DAVID LYNCH – DUNE
The effect of working on his 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune was so traumatizing for David Lynch that even to this day he point blank refuses to discuss the production. Publicly stating that he considers this movie the only real failure of his career.
Universal Pictures interference was so pervasive that they didn’t allow him to see his vision for the project through and ultimately denied him final cut privilege, the first and only time in his career. The situation got so bad that the studio ended up crediting a different director when the film finally got its theatrical release, the mysterious Alan Smithee.
You may be asking yourself why you have never heard this director of over 40 films? Well, the reason you might be unaware of this most elusive of auteurs is that the name ‘Alan Smithee’ is a common pseudonym for directors whose film was clearly taken away from them and re-cut heavily against their wishes in ways that completely altered the film.
Turning Herbert’s epic novel into a cohesive two hour plus movie was always going to be a gargantuan task, one that is currently being undertaken by French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.
