In 1977, a younger and still-unknown David Lynch launched Eraserhead, his surreal black-and-white pupil movie. His hypnotic and nightmarish function debut revolves across the perpetually harassed Henry (Jack Nance) as he navigates a decaying city panorama, a failing marriage, and confronts his fears of being the daddy to his new child mutant child.
Made on a shoe-string finances over 5 years, Eraserhead launched the world to a director brimming with concepts and imaginative and prescient to spare. After his debut, Lynch turned one of the celebrated administrators, consistently evolving but maintaining to his outlined artistic imaginative and prescient. His affect was far-reaching and impactful on filmmakers and followers; whether or not you fell for the lure of the woman within the radiator, discovered horrors behind the dumpster, or spent your days between the Black and Purple Lodge, his passing on January 15, 2025, on the age of 78, is probably essentially the most vital loss within the historical past of cinema. David Lunch was that beloved.
Regardless of his notoriety, Lynch’s unorthodox storytelling and persona didn’t all the time make him a darling of these with the purse strings. For each beloved venture that got here to fruition, many others appeared misplaced in developmental hell, usually deserted. So, throw on “Good Day At present” from his album Loopy Clown Time, and replicate on what might have been, rejoice the person, and will his infinite strangeness resonate far into the past. These are all David Lynch’s tasks that we are going to by no means see.
13
Wisteria
In 2022, rumors started to flow into that David Lynch was premiering a top-secret movie on the seventy fifth Cannes Pageant — his first film since 2006’s Inland Empire. Not a lot was recognized about it aside from it starred Laura Dern in some capability and a handful of different unnamed (however notable) Lynch regulars. It didn’t take lengthy for web sleuths to attach the dots between the mysterious Cannes venture and Wisteria, the unconfirmed Netflix venture that Lynch reportedly had began to work on in November 2020.
Particulars about Wisteria had been scarce, with the one data coming from a publication in Manufacturing Weekly, an trade commerce used to forged movies. In response to the outline, the Netflix collection would have had 13 episodes and have a reported finances of $85 million. The scripts had been registered underneath Lynch and Mark Frost’s manufacturing firm, Twin Peak Productions, main some to assume the collection would have been a continuation of the present. Devoted followers even found a street in Odessa, Texas, known as Wisteria Avenue, which has a diner on it, all of which play an necessary half on the finish of Twin Peaks: The Return.
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Franz Kafka’s seminal novella The Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, an in any other case extraordinary salesperson who wakes up one morning to search out himself inexplicably remodeling into an insect. The story is grotesque, brimming with metaphorical and surreal imagery, and darkly humorous; in different phrases, the proper materials for David Lynch.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, he wrote a script and started pre-production, however shortly realized that doing the supply materials justice is perhaps out of his attain. The finances required to convey The Metamorphosis to life would’ve been unattainable to acquire, and Lynch felt that he was dropping the spirit of the novella within the course of. So, to take care of the sanctity of Kafka’s novel, Lynch determined to not adapt it. On the 2017 Rome Movie Pageant, Lynch mentioned (through The Playlist):
“As soon as I completed writing the script for a function movie adaptation I noticed that Kafka’s magnificence is in his phrases. That story is so stuffed with phrases that after I was completed writing I noticed it was higher on paper than it might ever be on movie…”
11
‘Twin Peaks: Hearth Stroll with Me’ Sequel
Twin Peaks was a very one-of-a-kind present: Lynch managed to bridge the hole between surrealist artwork and pop melodrama to create a bona fide phenomenon. Nevertheless, the groundbreaking present was nonetheless on community tv, and Lynch’s imaginative and prescient started to be diluted by studio notes and censorship. Following a divisive second season, Twin Peaks got here to an finish. However Lynch wasn’t prepared to go away that world but.
In 1992, Lynch launched Twin Peaks: Hearth Stroll With Me, the primary prequel movie in a proposed collection exploring the mythology of the mysterious Black Lodge. Unrestricted by tv censorship, Lynch went wild. Nevertheless, the movie was a field workplace bomb. Sadly, the movie’s failure made Lynch abandon any plans for extra sequels (till The Return, that’s). Fortunately, the movie has been critically re-appraised and is broadly thought of among the many director’s finest works.
