How the original dune film changed the trajectory of David Lynch's career

David Lynch's feature debut, Eraserheads, was an Arthouse favorite when it was released in 1977 and, thanks to some enterprising film programmers, stayed in theaters for years, gaining popularity on the midnight movie circuit. One of the film's many fans was Mel Brooks, the famous director of “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles”. Brooks, eager to further Lynch's career, formed his own production company, Brooksfilms, to finance his next project: a stylized biography of Joseph Merrick, known to the world as The Elephant Man.

Lynch's “The Elephant Man” at the same time, with the same oppressive black-and-white visuals as surrealism, “The Eraser” was a curious Oscar favorite, nominated for eight Academy Awards. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor, among others. Unfortunately, it lost in all eight categories.

Still, Lynch—a quirky painter and art student from Montana—suddenly found himself leading the way on the Hollywood scene. Up until now, his short films and his two features had been oblique and laid-back, but Lynch had also proven himself to be talented and direct, which attracted the attention of major Hollywood producers. Many might know about how George Lucas approached Lynch about directing the then upcoming film, Return of the Jedi. and how the offer gave Lynch a headache. Lynch was also approached by super-producer Dino De Laurentiis about adapting Frank Herbert's The Dunes for a film that had been in development hell for years.

Lynch agreed to direct Dune, rewriting the story to his liking. It took him months to develop the script, eventually going through six drafts before coming up with one that Universal would agree to make. However, it turned out that “Kapa” would be a nightmare to complete. Filming was delayed, the studio intervened, and Lynch ended up hating the whole experience. Her dislike of “Dune” would later influence Lynch's entire career.

In 1983, when “Dune” was made, Universal assumed it had a hit. The studio wanted something expensive and epic to compete with Fox's Star Wars franchise, and felt that a more mature sci-fi story was the way to go. The film required a huge cast and extras, over 80 sets and extensive special effects. The film crew reportedly numbered around 1,700 people. It was supposed to be a super-blockbuster.

But it was never meant to be. Lynch had to rewrite the script so many times that he got tired of the film. After that, filming took place in Mexico and lasted a whole six months, until September 1983. Many people fell ill during production, communication lines were constantly down, and filming was often delayed by power outages. It was very, very difficult for Lynch.

When filming finally ended, Lynch had four hours of raw footage. The final (seventh!) draft of the script was supposed to run about three hours, but Universal, fearing such length, insisted that Lynch shave it down to two. Lynch went on a crazy editing spree, adding voices to flesh out the film's dense plot and mythology, and always reshooting scenes for clarity. The final cut was 137 minutes. Lynch has never had a longer “director's cut” up his sleeve. Most of the film's creative demands were dictated by either Universal or De Lauretiis, all of whom tried to wrest control of the film from Lynch.

Later, in 2022 interview with AV ClubLynch admitted it “Dune” was his “sale” moment. He gave it a try, the old college way, but he definitely wasn't comfortable working at The Company.

Many fans may be familiar with the 183-minute TV miniseries version of Lynch's “Dune,” often called “The Extended Cut.” This version was edited into a new narrative and the film's concept art photos were transferred in an effort to make Herbert's story more relatable to a wider film audience. Lynch hated the cut so much that his name was removed from it. This reduction is credited to Alan Smithee.

“Dune,” perhaps predictably, flopped. It only made about $31.4 million at the global box office against a $40 million budget, killing Universal's hopes for the franchise. Ultimately, the source material was too dense and weird for a mainstream art film (at least at the time), while the actual film is constantly caught between Lynch's sensibilities and the studio's need for production scale. Nobody got what they wanted.

After that, Lynch decided to make his next film more personal, surreal and comfortable to shoot. Ever since The Dunes, he was determined to only be in the productions he wanted to be in, not swayed by the whims of the studio or worried about big budgets. Dune was as mainstream as Lynch was ever going to get.

The following year, Lynch made a much more modest, personal film for Dino De Laurentiis, and the super-producer was intrigued. The movie was “Blue Velvet”, a noir film that took Lynch's career on a whole new trajectory. Now he was freer to tell strange, dark, nightmarish, violent stories about sex and obsession. In interview book “Lynch in Lynch”, the director admitted that he had nowhere to go but up after “Kapa”. He was now free to experiment as he pleased.

Lynch's other films after The Dune were undeniably his, and the director maintained tight creative control over each one. “The Dune” was Lynch's hour; he learned never to do such a thing again.