Not only did the successes of Jaws and STAR WARS lead to a slew of big budget, high concept adventure film blockbusters but they also opened up the field for any number of ‘wannabe blockbusters’ to form. Few of these are more legendary than David Lynch’s DUNE. Hot off of an Oscar nomination for The Elephant Man, Lynch was recruited by producer Dino De Laurentiis to create the ‘Star Wars for grown-ups’—an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s wildly popular sci-fi epic and a supposed cash cow with the prospect for multiple sequels built in. Of course, this might exist in an alternate universe but, in ours, Lynch’s idiosyncratic vision, De Laurentiis’s aspirations, and the financers conservatism clashed and the project ended up a compromised, commercial and critical failure.