.
Jun8 16y ago
Very informative post, made me add some movies to my Netflix queue. However, I also read it as a cautionary tale for creative people: "To that end he hired five artists and spent almost 2 million dollars, roughly 1/5th of the film’s entire budget, on art and design in preproduction. Looking back, it seems clear that he was perfectly happy spending his budget in creating, rather than on a creation. The process was the goal, not a finished movie." Unfortunately, this happens way too often with really creative people and teh phenomenal results that would have been obtained had the project succeeded never get realized.
jonny_noog 16y ago
Some years ago I watched a fascinating documentary on Jean Giraud (Moebius), one of the visionaries mentioned here that Jodorowsky gathered under his banner for a time. Before watching this film, I had no real idea how all these guys who were involved in or inspired some of my favourite science fiction had come together. The doco mentions how the original screenplay by Dan O'Bannon for Alien was what he did after the collapse of Jodorowsky's Dune project and that much of the team that had assembled for Jodorowsky's Dune (Giger, O'Bannon, Giraud) went on to work on Alien. I highly recommend this doco if you are interested in the topic of this post and am pleased to find that it can be viewed here: http://www.cgexplorer.com/2009/05/05/moebius-redux-video/ http://www.cgexplorer.com/2009/05/05/moebius-redux-video/
edkennedy 16y ago
This article is particularly poignant to me, as I watched Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" last night. What a crazy, wild, mysterious, horrifying, over the top movie. The sets are outrageous and one wonders how many drugs he took to come up with it all. However, I could see how his work may not be popular to all as his commentary on society was scathing and often graphic.

110 points by rick_2047 16y ago

Interesting topic, but the blog post is milking it for two long. It could be shortened to one paragraph with no loss in information.

aw3c2 16y ago

I am currently reading Dune and I promised myself to never watch the movie so I can keep the images alive in my head. Did the same with His Dark Materials. And even though the movies were good epic movies, I miss my own Lord of the Rings.

sigzero 16y ago
I enjoyed the LOTR because I understood the compromises that were made and why they were made. Doesn't replace what my imagination came up with though. I still love to read a story over watching it.

moolave 16y ago

I liked Dune. The PC game and movie. It could be imminent that a Hollywood remake is in the works.

ovi256 16y ago
It's safe to say that the new Hollywood remake will be quite successful, but never influential.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Why's that?
sabat 16y ago
Two (fairly bad) versions aren't enough? They need to trash it again?
- stcredzero 16y ago
  I think a Dune project aimed squarely at capturing Jodorowsky’s original vision would have tremendous traction. It would be perfect for the 3D techniques developed for Avatar. The techniques in Pixar's palette would be awesome if turned to this purpose, especially if they used a different art director for each planet/culture. Lord of the Rings was covered by Bass and Rankin and Ralph Bakshi animations before WETA's LotR movies. It was LotR that finally did full justice to those properties. (Though I really like Bakshi's movie. He just didn't have enough funding to do 3 movies.) If I were a Pixar competitor, I would look seriously at Dune. The religious/economic/political issues Dune covers would really resonate right now.
  - jcl 16y ago
    FWIW, some Pixar guys are currently looking at John Carter of Mars (although it's going to be a non-Pixar film). Like LotR, it has a mottled history of attempted adaptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars_%28film%29

JustinSeriously 16y ago

Reading just the title, my guess was Blade Runner.

ams6110 16y ago
Never, not ever. I read it as ever myself, at first glance.

thunk 16y ago

As awesome as this movie might have been, I'm content with _Dune_ remaining a book -- a beautiful, mind-blowing book. Thank god there weren't any other attempts to adapt it for screen.

Ixiaus 16y ago
It's too awesome in scale and depth to be adapted for a three hour film or "Sci-Fi Miniseries". I love the book, it is my all time favorite. What I would like to see, however, would be small focused shorts; that could go over well I think (sort of how Neill Blomkamp and Jackson did those Halo shorts).
- jerf 16y ago
  The Sci-Fi miniseries is decent, if and only if you understand it as "a pretty decent theatrical adaptation recorded on film" rather than "a movie". For instance, the Baron's theatrical monologues should be understood as exactly that: theatrical monologues. The use of color in lighting is also very theatrical.
- devinj 16y ago
  The Dune miniseries was wonderful. I watched it as a kid and never got over it. It's a very nostalgic thing for me. Maybe it doesn't match up to the book, but if I ever read the book it would only be because of the miniseries and comments that the book is even better.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
duskwuff 16y ago
I guess you're probably happier not knowing about the David Lynch film, then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29

_mattb 16y ago

Anyone know of good commentary on the causality between sci fi art/books/film and technology? As in, is the artists' work often inspiration for tech or are the artists just making predictions?

RevRal 16y ago

I very highly recommend the graphic novel The Incal by Jodorowsky and Mobius. After Dune fell through, the pair went on to use their Dune inspiration on an incredibly epic and beautiful story. Jodorowsky is known for his mysticism, the story of the Incal is loosely based on the Tarot cards and mixes elements of fantasy, sci-fi, satire, and metaphysics. Jodorowsky doesn't mess around with his stories. This is a man who released a movie in Mexico which caused full scale riots, and was subsequently banned for its corrupting content. The Incal may be a little hard to find these days, but it is worth the effort to find and read just to see the work of two men brimming with imagination.

thunk 16y ago
> The Incal may be a little hard to find these days It may take a Bit, but its Torrent of insight is worth it.

Jun8 16y ago

Very informative post, made me add some movies to my Netflix queue. However, I also read it as a cautionary tale for creative people: "To that end he hired five artists and spent almost 2 million dollars, roughly 1/5th of the film’s entire budget, on art and design in preproduction. Looking back, it seems clear that he was perfectly happy spending his budget in creating, rather than on a creation. The process was the goal, not a finished movie." Unfortunately, this happens way too often with really creative people and teh phenomenal results that would have been obtained had the project succeeded never get realized.

jonny_noog 16y ago

Some years ago I watched a fascinating documentary on Jean Giraud (Moebius), one of the visionaries mentioned here that Jodorowsky gathered under his banner for a time. Before watching this film, I had no real idea how all these guys who were involved in or inspired some of my favourite science fiction had come together. The doco mentions how the original screenplay by Dan O'Bannon for Alien was what he did after the collapse of Jodorowsky's Dune project and that much of the team that had assembled for Jodorowsky's Dune (Giger, O'Bannon, Giraud) went on to work on Alien. I highly recommend this doco if you are interested in the topic of this post and am pleased to find that it can be viewed here: http://www.cgexplorer.com/2009/05/05/moebius-redux-video/ http://www.cgexplorer.com/2009/05/05/moebius-redux-video/

edkennedy 16y ago

This article is particularly poignant to me, as I watched Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" last night. What a crazy, wild, mysterious, horrifying, over the top movie. The sets are outrageous and one wonders how many drugs he took to come up with it all. However, I could see how his work may not be popular to all as his commentary on society was scathing and often graphic.