Paul Doesn’t Die.

All Fathers Give Me Strength.

The Dwarf :
You understand, Boy?
You're about to take the full force of A Star.
It'll KILL You.


Only if I Die.

The Dwarf :
Well… Yes.... That's what 

"Killing You", means.

When Paul get killed, 

he doesn't die because... 

The Messiah is all The Humanity, 

can get enlightened. 

In The End, His Mind is 

the mind of every person. 

He's a Plural Being :

“I am The Others.”

“The Others are Me.”

And then, if the whole humanity get enlightened... The Earth changed. 

The Planet of Sand... start to grow plant, animals, be like a paradise. 

Dune is a Messiah of The Planets 

because is a planet with Consciousness. 

With the same consciousness of Paul. 

And The Planet go to The Universe... to illuminate the other planets. 

I changed The End of The Book, evidently! 

In the book, it's a continuation. 

The Planet never changed. 

Is not awake, with a Cosmic Consciousness. 

It's not a Messiah, The Planet. 

I did that. It's different. 

It was My Dune. 

When you make a picture, 

you must not respect The Novel. 

It's like you get married, no? 

You go with the wife, white, 

the woman is white... 

you take the woman, 

if you respect the woman, 

you will never have Child. 

You need to open The Costume and to... To rape The Bride. 

And then you will have Your Picture. 

I was raping Frank Herbert, raping, like this! 

But with Love, with Love. 

And then I came with that. 

It was such a beautiful object. 

So well done and at the time, 

there were no photocopies. 

It was just photos of each drawing. In color... so well done... with so much detail about the costumes, 

about the techniques used. 

Every studio have 

one book like this. 

Every studio. 

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal, 

everything, all them... 

Michel Seydoux give a book like that. 

This approach was chosen precisely because... 

I was thinking they might have a certain distrust of Jodorowsky. 

But since we were showing the camera angles, 

since we explained each scene... 

the way we wanted to film it... 

they should have been relieved. 

But They weren't. 

It wasn't enough. 

In Los Angeles, I wasn't optimistic. 

The thing is that sometimes The French and The Americans... 

have difficult relationships, you know. Well, we have had. 

We were almost at the finish line,

 but we had to find the last $5 million. 

The film cost $15 million. 

Well, we estimated it as $15... 

We had been invited to Walt Disney studios by the chairman of the board. 

He looked through the project and said: 

"This is a wonderful project...

but it is like The Concorde. 

It's an exceptional plane, but over here, never!" 

And there I said to myself 

that we were going to face a lot of problems. 

They always received us in a very friendly way... 

but it was always the same answer. 

When we would give them The Book, they were very impressed. 

They had never seen anything like it. 

Each time, they would tell us, 

"It's superb. It's very well-constructed.

You've solved the technical problems of those special effects. 

It's economically reasonable. 

But we don't get 

Your Director." 

Hollywood did not visualize science fiction that way. 

It was in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or in small B movies. 

But a huge movie, that would cost millions of dollars with all the effects. 

They did not conceive of that. 

Maybe it was a bit long as well. 

Maybe the film was a bit too long. 

They asked me to make a picture one hour and a half, for the theaters. 

And myself, 

"No, why the time?

I will make a picture of 12 hours! 

Or 2O hours!” 

The totally outrageous side of Jodorowsky, 

especially after The Holy Mountain and El Topo

did not give them faith that he could lead this very ambitious project. 

Because $15 million in the middle of the '70s was a lot of money. 

And that was Their Answer, 

even though they found everything else to be perfect. 

Everything was Great, 

except The Director. 

You have to be like A Poet. 

Your Movie must be just as 

You Think of It and just as You Want It. 

Do not take comments to change this or that 

from this person or the other. No! 

The Movie has to be just 

Like I Dream It. 

The Picture need to be exactly as I am dreaming the picture. Is a dream. Don't change my dream. This system make of us slaves. Without dignity. Without depth. With a devil in our pocket. This incredible money are in the pocket. This money. This shit. This nothing. This paper who have nothing inside. Movies have heart. Have mind. Have power. Have ambition. I wanted to do something like that. Why not? Very disappointed. Very disappointed because we all believed in it. I believed in it. Now, this is my take on it... but I think he didn't feel like... doing something else after such a project... which was the project of his life, I believe. That's my feeling. 

