Dune is in Your Head

If you've ever seen the 1984 David Lynch film version of Dune, or the three-part TV mini-series from 2000, you know that both adaptations of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel left plenty of his world on the cutting room floor --- and left something to be desired.

But what if there was one version of Dune that would have blown the minds of critics before they had a chance to grumble? 

In this story for BoingBoing, "Dune is in Your Head: The mirage of Jodorowsky’s Unfilmed Epic," I delve into the history of director Alejandro Jodorowsky's version of Dune, the one that was never made, and the one now captured in a terrific documentary called Jodorowsky's Dune. 

Below, a couple of the production stills from the never realized film.

Concept art by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. All photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Storyboard of Dune, art by Jean Giraud, aka French comic book artist Moebius(Photo: David Cavallo) All photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics  

Lost Bakshi Lord of the Rings footage found

Over at BoingBoing, I posted a short piece about new, previously unseen footage from the love-it-or-hate-it 1978 Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings adapatation. Turns out, Bakshi (actually, his son Eddie) has unearthed some unfilmed cel animation art that was never previosuly used. Those drawings have recently been filmed, and posted on Bakshi's Facebook page. The two "new" scenes --- which feature the Gandalf and Balrog fight, as recalled by Gandalf later after he's come back from the dead --- are brief. But they are worth looking at, if for no other reason than to revisit Bakshi's visually memorable but flawed movie.

I was lucky to have interviewed Bakshi back in 2006, as well as last week for this post. Bakshi is one of my childhood heroes (along with filmmakers Disney, Lucas and Spielberg), and his Rings was my first ever introduction to Toklien --- and I suppose my gateway drug to D&D. 

If you recall, Baskhi's film left viewers high and dry about 2/3 of the way through the Tolkien epic. The director never got to make a "part II" to the film, despite the Bakshi version of Rings making money --- $30 million on a $4 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo (though when I interviewed Bakshi in 2006, he told me it cleared $90 million on a $8 million budget).

When you see the footage, you'll be reminded of some of the troubling differences between the way characters were animated --- sometimes traditionally-animated, sometimes using rotscoping (or tracing live footage for animators to use as a guideline).

I asked Bakshi about this, why specifically in the new footage do Gandalf and the Balrog appear differently, almost cartoonish, compared to the rotoscoped Gandalf and Balrog seen on The Bridge of Khazad-dûm. “Well, it’s hazy," Bakshi, now 75, said, "but I was trying to make memories different than the real time story. I was wrestling with trying to separate the styles.”

Indeed, those days are hazy. But a fun trip to revisit them. Enjoy.

A review of RoboCop 2014: Not as Good as RoboCop 1987

In which I watch RoboCop (2014) and remember RoboCop (1987), and conclude that while the remake isn't without its qualities, it has less to say than the original, and, worse, is not as funny. I also break down the history of our anxiety about robots and A.I., from Metropolis to The Terminator to Her. It's all over at BoingBoing.

At 40 Years Old, Dungeons & Dragons Still Matters

Tired of all this press about D&D? I hope not. The hits just keep coming as I milk this anniversary for all it's worth. Here's another piece I did tying into the big 4-0 -- for BoingBoing, called "At 40 Years Old, Dungeons & Dragons Still Matters." Enjoy!

Desolation of Tolkien: My BoingBoing review of Smaug

Like with the trilogy's first episode, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, this next chapter even further widens the viewfinder beyond the fates of Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the Company of dwarves, lead by Thorin (Richard Armitage).

If you recall, their journey thus far took our heroes from Bilbo's hobbit hole in the Shire, past some trolls, under the Misty Mountains, escaping a seemingly infinite supply of goblins, ending just shy of Mirkwood forest, with the Lonely Mountain, their target, towering in the distance. We last left them after they'd battled orcs and wargs, having just been rescued by eagles from flaming trees and the brink of doom.

An Unexpected Journey took 182 minutes to tell, and covered only about 125 of Tolkien's 375 pages (in my version of the book, anyway). The Desolation of Smaug is slightly shorter, but still runs a hefty 161 minutes, and takes us about 2/3 of the way through the story. Where exactly the film leaves Bilbo, Thorin et al, I won't say here.

If part 1 plodded, then part 2 flies. But in what directions! And, quite possibly, asunder.

Read more of my review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on BoingBoing.