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Why David Lynch turned down Return of the Jedi! (video)
There's a bit of little-known Star Wars trivia that George Lucas once asked David Lynch to direct the third movie in the trilogy, Return of the Jedi, but I don't think we've ever heard Lynch himself describe his meeting and why he turned it down in quite this way. Until now, in the video below.
At a seminar last month at New York's Russian Tea Room, sponsored by the Hudson Union Society, the director of Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive talked about the James Bond-like arrangements he had to make to meet with Lucas, how he reacted when he saw a Wookiee for the first time and why Lucas shouldn't be driving a Ferrari.
"George is kinda short, and so ... his seat was way back, and he was almost lying down in the car, and we were flying through this little town in Northern California," Lynch said.
"I had next door to zero interest," Lynch says at one point, adding later: "I could hardly wait to get home."
The mind reels when imagining what Jedi might have been like under Lynch's direction. Like Dune meets Blue Velvet, with Darth Vader sucking on oxygen and saying, "Don't you f--king look at me!!" Instead of Ewoks, a bunch of mutant dwarves living in log cabins in a town like Twin Peaks?
We'd actually buy that. Would you?
As it turns out, little-known director Richard Marquand wound up directing Jedi, giving us the movie we've all grown up with, but a chance to make film history vanished with Lynch.
(Thanks to JoBlo.com for the heads-up.)
By Kermonk at 3:48 PM ON 12/09/09
Lynch wouldn't have been allowed to do it his way - presumably that's why he didn't want it.
By jb at 3:56 PM ON 12/09/09
One thing has been proven about who directs GL SW films: they shouldn't be directed by GL (case in point: Jar Jar Binks and Christensen).
By Justo at 4:01 PM ON 12/09/09
Yeah... that would have been weird. Jedi has it's problems but it's accepted warmly for the most part and the stuff on the Death Star during the last act is golden, imo, among the best of the entire series. But it's kinda funny that Lynch had no interest in directing it, which is nice to hear. It's clear he knew he wouldn't have made it the film it was supposed to be.
By Iso at 4:29 PM ON 12/09/09
Considering the unmitigated mess he made of Dune, let's all thank the maker that Lynch got nowhere near Return of the Jedi.
By Narukami at 4:43 PM ON 12/09/09
Lynch is certainly an interesting film maker, but clearly his heart would not have been in this project, and, as mentioned above, given what he did to/with Dune it is probably better that he did not direct Jedi. Lynch is a film maker who enjoys creating the entire film, not simply directing someone else's idea/story/vision.
By -jb at 5:48 PM ON 12/09/09
Lynch says that Lucas showed him "these things called Wookies". He was probably shown the designs for the Ewoks; and Ewoks are not at all Lynch-y.
By GlowGoBoy at 6:04 PM ON 12/09/09
I guess I'm one of the few that actually enjoyed Lynch's doom. Granted, the Sci-Fi version was better (IMHO because it really portrayed Paul as the disturbed man he really was), and the book was even BETTER, but I enjoy the film. I'm just sayin...
By Josiah at 7:42 PM ON 12/09/09
jb, I think that in the earliest drafts of "Revenge of the Jedi" (as it then was titled), the second half of the story took place on the Wookies' homeworld and featured them, not the Ewoks. I'm not sure at what stage the Wookies got shrunk and turned into Ewoks, but it's entirely possible that Lynch's meeting took place before that.
By dhoff25 at 8:36 PM ON 12/09/09
Did anyone see THX 1138. directed by Lucas? Very Lynch-esque
By SighFyeGuy at 8:59 PM ON 12/09/09
@GlowGoBoy : the fact that you don't care enough about DUNE (!) to get the name right speaks volumes about your tastes...of course you liked the movie...
By scottyduke at 9:24 PM ON 12/09/09
A few years ago, a friend of mine and I tried to conceive what Lynch's RotJ might have looked like in comic format. My URL link points to page 1 of 3.
By scottyduke at 9:26 PM ON 12/09/09
By bendroid at 11:36 PM ON 12/09/09
As an avid Lynch fan and a modest fan of Herbert's books, I can admit that the film Dune did not do justice to the books
( visually I found it stunning). There is a darkness in Star Wars that I think Lynch could have done some interesting things with. All that said, all I can say is thank god he turned it down. I think he is best at doing what he is has most recently been doing. Science fiction and Lynch is not a match made in heaven (everything is fine!)
By AngryOldMan at 7:22 AM ON 12/10/09
C3PO's story telling to the Ewoks in "backward speak"... ...yikes....
By noob at 7:54 AM ON 12/10/09
This is of course is all rose tinted nonsense. At the time George Lucas had had a massive fight with the DGA and left the Union. His first choice of director Steven Spielberg was there fore unavailble. Which left him with non union directors to chose from, which wasn't many. And back in 83 Lynch wasn't exactly famous.
By ripper1 at 8:38 AM ON 12/10/09
i know a lot of people dont like the prequals but i was far more disapointed in return of the jedi than i was in a attack of the clones and revenge of the sith . it would have been better under a director who was nt a yes man . ewoks are ten times more annoying than jar jar binks in my book and really ruined the movie .
By max452 at 9:16 AM ON 12/10/09
jb, GL may have done pretty bad directing the new prequels, but he did direct the very first Star Wars, and that was very well done. So you can say he's hitting 2 for 4 when directing Star Wars movies. Revenge of the Sith was good compared to the 1st two prequels.
By Leroy at 2:59 PM ON 12/10/09
The only thing I found seriously wrong with Lynch's Dune was the ending. Unfortunately that rainfall was so stupid a choice that it pretty much left everyone who knows the book with a bad taste in their mouth about the whole thing.
By OkieScribe at 6:04 PM ON 12/11/09
I get a little tired of people trashing Lucas' directing job on the prequel movies. They're all entertaining movies that a great many people happen to enjoy very much. I've also yet to see anything directed by David Lynch that's worth the price of the Jujubes.
By Nick1970 at 7:56 AM ON 12/13/09
THANK YOU, OkieScribe! I am also tired of people constantly trashing Lucas and the Star Wars prequel films & claiming that "nobody likes them", when they pulled in a combined box office total of over $1.1 billion domestically, and when "Sith" won over many respected critics who disliked the first 2 prequels. I enjoyed Eps. 2 and 3, and even Ep.1 had its moments, despite all the whining you see on internet message boards.
As for Lynch, I cannot fathom him being associated with Star Wars in any way, shape, or form...
By jahshem at 1:01 PM ON 12/16/09
Very interesting! I had not idea he was approached. I know Lynch felt really uncomfortable doing Dune, so I can see why he would turn down Jedi. I like all George's movies and all of David's movies.
By booth at 1:26 PM ON 12/30/09
I actually can imagine Lynch doing star wars -- not that he would or ever wanted to. Dune is a good movie -- especially for those who hadn't read the book first; although, Lynch agrees that it sucks and considers it his 'sell-out' movie (he says this in his biography). Personally, I would like to see a dark and abstract interpretation of the star wars universe -- Lynch or Aranofsky, for that matter, may do a great job.
By Anna at 5:31 PM ON 02/12/10
The interview is funny. His agent says to him "do you realize how much money we just lost", "Yeah but it's O.K". add- "but I'm working with Dino De Laurentiis on my next film and he's promised that I will make even more than George was offering".
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Anna:
The interview is funny. His agent says to him "do you realize how much money we just lost", "Yeah but it's O.K". ad...More »