10
Venus Descending
Within the late Nineteen Eighties, lengthy earlier than Andrew Dominik’s hugely-controversial Blonde took the world by storm, David Lynch was planning his personal fictional biopic of Marilyn Monroe: Venus Descending. Sadly, for one purpose or one other, the movie was not — and can most likely by no means be — made.
Working alongside his longtime collaborator Mark Frost, Lynch tried to adapt Anthony Summer season’s ebook Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Whereas the novel caught to the details, Lynch wished to go off the deep finish. The movie would have performed quick and free with the details and adjusted her identify to “Rosilyn Ramsey” to keep away from authorized points. It was even rumored to finish with Ramsey being assassinated by a fictionalized model of Bobby Kennedy.
9
Antelope Don’t Run No Extra
Particulars relating to Antelope Don’t Run No Extra are few and much between. It wasn’t till Lynch briefly mentioned it in his 2010 memoir Room to Dream did individuals be taught of it. Set in Los Angeles, Antelope was envisioned to be a non secular sequel to Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Lynch talked about that it could’ve centered round a musician by the identify of Pinky and extraterrestrial visitation. Oh, and animals that may converse. An alien film from the thoughts of David Lynch sounds completely divine. Sadly, Antelope Don’t Run No Extra won’t ever see the sunshine of day.
8
Dream of the Bovine
Earlier than he launched Hearth Stroll with Me, David Lynch tried to get Dream of the Bovine off the bottom, a venture that sounded unusual even by Lynch’s requirements. In response to Far Out Journal, Lynch teamed up with Mark Engels to make what he known as “a extremely dumb, actually silly, meant-to-be-pitifully-bad-quality finances factor.” Engels described Bovine as an absurd comedy about “three guys, who was once cows, residing in Van Nuys and attempting to assimilate their lives.” Lynch has all the time had a delicate spot for cows; he staged a For Your Consideration marketing campaign with a cow to push for Laura Dern to obtain an Academy Award nomination for Inland Empire.
Rumors circulated that the story was to be set in Paris circa 1911 and shot solely in black and white, however Lynch or Engels by no means confirmed this. Lynch satisfied his good friend and frequent collaborator Harry Dean Stanton to hitch the venture, and the 2 took it to, of all individuals, Marlon Brando. Lynch comically recalled the actor’s response to the pitch in his ebook, Room to Dream:
“Harry Dean and I went as much as speak to Marlon Brando in regards to the two of them doing it collectively, however Brando hated it. He checked out [us] and mentioned, ‘It’s pretentious bulls**t,’ and he began telling us about these cookies made out of grass that grows in salt water that he wished to advertise.”
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7
Gardenback
In 1970, David Lynch moved to Los Angeles to review filmmaking on the American Movie Institute. Round that point, he started engaged on the script for a surreal horror movie known as Gardenback. Particulars are scant, however the (very Lynchian) plot centered round a person rising a backyard on his again, and the insect that lived in it. In an interview taken from Chris Rodley’s 1997 ebook Lynch on Lynch, the surrealist director had this to say of Gardenback:
“My first yr on the Middle was spent rewriting a 45-page script I wrote known as Gardenback. The entire thing unfolded from this portray I’d carried out. The script had a narrative, in my thoughts, and it had what some individuals might name a ‘monster’ in it. If you have a look at a woman, one thing crosses from her to you. And on this story, that one thing is an insect.
The financiers thought Lynch was loopy: he had offered them with a 45-page define with no dialogue, standard story, or vital character growth. They instructed him he wanted to overtake the script completely, and Lynch reluctantly listened. By the top of his first yr, Lynch had a completed script. However in his personal phrases, he thought of it “just about nugatory.” He felt his imaginative and prescient had been watered down and refused to make what he thought of an inferior film. Fortunately, Lynch had one other thought he might fall again on: a 21-page script that might ultimately develop into Eraserhead.
6
Untitled Audrey Horne Spinoff
Following the cancelation of Twin Peaks in 1991, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost had the thought to develop a spin-off present that includes Audrey Horne. Their idea would see Horne shifting to Los Angeles to pursue a profession in Hollywood. In response to Frost, the present was envisioned as a contemporary noir. Whereas nothing moved past the pitch stage, Lynch did retool the thought and axed the connection to Twin Peaks, utilizing the seed of Audrey Horne’s spin-off present to put in writing the script for his now-classic movie, Mulholland Drive. He would convey Audrey Horne again in Twin Peaks: The Return.