I think that the humiliation that Alejandro Jodorowsky suffered, in not having been chosen, in having been eliminated for being too original, being too surrealistic…

that is a permanent injury. 

I think that Jodorowsky 

carries that in his heart for life. 

I was convinced that it would be something Great. 

But then Dino De Laurentiis' daughter came along 

and took the project away from us... 

and gave it to David Lynch. 

And when I heard that 

David Lynch will direct that... 

I have a pain because 

I admire David Lynch. He can do it! 

He is the only one in this moment who can do it and he will do it! 

I suffer because was My Dream. 

Another person will do that... 

maybe better than me. 

And then when the picture, they will show the picture here... 

I say I will not go to see that 

because I will die. 

And My Sons say, 

"No, We are Warriors. 

You need to come and to see that." 

And then they take me, like an ill person 

I came to the theater. Even I think I will cry. 

And I start to see the picture...

and step by step, 

step by step, 

step by step... 

I became happy because 

the picture was awful! 

Is a failure! 

Well, it's a human reaction, no? 

Is not beautiful, 

but I have that reaction. 

I say, "Is not possible. Is not David Lynch because he is a big artist." 

Is The Producer who did that. 

“I've never seen the movie 

and I never will.”

From this supposed failure, 

come a lot of creation. 

In The Life, thing come, you say "YES." 

Thing go away, you say "YES." 

We don't do Dune? “YES!”

That is, “YES, We Don't Do it!”

And then so what? And then so what? Dune is in the world like a dream, but dreams change the world also. 

Dune was…. Dune is Like Paul —

It’s Throat was Cut,

But it Didn’t DIE.

I think it was a guide. A guide for some. In any case, I am convinced that our storyboard... made the rounds in the halls of Hollywood. I can't imagine that isn't the case. It pleases me to imagine that. You always have to see the positive. Giger. He make the monster of Alien. Why he make the monster of Alien? Because Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon create Alien. They take Moebius, they take Giger, Foss. And Hollywood start to use my group. Was very fantastic. And then Moebius say to me, 

"What you will do? You will die?" 

No, I will not die. For me to fail is only to change the way. If we don't do that... the Dune we was doing is... The roots are the Dune of Herbert. But this Dune is us. Is the optical. Is a creation. And then, I will use everything I put in Dune to make comics. I say to Moebius, "Why we don't do a comic?" And I start to dictate The Inca/. A lot of images that are in here are in here. And then I find an Argentine, a Spanish, Juan Gimenez. And there I make all the spaceship I design for Dune are in The Metabarons. Even the Duke Leto. I made him castrated by a bull... and we find the sorcerer who will take a drop of his blood... in order to make the child. I did it here, is here, like I was shooting! I did it. I start with Dune, but I go farther, no? Farther. I continue and I did it, my work. I think Dune will be fantastic if somebody take this script... even if I am not alive... and do a picture in animation. 

Now is possible. I can die, 

They can do My Picture. 

I have 84 years, but I am still creating. I am not [ groaning Old Man-noises ]

All my life I create, and is more and more and more.

 The Mind is like A Universe. 

It's constantly expanding. 

Like The Universe, exactly like The Universe, open the mind. The opening of the mind is every day, is open. 

That was this picture. 

Open the mind of all the persons who worked there. From the producer to the artists. From the workers, for every one was an opening of the mind, this work. 

Was ambitious, but not too. 

Was ambitious. 

Myself, I have the ambition 

to live 300 years. 

I will not live 300 years. 

Maybe I will live one year more. 

But I have the ambition. 

Why you will not have Ambition? Why? 

Have The Greatest Ambition Possible. 

You want to be Immortal? 

Fight to be Immortal. Do it. 

You want to make the most fantastic art of movie? Try. 

If you fail, is not important. 

We need to Try. 

Dreams are Messages 

from The Deep. 

My Planet Arrakis is so beautiful when The Sun is low. 

Rolling over The Sands, 

you can see Spice in The Air. 

At nightfall, 

the Spice harvesters land. 

The Outsiders race against time 

to avoid The Heat of The Day. 

They ravage Our Lands in front of Our Eyes. 

Their Cruelty to My People 

is all I've known. 

These Outsiders, The Harkonnens, came long before I was born. 

By controlling the Spice Production they became obscenely rich. 

