Interview with David Lynch, Starlog Magazine #87, October 1984

Jasper

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Apr 12, 2022
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If only we’d known that the first couple of years of covid were coming, Lynch could have spent some of that time doing a Dune director’s cut, if such a project could get greenlit. Not that it’s a tragedy that he didn’t do it, since no matter what, he’s always engaged in some kind of creative endeavor, but he did state in 2022 that he’s more more open to it (refresher below). As he says in this article, he was “playing ball,” all along the way, so it’s not like he filmed his Dune, then it was edited into their Dune. Sadly, he never really filmed his Dune, so it can’t be assembled from the existing footage, though I'm reasonably confident that the film could at least be improved.


DL: No. But 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.

AVC: Really?

DL: Yeah, but I mean, nobody’s…it’s not going to happen.

AVC: Well that’s interesting, because in the past you were always much less open to it.

David Lynch: 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.
 
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