12 Cancelled Sci-Fi Moves We Wish We Could Have Seen

Okay, so this one has been well mined by the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune which follows the doomed attempts undertaken by cult auteur/ The Holy Mountain helmer Alejandro Jodorowsky to film Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi epic. But before Hollywood reboots the singularly strange 1984 adaptation that Eraserhead director David Lynch released, it’s worth revisiting the dream team assembled for the unrealized fourteen hour version(!) envisioned by Jodorowsky.

The El Topo director tapped Pink Floyd to provide a soundtrack, naturally enough, along with future Alien mastermind H.R Giger for design, and Alien screenwriter and Return of the Living Dead creator Dan O’Bannon for special effects. But it didn’t stop there—the cast was to include Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, Udo Kier, and even surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

Combine this incredible talent with a portfolio of concept art which many have argued went on to inspire everything from Star Wars to Terminator and you have the germ of a film which could have redefined cinemas for decades—only to never be realized onscreen.