WONDER WHEEL
SEPTEMBER 2017 “Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that’s the truth.”
SEPTEMBER 2020 “What the fuck was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski? It’s unbelievable to me now how those men were held in such high regard, so widely in the film industry and for as long as they were. It’s fucking disgraceful. And I have to take responsibility for the fact that I worked with them both. I can’t turn back the clock. I’m grappling with those regrets.”
First came movie notoriety, then
Oscar noms. Between the two, David Lynch seemed primed for a next-level splice of personal/ popular success. Bursting with world-building potential and mind-expanding themes, Frank Herbert’s sci-fi allegory stirred Lynch in ways
– a gig he rejected – did not. midnight
On a Lynch movie with tie-in toys? Guess. A maverick without final cut, Lynch’s mindset clashed with commercial thinking. “We destroyed in the editing room,” conceded producer Dino De Laurentiis, who imposed a 137-minute run-time. Key scenes fell to studio cuts, requiring expository excesses to help viewers distinguish their Gom Jabbars from their Bene Gesserits. Not that Lynch was much interested in plot clarity. He stayed calm for the huge Mexico shoot, but his focus on worldbuilding over story didn’t suit material needing careful navigation. Mixed effects, odd meteorological twists and Sting’s comical cod-piece compounded the damage.
Despite studio intervention, much of Lynch’s worldview endures: witness the industrial scenery, boil-caked barons and baroque, biomechanical accessories. The sound design and miniatures also impressed, while ’80s soft-rockers Toto’s score is surprisingly strong.
Reviewers raged, audiences preferred 1984’s friskier tentpoles
and Lynch learned a career-defining lesson. wasn’t my movie,” he said, determined that would never happen again. He also remained friends with MacLachlan and De Laurentiis
– and was born.
We have wormsign. After the 2000s’ patchy TV adaps, spice production has been restored by Denis Villeneuve, who might – see the trailer – have managed to adapt the seemingly unadaptable. Impossible? Not impossible.