“I’m in”: When hell froze over and David Lynch almost made a comic book movie
It’s hard to imagine a world where a David Lynch-directed comic book adaptation exists, but this very nearly happened in the 1990s.
The filmmaker had experienced huge success in the years prior to this near happening, especially thanks to his hit TV show Twin Peaks, which he had lovingly crafted with Mark Frost. The pair had created this incredible world where the murkiness lurking underneath the fabric of American society was exposed –something he’d already explored with Blue Velvet a few years earlier.
While his movies (well, apart from Dune) had received considerable acclaim by this point, Twin Peaks really elevated Lynch to bigger heights, and now it seemed like anything was possible. Perhaps a manga adaptation? When you consider Lynch’s work, it’s difficult to imagine this ever coming to fruition, but the filmmaker was initially on board, finding this new endeavour an exciting new challenge.
Lynch had adapted a few pre-existing works before, but only Wild at Heart was actually successful. He worked better when he was bringing his own original ideas to the screen, so perhaps it’s a good job that this manga adaptation never went ahead. Who knows if it would’ve been a success?
You’re probably wondering how Lynch ended up being offered a chance to direct a manga adaptation, specifically, a cinematic imagining of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Domu: A Child’s Dream, and it’s all down to a connection he made after wisely turning down Return of the Jedi (thank God). It was here that he met Nilo Rodis-Jamero, a costume designer, production designer, and producer, who, later down the line, had been working with the toy company Bandai on a project. While in the Bandai offices, executives noticed him reading Domu and remarked that if Rodis-Jamero could get Katsuhiro to allow the manga to be made into a movie, they’d be on board.
He thought Lynch might be interested in directing the movie, so he asked his old pal, and Lynch was instantly down. Rodis-Jamero told Slash Film, “We stayed in contact. So when the opportunity to do Domu somehow miraculously happened, I took it to David because this is David’s territory. This is not mine.”
“I was merely a conduit to get things happening. I certainly wouldn’t want to be producing that kind of movie my first time out, so I met with David at Du-Par’s… and I told David the opening scene, and before I could finish the opening scene, he said, ‘I’m in.’”
Nilo Rodis-Jamero
In the end, the stars seemed to align in a way that, while disappointing at the time, evidently worked out in the long run. Rodis-Jamero explained, “David and Propaganda Films’ relationship was beginning to come apart. Propaganda was more interested in my sweetheart, my sweetheart being Bandai. ‘Why did Bandai give you this?’ This being full production, full marketing and prints, and I’m nobody…
Concluding, “They were more interested in getting that deal from Bandai than in making the movie for David and I. That’s really when it kind of started to come apart.”
So, that’s how the project fell through, and a Lynch-directed manga adaptation never happened. Maybe it was for the best, because then we got Lost Highway instead.
