The earliest science fiction film recognized in the world is Merieux's "Journey to the Moon" in 1902, until Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" in 1927, which brought a complete end to the science fiction film of the silent film era. The film was also by far the most expensive to produce at the time. The Great Depression in the late 1920s brought a heavy blow to large-scale sci-fi films. Investor studios would no longer give so much production funding to sci-fi films, some sci-fi and action fusion films with lower production costs. It has won the favor of the studio and the market, and the most famous is the 007 series. The whole world was immersed in the Cold War atmosphere during World War II, which also brought unlimited creative themes to science fiction writers. Themes such as fear of nuclear weapons, space arms race, mutant monsters, etc. began to appear in science fiction movies. In the late 1960s, Stanley Kubrick directed the landmark sci-fi film, 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film's visual effects, especially in recreating the space environment, are astonishing, and the film has this epic theme. Spielberg called 2001 a Space Odyssey "the big bang of science-fiction". And because of the success of the film, latecomers can apply for more production funding (the budget for "2001 A Space Odyssey" is $12 million).
Jodorowsky's "Dune" was set against the background of such times. Alessandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean-Mexican playwright, film director, actor, composer and producer. His father is Russian and his mother is Argentine. Jodorowsky's most famous works are "The Mole" in 1970 and "The Holy Mountain" in 1973, no matter from which point of view, these two films are uncompromising cult films. The budgets for the two films were $1 million and $750,000, respectively. Due to the success of these two films, Jodorowsky's main producer at the time felt that Jodorowsky could make a larger production film, and Jodorowsky was asked what he wanted to do. , he said without hesitation, "Dune"!
Thus, the born artist began the pre-production of his heroic masterpiece "Dune". He recruited French cartoonist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and designer HR Giger and American visual effects artist and screenwriter Dan O'Bannon. Their more famous identity is as the original team, who participated in the production of Ridley Scott's "Alien", which brought dark horror and imaginative alien images to later generations.
Jodorowsky asked Moebius to draw himself a thick stack of "Dune" storyboards, and Moebius' brushwork is said to be fast and imaginative. Later, when Jodorowsky was looking for investors, he also kept looking around with this sub-lens, so a copy of this script is still circulating in Hollywood. Maybe a senior producer is still savoring the artwork at hand.
The director asked Giger to design the image of the spaceship. According to Giger, Jodorowsky's way of working is to convince them to join the team, trust them unconditionally, and let the team members do whatever they want. The unprecedented image of the spacecraft designed by Giger made Jodorowsky stunned. One of them also evolved into the later "Alien".
Interestingly, Jodorowsky not only invited the three great-level behind-the-scenes teams, but also hired two big-name actors for the film, Orson Welsh and Salvador Dali. The director assigned them two interesting and unexpected roles.
It's a pity that while Jodorowsky was eager to prepare his masterpiece, his vision also scared off Hollywood producers. According to Jodorowsky himself, the artwork he wants to make can last for more than 10 hours. He hopes that this work can give the viewer a feeling of psychedelics. Hollywood thought it was a good idea, but they didn't do it. Jodorowsky hit a wall everywhere, but in the end he couldn't find an investor who had the guts, willingness to spend, and an appreciation for him. Hollywood finally handed over to David Lynch to shoot the film, and the production budget reached a staggering $40 million, but in the end the film did not recover its cost, and the evaluation of the film plummeted.
Although "Dune" was not made, it has provided endless creative sources for latecomers. In addition to the previously mentioned "Alien", Lucas also admitted that the creation of "Star Wars" was influenced by the story version of "Dune"; the storyboard of the filming of the earth in outer space at the beginning of "Macro Contact" also refers to "Dune" ” script; Ridley Scott also had Dan O’Bannon and Moebius behind the scenes on “Blade Runner.”
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