There are few filmmakers with a directorial style as distinctive and captivating as David Lynch’s. The term “Lynchian” has been added to the dictionary because Lynch’s surreal visuals and dark satirical worldview are utterly unique. Every Lynch movie, for better or worse, feels like a Lynch movie.
Over the course of his decades-spanning career, Lynch’s name has been attached to a number of unrealized projects. In some cases, he’s written scripts for movies that no one would agree to fund, and in other cases, he’s been offered a directing job that he turned down. So, here are 10 movies that David Lynch almost directed.
Return Of The Jedi
After the success of The Elephant Man made David Lynch a household name, he was offered the chance to direct Return of the Jedi. George Lucas was already a fan of Lynch’s film Eraserhead, so he was eager to get Lynch at the helm of a Star Wars movie.
However, Lynch turned down the job, as he felt that he was being hired to direct Lucas’ vision for the film, as opposed to his own. He went on to direct Dune instead. It’s interesting to imagine what Lynch’s Ewoks would’ve looked like.
Dune Messiah
David Lynch’s adaptation of the seminal sci-fi novel Dune is easily his most infamous movie. It was the movie that pushed him to course-correct his career and start working on Blue Velvet. Before Dune came out and its failure was painfully apparent, Lynch began writing a sequel script titled Dune Messiah.
He got halfway through the script before the box office disappointment of Dune made it an impossibility. Denis Villeneuve is currently working on a new film adaptation of Dune that will span across multiple movies and TV shows.
Ronnie Rocket
David Lynch wanted to follow up on his game-changing feature debut, Eraserhead, with a movie called Ronnie Rocket. The heady plot concerned a detective going into an alternate dimension, and it involved a menacing train, a teenage dwarf, and something called “Donut Men.”
At varying stages of the film’s development, Dexter Fletcher (who went on to direct Rocketman) and Michael J. Anderson (who ended up taking a role in Twin Peaks) were attached to play the lead role. Lynch couldn’t get the funding together, so the movie was never made and the director moved on to The Elephant Man instead.
Manhunter
The movie that made Hannibal Lecter a screen icon was The Silence of the Lambs, in which he was played by an Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins, but the character first appeared on the big screen a few years earlier in 1986’s Manhunter.
Before a pre-Heat Michael Mann was hired to write and direct Manhunter, the job was offered to David Lynch, who turned it down.
One Saliva Bubble
In the late 80s, right before they started work on Twin Peaks, David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote a screenplay called One Saliva Bubble about a secret government project that goes awry in a small town. Steve Martin and Martin Short were both rumored for lead roles in the film, but the funding didn’t come together.
In his autobiography, Short wrote that he bought a house on the basis of the income he was supposed to make from One Saliva Bubble, which fell through before he even moved into the house.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 2
Prior to the release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, David Lynch planned to follow it up with a sequel that would continue the storylines from the TV series.
However, the critical and financial failure of Fire Walk with Me meant that plans for a sequel were quickly called off.
The Metamorphosis
In the 80s, David Lynch planned to adapt Franz Kafka’s acclaimed surrealist novella The Metamorphosis for the big screen. He even wrote a screenplay based on the book.
However, there were issues with the budget, as the titular transformation required extensive special effects. Plus, Lynch got cold feet about adapting such a beloved book.
Venus Descending
When Blue Velvet became one of the biggest cult hits of the 80s and reinvigorated David Lynch’s career, the director was in talks with Warner Bros. to helm a movie about the life of Marilyn Monroe based on the book Goddess. The movie was reportedly going to be titled Venus Descending.
Lynch’s script, co-written with Mark Frost in the duo’s first collaboration, told a fictionalized account of Monroe’s final days. For legal reasons, Monroe was renamed to Rosilyn Ramsay and Bobby Kennedy (who, in Lynch’s movie, would’ve assassinated Monroe) was renamed to Phillip Malloy.
Antelope Don’t Run No More
David Lynch hasn’t directed a feature film since 2006’s Inland Empire. In 2010, he came close to helming another project entitled Antelope Don’t Run No More.
Lynch’s script was set in Los Angeles and featured talking animals, aliens from outer space, and a musician character named Pinky. However, the project fell through when Lynch couldn’t get the budget together.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
When the high school comedy classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High was first in development, the director’s chair was offered to David Lynch in an unusual turn of events. However, he rejected the offer.
He found the script to be funny, but he didn’t feel that it was his cup of tea. If David Lynch made a high school movie, it would probably be much more surreal and disturbing than Fast Times at Ridgemont High.