Rare Copy of Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ Concept Book Up For Auction
The auction of Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ means you can bid to own a copy of one of the books the director created with Moebius, H.R. Giger, & more.
Alejandro Jodorowsky made a name for himself with midnight movie phenomenons El Topo and The Holy Mountain, the second of which caused a scandal at Cannes in 1973 for its use of religious imagery. With two large-scale films under his belt, he set his sights on a bigger project: bringing Frank Herbert’s Dune to the screen for the first time.
It was to star a wide array of renowned artists: Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine, and Salvador Dalí. The film would also feature music by Pink Floyd. And provocative artists like Jean ‘Mœbius’ Giraud and H.R. Giger created art for the film.
But after planning and financing fell through, all that was left was a massive tome of concept art and storyboards. And now you have a rare chance to own one of those books.
via Christie’s – Art by Chris Foss
Christie’s Listing for the Auction of Jodorowsky’s Dune Art Book
To do justice to Dune’s worlds and characters, [Jodorowsky] envisioned a movie which could be between ten and fifteen hours long. Pre-production work was done by Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, who had co-founded the seminal comics publication Métal Hurlant, and himself one of the most talented and important comics artists of his generation.
Chris Foss, a British illustrator who had made a huge number of illustrated wrappers for pocket editions, including books by Isaac Asimov and Edmund Cooper ; and Hans Ruedi Giger, a Swiss artist well-known for his airbrush work. This trio led most of the preliminary work and were in charge of the artist direction of the whole project -designing the characters, costumes, vehicles and environments.
via Christie’s – Art by Jean Giraud aka Moebius
It goes without saying that a project of this scale needed a colossal budget to come to life. Together with producer Michel Seydoux, Jodorowsky flew to the United States, to try and gather the 5 million dollars needed to kickstart the actual production.
via Christie’s – Art by Jean Giraud aka Moebius
To spark the interest of the Hollywood majors, they brought several copies of a thick, oblong volume. This book gathers reproductions of drawings among the thousands made by Moebius, Foss and Giger, including a near-complete story board of the movie, with dialogues in French and English.
via Christie’s
[The book includes] 11 colour plates, after drawings by Christopher Foss, Jean Giraud-Moebius and H.R. Giger, 1 title-page, 268 black and white plates, mostly the storyboard for the movie, with dialogues in French and English, and some studies for characters, environments and vehicles, 1 page with the printer’s name and address. All the plates are photographic reproductions, printed single-side.
via Christie’s – Art by Chris Foss
via Christie’s – Art by H.R. Giger
Registration is now open at Christie’s with the auction set for later this month. Speculators estimate that it will sell for $30-$40,000. But Dune is well-beloved, and Jodorowsky’s version has garnered a near-mythic reputation. It’s likely the bidding will go higher.
…Or Spend $5 and Watch the Documentary
If the auction is a bit too rich for you blood, we get it. Fortunately, there’s a great 2014 documentary that features a lot of what’s in the book. It’s currently on Amazon Prime for under $5 to rent. It’s very much worth your time.
It seems fitting that the book should come available at this moment. After all, the new Dune film is still basking in the light of its box office success and fresh memes. And earlier this week, Taika Waititi announced his intentions to adapt Jodorowsky & Mœebius’ graphic novel The Incal to the big screen.
