NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Feb.-Mar. 2014)

Mick Jagger is not an actor. He never was. I don't know why he's been offered leading parts (Performance, Ned Kelly, etc.) or even bit parts in movies: (Freejack) he has no screen presence to me. Henry Rollins says Mick hasn't got an ounce of soul in his whole body, that he's a bit too detached, too aloof, his "persona" seems a bit too "studied".
I admire Mick for what he's done with the Stones and of course his "moves" are pretty damn good onstage.
As far as movies go, he hasn't really done anything to write home about, unlike David Bowie, who has done some stunning stuff (The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Howling, Last Temptation of Christ, etc.) I can't see Mick bringing anything substantial to Jodorowsky's Dune. He would've been an interesting cast member, but what role would he have played? You're right that they are interesting picks for a story (Welles & Dali & Jagger) but what would the end product have been? I'm looking forward to seeing the doc for more info/insights.

Ulysses could be a film. It's set in Dublin and happens all in one day, right? You just need a skilled director who can chop the text into the essentials of Leopold Bloom. Surely you could do it within 2 hours? How essential is all that exposition?

ULYSSES: no. It is as complex in the book as living through 24 hours is in real life. You'd need a 24-hour movie. Any two-hour adaptation is an utter simplification, not the book at all.

I agree on Jagger. But I loved PERFORMANCE and in it, he doesn't have to have much personality. He's just a cool recessive rock star who's drugged out.

It would be a coup to put Jagger, Welles, and Dali in the same film, and it's a good story how Jodorovsky found them and persuaded them to participate. But that's the end of it. They might be box office draws.

The part that will impress you is the artists Jodorovsky found and persuaded to contribute substantially to the designes for the film and the costumes before it was made, and you may relate more than I to the weird musical group or groups he engaged to do different parts of the film. Also how he was going to use his son (as he has in his new film DANZA DE LA REALIDAD) as a main character, and how he completely changed the end of the film and said that in order to do justice to a work of art in adapting it one must "rape" it. I thought you would LOVE that part. Jodorovsky has immense panache. It is necessary to be crazy to make a film, or at least certain kinds of film, and he has that vastness of improvable surreal vision. But really even though the sci fi imagery isn't quite my thing (it was more so when I was a teenager), Jodorovsky's sense of how it should look and his finding of three or four artists -- this is impressive, and that element ought to have been good.

This was to have been a very big budget movie. That was the reason why it got passed on to David Lynch. i guess. Why Lynch would be a better risk somewhat escapes me as well. Well, that was a bad decision too, because Lynch wasn't the right person for the job.

El Topo & Santa Sangre are two of the most powerful cinematic experiences I've ever had. I know that Jodorowsky's version of Dune (whatever that might've been) would've been remarkable. It would be singular and unique. People might've drawn the conclusion that he was the pre-destined choice to film Dune. We'll never know.

Dali could've added more than just an appearance in the film. He may have helped in the production design in some way, in concert with the other artists Jodorowsky was enlisting. A slightly surreal sci-fi vision could be cool. Or even a massively surreal vision. With Dune, I think Hollywood is sitting on the Great Untapped Masterpiece. Why should Star Wars have all this clout when Dune is considered the Greatest sci-fi novel of All time?
there are Masterpieces waiting with the Dune novels.
I wonder if Kubrick ever considered the property. His intellect could match Frank Herbert's, just as it matched Arthur C. Clarke's.
But Kubrick avoided repeating himself with genres. And of the war films he made, they're of different stripes. Even within the confines of genre he doesn't stay the same. He tries new ways of underlining, gives us new ways of "resonance". If people want to know why Kubrick is #1, it's because he wanted to rouse you to REFLECTION by the time you're filing out of your theatre seat. The best ones ROUSE TO REFLECTION.
Any movie that does that to me has done it's job really well.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320x240q90/69/pqs8.jpg
Costume designes for Dune by Moebius (Jean Giraud)

In the doc they say exactly that, Dune ought to have been the great sci-fi film, not Star Wars. And that it is still the great untapped sci-fi epic for film.

I was a great admirer of Dali as a youth. He was to be the Emperor, or something. However, he was very nutty, and though he lived till 1989, even in 1973, he was 69, and already not in good shape. "In 1980 at age 76, Dalí's health took a catastrophic turn. " He was in terrible health and his death was pitiful. His older, semi-senile wife Gala had long been dosing him with unprescribed medications that may have seriously damaged his nervous system. He would have added an air of madness and comedy. Since he was demanding $1000,000 a minute for his performance, they intended to use him for only three minutes. Hence, he would not have made a contribution to the art of the film. I am pretty sure that Jagger, Welles, and Dali were only ways of adding caché and sensation to the film project -- and to the story of the film's debacle.

Quote:

---

In 1973, film producer Arthur P. Jacobs optioned the film rights to Dune but died before a film could be developed. The option was then taken over two years later by director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who proceeded to approach, among others, Peter Gabriel, the prog rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music, artists H. R. Giger and Jean Giraud for set and character design, Dan O'Bannon for special effects, and Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine and others for the cast.
--Wikipedia, "Jodorowsky's Dune."

---

Also Moebius, Chris Foss, and H.R. Giger. If I'm not mistaken, Giger had not done designs for film yet. He has been a huge influence since. He did he says in the doc, his best work for Dune. We see the marvels Giger was capable of in Blade Runer. Then the Alien movies. His contribution to the imagery of film sci fi has been great.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320...0/854/t4vm.jpg
Giger and Dune drawings

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320x240q90/19/z5n9.jpg
Giger critter for Dune

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320...0/812/e7e6.jpg
Chris Foss vehicle design for Dune

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320...0/812/taxv.jpg
Chris Foss spece ship design for Dune

Do they say in the doc who owns the rights to Dune today? Why isn't Dune Jodorowsky's final project at 84?
What studio would deny him the chance?
Wouldn't that be something to see? something to get really jacked for?

Nice designs you added there.
I like the costume ideas...

Sometimes it is enough to have dreamed. Jodorovsky -- and his son -- are very fulfilled by the recent beautiful, epic film THE DANCE OF REALITY/LA DANZA DE LA REALIDAD, which I saw in Paris with a French friend who is a great fan of Jodorovsky and has seen everything he's done. He was so moved after we'd watched the film he could not speak. A man in the theater said before the screening that he he had already seen it five times. Who needs DUNE? Mick Jagger is over 70. Orson Welles and Salvador Dalí are long dead. Alejandro Jodorovsky could die tomorrow. But I don't know. He might be read to undertake it. After all this is the age of the very old directors. I don't remember if they say anything about the rights I guess Jodorovsky and Michel Seydoux have them.

True, at this point, Mick Jagger is useless and yes, Welles & Dali are dead and Alejandro hasn't got many years left.
What would make a film of DUNE kick-ass today?

Marianne Faithful as Paul's mother.
Anthony Keidis or Crispin Glover as Paul.
Nick Cave as Gurney Halleck.

The best special effects team available today would be required. I can envision some insane imagery...:)