Original Dune Director David Lynch Addresses Revisiting Project for Director’s Cut

Last year’s Dune was a success with fans and critics alike, but the first film inspired by the material didn’t earn the same reception, with director David Lynch largely distancing himself from the project over the decades. However, with the filmmaker recently remastering Inland Empire, it has sparked some ideas in his head of revisiting Dune, though admits that he knew early on enough in the project that he wouldn’t have final cut so doesn’t believe there was enough material aligning with his original vision to result in any sort of “director’s cut” of the project.

“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?” Lynch shared with The A.V. Club. “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. 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.”

He added, “But I mean, nobody’s…it’s not going to happen.”

In recent years, one of the most famous instances of a film’s original version being modified for its theatrical release is Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with that filmmaker sharing glimpses of cut scenes and sequences in the years after its theatrical release. Lynch, however, noted that he sacrificed his initial approach much earlier on in the project so whatever unseen footage might exist still wouldn’t be what he originally imagined.

“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,” the filmmaker admitted. “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. 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.”

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is slated to hit theaters on October 20, 2023.

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