5
One Saliva Bubble
After the success of Blue Velvet, Lynch would work with Mark Frost to draft the script for a “feel-good slapstick comedy” known as One Saliva Bubble. The movie’s plot centered across the small city of Newtonville, Kansas, the place a lethal virus has escaped a top-secret authorities facility through the saliva bubble of an contaminated safety guard. The virus causes many townsfolk to shift identities with each other, resulting in some comically surreal misadventures. Each Steve Martin and Martin Brief had been set to steer the movie, however for unknown causes, the venture by no means got here to fruition and by no means will. Nevertheless, the “Dougie” storyline in Twin Peaks: The Return shares similarities to the axed venture.
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4
Ronnie Rocket
After the discharge of Eraserhead, Lynch wished to capitalize on his newfound cult success to make one other equally-bizarre function that he known as Ronnie Rocket: The Absurd Thriller of the Unusual Forces of Existence.
In response to an early draft that leaked on-line, Ronnie Rocket centered round Ronald d’Arte (rumored to be performed by “The Man From One other Place” actor Michael J. Anderson), a three-foot tall teenager who beneficial properties the flexibility to manage electrical energy after a surgical mishap. He makes use of his newfound energy to provide music underneath the identify “Ronnie Rocket” and turns into a rock star. There’s additionally a seemingly disconnected story regarding a detective caught on a mysterious prepare stuffed with odd rooms. He’s on the lookout for the doorway to “the second dimension” whereas being pursued by “Donut Males,” who even have the ability to manage electrical energy.
Even by Lynch’s requirements, Ronnie Rocket was too unusual for producers to gamble on. Lynch then shifted to directing an current screenplay to which he might lend his distinctive contact: The Elephant Man. Within the years since Lynch has toyed with bringing Ronnie Rocket to life; Mel Brooks and Francis Ford Coppola had even supplied to assist in producing the film.
3
Dune Messiah
David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune could be a monumental field workplace failure. The film pulled in solely $31 million worldwide off a finances of 40 million, not even recouping manufacturing prices, and any plans to convey the ebook by Frank Herbert again to the display could be placed on maintain for many years. But, for followers of David Lynch, his adaptation of Dune stands as an underappreciated and misunderstood movie. Lynch himself loved the venture sufficient to get to work on the sequel, Dune Messiah. The script was began, set to happen 12 years after the occasions of the primary movie, with Lynch stating it was “extra like a neighborhood story” with “some actually cool issues in it.” A script was began however by no means accomplished.
2
The Lemurians
David Lynch’s pursuits had been wide-spanning, and that is one weird venture that would have been distinctive underneath his inventive imaginative and prescient. The idea of the Lumerians got here from zoologist Philip Sclater, who hypothesized in 1864 that there was a misplaced continent to elucidate the existence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India. Whereas lengthy debunked by the scientific neighborhood, Lynch wished to convey this idea to life, with the story following the autumn of Lumeria and explorers who by accident unleash its inhabitants on the world to trigger some unintentional chaos.
David Lynch and Mark Frost kicked across the idea for the collection earlier than they labored collectively on Twin Peaks. It might have featured “detectives monitoring extraterrestrials,” making for a wild experience. The venture by no means got here to fruition, although, and the explanation was by no means given why it was deserted. The venture by no means made it to the scripting section.
1
Love in Useless
An adaptation of Alan Greenberg’s screenplay in regards to the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson, Love in Useless has lengthy been thought of one of many nice unmade motion pictures. Lynch first confirmed curiosity in directing the movie shortly after he accomplished Elephant Man, drawn to the thought of a person promoting his soul to the satan for stardom. Nevertheless, he was unsure whether or not he had the expertise to direct a narrative tied to Black historical past and tradition.
Completely different administrators could be hooked up to the movie, with Martin Scorsese’s identify as soon as related to the venture. Lynch would revisit the thought of directing it, with studies in 2018 that he was elevating funds to lastly convey Love in Useless to the display. Lynch’s Elephant Man is usually neglected when discussing his filmography, however it presents one other aspect of his artistic genius which might have been nice to see come to fruition in Love in Useless.