During his career, American film director David Lynch (1946–2025) had worked on a number of projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction.
Gardenback was a surrealist script about adultery, featuring a continually growing insect that represented one man's lust for his neighbor.
[4][5] While working with Catherine E. Coulson on the prolonged production of Eraserhead, Lynch had an idea for a half-hour television show with the actress to be called I'll Test My Log with Every Branch of Knowledge.
The film's plot would have told the story of a detective seeking to enter a mysterious second dimension, aided by his ability to stand on one leg.
He is obstructed on this quest by a strange landscape of odd rooms and a threatening train while being stalked by the "Donut Men", who wield electricity as a weapon.
[16][17] After the completion of Blue Velvet, Lynch gave his editor Duwayne Dunham the script for a film he wrote called The Happy Worker, wanting him to direct it.
[18] According to Bobcat Goldthwait, whom Lynch had approached to play the lead role, the film centers on a bunch of people who are digging a hole, and when one man questions why, he gets promoted to management.
[18] By 2018, it was reported that The Happy Worker had finally began production in Utah with a cast including Josh Whitehouse, Thomas Haden Church, and Colm Meaney.
[23][24] Its plot centered around the small town of Newtonville, Kansas, where a secret government project goes amok when a guard's tiny saliva bubble shoots out of his mouth and into a weapons system, setting off a chain reaction that discombobulates the entire town when the residents begin to switch identities with one another,[25][26] causing "all kind of wacko hell [to break] loose", as Lynch said.
In the chapter "Marty Throws a Party Just to Sing" of his 2014 autobiography, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend, Short wrote, We bought the house on the basis of the income I was about to make from two pending movies.
Practically the second we signed the mortgage, one of the two movies, a David Lynch film with Steve Martin entitled One Saliva Bubble fell through.
[27]Lynch said he had intended to direct the film through Dino De Laurentiis, who was facing bankruptcy at the time: We had all our scouts, had it cast, was right there ready to go.
[1][2] Before making Twin Peaks, Lynch and Frost pitched a television series they called The Lemurians, based on the story of the lost continent of Lemuria, which sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
[1][15] Around 1990, Lynch expressed interest in directing a new screen adaptation of D. M. Thomas's The White Hotel, with a screenplay by Dennis Potter.
[31] After the successes of Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks, Lynch was approached to direct a live action film adaptation of the Japanese manga Domu: A Child's Dream.
Creator Katsuhiro Otomo agreed to relinquish the right to produce the adaptation on the basis of a treatment by Nilo Rodis-Jamero.
Lynch recruited Michael Almereyda to rewrite his initial version before choosing to pursue a different project: Lost Highway.
[35] He was sent a copy of the book in 1997[35] and had briefly been involved to direct a film of the story, but hated the script that Alessandro Camon came up with, which was written by his then-girlfriend.
[34] In 1998, Lynch initially conceived Mulholland Drive as a 90-minute pilot produced by Touchstone Television, intended to be picked up for a series by ABC.
Lynch was impressed with its earlier game Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure, which he said "delivered an immersive experience to the user".
[37] As early as 2003, Lynch began working with writer Caroline Thompson on a script for a CG-animated fairy tale project titled Snootworld.
[41] In a 2009 interview with Vulture, Lynch announced plans to make a film on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation.
The story is said to be set in Los Angeles and features "space aliens, talking animals, and a beleaguered musician named Pinky."
[45] In 2024, Lynch announced that he could no longer direct projects in person due to emphysema, but expressed hope that his screenplay for Antelope Don't Run No More would be picked up.
[46] According to Lynch, he was in discussions with musician Kanye West to direct a music video of his song "Blood on the Leaves" from the 2013 album Yeezus.
"[44] After the airing of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017, Lynch stated that it was too early to say regarding a potential follow-up season but added that if made, it would not be for at least four-and-a-half years.
[50] As early as February 2020, rumors began circulating that Lynch was in the process of casting an upcoming limited series based at Netflix.
[51][52] In March, a casting note resurfaced that said the new project's lead would be an "actress with dark hair in their mid to late 20s" and that the role would require "tasteful nudity".
[56][51][52][57] Subsequently, frequent Lynch collaborators Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern dropped hints that a new project was in the works.