‘Dune’ by David Lynch: The cult movie filmed at Mexico’s Churubusco studios

The premiere of the first Star Wars film in 1977 was an iconic moment in the history of cinema. Movie studios sought to bring similar stories to the big screen, riding the wave of enthusiasm generated by George Lucas’ story. Universal Studios gave David Lynch — then a young director with only two feature films to his name — the opportunity to adapt the novel Dune, written by Frank Herbert. The result would bomb.

From Jodorowsky to Churubusco

There were several attempts to adapt the story of the planet Arrakis and the young duke Paul Atreides to the screen. Alejandro Jodorowsky, for example, wrote a script based on the novel that was more than 10 hours long. Today, perhaps, streaming platform executives would have proposed a series. But in the 1970s, there was not enough money to carry out the production that would have had Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí and Mick Jagger acting to a soundtrack by Pink Floyd.

Finally, it was Lynch who got a shot at it after his debut feature Eraserhead (1977) and The Elephant Man (1980); production of the film began at Universal Studios in 1980. The Montana-born director chose the Churubusco studios in Mexico City and the deserts of Chihuahua for the shoot, after the idea of Europe had been discarded.

The reviews were poor, and Lynch himself hated what he had made for several reasons: Universal wanted the entire saga to be adapted into a film; the first edit was over three hours long and the studio removed an hour of footage. Lynch later commented that the experience taught him not to give up creative freedom and that he needed to be in control of his projects. Something similar happened to David Fincher 10 years later with Alien 3.

During an interview in Mexico, Lynch said that filming in the country had not been so much a decision as a feeling. Something inside him told him that this was the right place to film. He also added that the Mexican capital was unique and had inspired him like no other city in the world.

Lynch discovers Ernesto Laguardia

On January 15, the director — who was also a painter, weather announcer, musician, and promoter of transcendental meditation — died. He sometimes wore dark glasses because he claimed to see the future and said it was bright. Social networks were filled with messages of mourning. Celebrities and people from the entertainment industry also paid tribute, including actor Ernesto Laguardia.

Laguardia explained how he ended up appearing in Dune. He says he arrived at Churubusco Studios after getting a role as an extra, but he didn’t know for which film. Laguardia sat down to eat at a restaurant on Dune’s location and an American sat down to talk with him. That person was David Lynch.

The role Laguardia played is that of a young man who has a key of sorts torn from his heart by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, played by Kenneth McMillan. The scene is a surreal take on a sex scene. Laguardia claims that after filming the scene and wiping off the fake blood, he knew that this was what he would devote his entire life to.

At the end of the production, Universal left filming material at Churubusco. Mexican actor Alberto Rojas took advantage of it and, together with screenwriter Alejandro Licona, created Dos nacos en un planeta de mujeres (Two dumbasses on a planet of women). This 1991 movie was a sexist, macho film about a planet where there were no men, and women lose a liquid necessary to reproduce. Enter César Bono and Alberto Rojas. The women discover that semen is equal to their vital liquid and use it to procreate. Surreal but in an altogether different vein from Lynch.

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