Richer than The Emperor himself. 

Our Warriors couldn't free Arrakis 

from The Harkonnens, but one day, 

by Imperial Decree, They were gone. 

Why did The Emperor 

choose This Path? 

And who will Our Next 

Oppressors be? 

The Duke Paul

The Duke Paul

of House Atreides of Caledan

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

 

"In MY Version, The Duke Leto... he is a castrato --- castrated. 

[ from Bull-Fighting, having been gored by The Beast of The Labyrinth of The King Minos. ] ​

And Then -- 

HOW He Will Do, A Son?

And Then, His Wife...

a MARVELOUS Woman, 

a WISE Woman... 

and The Guy have A Love, A Cosmic Love when He see This Woman. 

And how He will make A Child? 

And she take a drop of His Blood... 

and She CHANGE The Blood into Semen... 

and then we see The Drop of Blood going inside The Vagina, The Uterus... 

and we will follow The Blood... 

The Blood coming and go inside The Ovum and explodes there. 

She get pregnant with 

A Drop of Blood. 

That's What I Did. 

What will have if You are NOT The Son of a Sexual Pleasure, but of A SPIRITUAL Pleasure? 

And from This Spiritual Love, 

He Will create PAUL. 

Paul was A Young Boy... 

but is not 

A NORMAL Boy. 

Was A Mutant. 

With A Big Soul and Strength. 

Where I will find That Boy....? 

My Son. 

El Topo : 

"Today You are 7 Years Old -- 

Now You are A Man  : 

Bury Your First Toy 

and Your Mother's Picture." 

I work with him in El Topo, 

now he have 12 year old. 

I say, "You Will make Paul, 

but You need to prepare as A Warrior." 

 

Brontis Jodorowsky :

"So he said one day, we're going to make Dune, and you're going to play The Part of Paul, and....

You're Going to Have to Prepare."

I prepare My Son, to do The Role exactly as The Duke Leto prepare His Son. 

 

Brontis Jodorowsky :

So here, he is going to have to learn Karate, and make acrobatics, and....

Your Mind has to develop, a LOT --

You know, he wanted me to 

BE The Character.

 

I find A Teacher for Him. 

I have A Very STRONG person... 

Jean-Pierre Vignau. 

Jean-Pierre : 

"When We started, He was 12. 

There I trained Him in Karate, Karate Jujitsu, Japanese style. 

That's all the fist-foot techniques, joint locks, floor pins, standing pins,  

a combination of Karate, Judo, Aikido and Atemi-Jitsu."

He learn How to Fight with : 

His Hands; with Knife; 

with Swords -- 

He learn ALL that. 

And he was READY to do Paul 

as A Real "Paul." 

Jean-Pierre :

"I trained Brontis six hours a day, seven days a week for two years. "

 

Brontis Jodorowsky :

 That was PAINFUL, 

and Jean-Pierre, he has No Mercy. 

No, really -- we worked to get ahead, no mercy.

And all the person say to me, 

"But What You Did?

But WHY You are Trying 

to Change The Mind of [A] Child and to make 

A Superior Person?" 

I say, "No, I was only awakening The Creativity." 

I open His Mind. 

That's What I Was Doing. 

I don't know if I change His Life..... 

NOW, I am Thinking, 

"Why I DID That? Sacrifice My Son." 

But in that time, I say, "If I Need to Cut My Arms [off] in order to make That Picture, I Will Cut My Arms -- I Will DO It.”

I was believing that to make A Picture, who will Give A Mutation to The Young Minds... was Sacred. 

You NEED to Sacrifice Yourself. 

I was even ready to die doing that.

“ Gerard Way, the lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance, was a very different kind of entertainer, a New Jersey art-punk rocker who’d been an intern at Vertigo back in the days of The Invisibles and a fan of my Doom Patrol run, although we’d never crossed paths.

In mid-2006, with Final Crisis on my mind, I caught the video for his band’s song “Welcome to the Black Parade,” a searing slice of punk psychedelia I was primed to like anyway. What really made me sit up were the outfits the band was wearing.

