Watch the Trailer for the Wonderfully Insane Film JODOROWSKY'S DUNE

Watch the trailer for the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune!

Back in 1975, Alejandro Jodorowsky began working on a sweeping adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. While the project failed for financial reasons it's epic even in it's failure. Jodorwski spent over $2 million in pre-production over two years on a massive film that would have ran for 14 hours. All this and he never read the book. He assembled a dream team of concept artists like H. R. Giger, Chris Foss and Jean "Moebius" Giraud that produced over 3,000 illustrations. Keep in mind that all of this pre-dated the success of science fiction films like Star Wars and Alien 2001: A Space Odyssey. No one had ever done anything like this and he was blazing new trails.

I've shared concept art from Jodorowsky's Dune before, but the trailer promises even more storyboards and concept art from this brilliant production.




Click on the links to see more from the artists H.R. Giger giger.com, Chris Foss chrisfossart.com and Jean Henri Gaston "Moebius" Giraud moebius.fr.

Click on the links if you want to see more of H. R. Giger, Chris Foss, Jean "Moebius" Giraud or Dune on my blog.

What do you think of the trailer? Would you have watched this insane production?

Official Jodorowsky's Dune Summary
"This fascinating documentary explores the genesis of one of cinema's greatest epics that never was: cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's (EL TOPO) adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic Dune, whose cast would have included such icons as Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and Mick Jagger. In 1975, following the runaway success of his art-house freak-outs EL TOPO and HOLY MOUNTAIN, Alejandro Jodorowsky secured the rights to Frank Herbert's Dune - and began work on what was gearing up to be a cinematic game-changer, a sci-fi epic unlike anything the world had ever seen."
Directed by Frank Pavich
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, H. R. Giger, Chris Foss, Nicolas Winding Refn, Amanda Lear, Richard Stanley
Cinematography by David Cavallo
Release date: March 21, 2014 (USA)
Official Site: http://jodorowskysdune.com/
© Copyright 2014 City Film, Snowfort Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics. All rights reserved



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Ride The Sandworms Of Peter Berg's Unfilmed Dune Concept Art

J is For "Jock"
This concept art by Mark "Jock" Simpson, who worked on Children of Men (2006), The Losers (2010), and the upcoming Battleship (2012) almost gave Peter Berg's Dune a much different feel.

Synopsis: Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the "spice" melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex and multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its "spice". - Wikipedia

Once upon a time, Peter Berg was developing a movie version of the classic 1965 Frank Herbert novel Dune. After the David Lynch 1984 film and the SyFy channel mini-series, he said he “had a much more different experience...with the book than David Lynch did." He said his version would "feel significantly different from the others."


He left the project in 2009 and, despite years in development, Paramount finally dropped plans for a remake in 2011.

Looking at the concept art below, it definitely feels "more muscular and adventurous, more violent and possibly even a little bit more fun" than the other interpretations and could have been good.

Jock was a concept artist on the film and provided a fascinating glimpse at the world Peter Berg was imagining. His bold use of color and composition give it a dramatic feel.

Seas of Caladan

Fremen Caves

Sandworm Attack

Paul Atreides: Age 12-13, Age 14-15, Age 16-17

Sardaukar Attack

Spice Mining

The following are a selection of Sand (Spice) Worm designs 

In the series, the sandworms  — called Shai-Hulud (pronounced /ˈʃaɪ hʉˈluːd/) among the Fremen of the desert planet Arrakis (Dune)  — are worshiped as manifestations of "the earth deity of Fremen hearth superstitions." The Fremen believe that the actions of the sandworms are the direct actions of God, and so the worms have been given numerous titles such as the "Great Maker", "The Maker", and the "Worm who is God."(God Emperor of Dune). Virtually indestructible and with indefinite lifespans of potentially thousands of years, the giant sandworms are also referred to as the "Old Man of the Desert", "Old Father Eternity" and "Grandfather of the Desert". The worms may also be referred to by Fremen as Shaitan, post God-Emperor.  - Wikipedia

Newborn worm

@ 2008 Copyright Paramount Pictures

Via ComingSoon.net

What do you think of the illustrations? Have you read the books? Do you think these would have captured the spirit of Dune?



This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

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Concept Art Shows There Was Almost A Weirder Version of Dune Made

If you thought a shirtless Sting was weird check this out.

Back in 1974 a group purchased the rights to make a movie out of Dune directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Using French artist Jean "Moebius" Girard's 3000 drawings he finalized the script and almost made the weirdest adaptation of Dune ever.

In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert’s epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version.

Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship.  - Wikipedia

The most interesting part is that each of the planets had their own concept artist leading to some truly bizarre and creative visions of the science-fiction epic. How they would have all meshed together is anyone's guess.

Most of the artwork is from the awesome site Dune Behind the Scenes

H.R. Giger

H.R. Giger's vision of the sand worms of Arakas

Chris Foss' (1975) Pirate ship. The camouflage of this pirate ship is useless the powerful sensors of her attacker. Valuable spice leaks out, as the ship drifts lifelessly away from the scene of a conflict.

Chris Foss (1975). Emperor’s artificial planet. Under the Emperor's rule, many a tortured souls' voice rang out from the palace to echo across the prairie. Clad in pure gold, this citadel remains a valuable testament to the cruelties of some civilizations.

Jean "Moebius" Giraud's design of Duke Leto Atreides

Jean "Moebius" Giraud Lord Piter Mental murderer of Baron Harkonnen, effeminate, drugged, sadist, in love with Lady Jessica.

Jean "Moebius" Giraud - The Baron Harkonnen is an immense man of 300 kilogrammes. he is so fatty and heavy that, to move, he must make continuous use of antigravitational bubbles attached at his limbs... His delusion of grandeur does not have limits

Great bizarre stuff.

The following is a clip from the director along with an interview with Moebius.

All in all it would still be a fun film to watch for the production design alone. Ah well.

Here are some of the artist websites who have some truly inspiring artwork.

H.R. Giger http://giger.com/
Chris Foss http://chrisfossart.com/
Jean Henri Gaston "Moebius" Giraud http://www.moebius.fr/

Via io9

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Arek conceptart, Dune, H.R.Giger, Jean Moebius Giraud, Movie