 

  Dressed in black-and-white marching band uniforms as they led a procession of sexy walking dead through a bombed-out city, My Chemical Romance looked like a glamorous postmortem Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They had fused the images of two opposites — the tough soldier and the frail emo kid — to create an image of what was to come. Nor was the sound morbid or dark; it was triumphal, chiming, imperial rock. The new psychedelia would learn to make friends with Darkness. It would come from the Goth and alternative frontiers of the last twenty years into the mainstream, laughing at cancer as it put a beat to the Dance of the Dead and began to have fun again, however dark that fun might seem to grown-ups.

 

  That fall, I listened to The Black Parade over and over and over again, to inspire cosmic mortuary scenes for Final Crisis and Batman’s mental breakdown. MCR had shown me a picture of the new superhero, posttraumatic, postwar, the hero with nothing left to believe in. The supersoldier was home from the front, jumping every time a car backfired, staring at his hands.

 

  Neil Gaiman put me in touch with Gerard, and we met in Glasgow before a gig, forming an instant connection. He led a new young generation of musicians who had grown up with superhero comics and had no qualms about saying so. He walked the walk too, with Umbrella Academy, his own award-winning re-creation of the superhero formula with artist Gabriel Ba. It was a kaleidoscopic tour de force. There was no shaky start, no cramming of balloons with words (a common tyro error), and none of the familiar missteps that dogged so many other celebrity-fan forays into the comics biz. Umbrella Academy was the end result of years of reading and thinking about superheroes and science fiction: Funny, scary, cerebral, arty, and violent all at the same time, it harvested all the fruits of Gerard’s own “iconography tree.” The heroes of Umbrella Academy were a group of outsider kids who grew up to be the world’s greatest superheroes. It was the story of his band. It was my story too. It was a premonition of where we were all headed.

 

  These days, it’s no longer enough to be a star or even a superstar. Today even the most slender and ephemeral talents are routinely described as “legends.” There’s no need to slay ten-story sea beasts, endure complex and life-threatening quests or epic military campaigns: Simply release a couple of dodgy records or do some stand-up, and you too will be elevated to the ranks of the mythical King Arthur, heroic Lemminkainen, or mighty Odysseus. You too will become legend.

 

  With our superlatives and honorifics devalued so that star, legend, and genius will suffice as descriptors for any old cod with half a good idea he stole from someone else, what lies next on the upward trajectory of human self-regard from star to superstar to legend?  

 

Once upon a time, a star was an individual of exceptional sporting, musical, or acting talent. 

 

Then it became every child who could grip a crayon and scrawl a daisy for Mother’s Day. 

 

When we all became stars, stars became superstars to keep things straight, but they were swimming against the tide. In a time of Facebook and Twitter, where everyone has a fan page, when the concept of “genius” has been extended to include anyone who can produce a half-competent piece of art or writing, where is there left to go but all the way? 

 

We may as well crown ourselves kings of creation. Why not become superheroes? Supergods, in fact. Isn’t it what we’ve always known we’d have to do in the end? Nobody was ever going to come from the sky to save us. No Justice League; Just Us League.

 

  Back in 1940, Ma Hunkel, the Red Tornado, was the first attempt to depict a “real-life” superhero in comics. Not a spaceman from Krypton, not a billionaire playboy with a grudge, Ma had no powers except for her formidable washerwoman build. She wore a homemade costume to dish out local justice in the stairwells and alleyways of the Lower East Side in some aboriginal memory of the early DC universe.

 

  She was joined by characters like Wildcat, the Black Canary, the Mighty Atom, the Sandman, and other tough but good-hearted vigilante crime fighters who took to the mean streets in nothing but their underwear. They had no special powers, just fists, and an attitude — at best, a gun that shot darts or gas or bees.

 

  Seventy years after Ma Hunkel, sixteen-year-old Dave Lizewski, the hero of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass, asked the question “WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO BE PARIS HILTON BUT NOBODY WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO?” Leaving aside the cynical response that nobody in their right minds wanted to be Paris Hilton, Dave’s question had already been answered by a handful of brave souls, real people in the real world who dress up in capes and masks to patrol the streets and keep people safe. You can read all about them online if you type “real world superheroes” into a search engine. They even have their own registry, like Civil War veterans who fought on Iron Man’s side.

 

  The TV and film hopefuls, the half-baked actors, are easy to spot. But to the others, fierce behind homemade masks and hoods and helmets, the superhero’s calling is as important as religion, or at least as important as the youth cult demographic you conformed to at school. They are The Future.