David Lynch, the cult director of Elephant Man, Twin Peaks, and Blue Velvet, announced on X on 25 May that he would be back with something soon, on 5 June to be precise. If all is true, this will be his long-cherished film project, but of course we could be wrong…
Lynch began working on the Snootworld script two decades ago with former Tim Burton collaborator Caroline Thompson, who wrote projects such as Edward Scissorhands and 1991’s The Addams Family. The director has approached a number of distributors in recent years but has been turned down, most recently by Netflix.
Back in the 90s, David Lynch came on Late Night with David Letterman to give a message to the president of ABC, the network that broadcasts Twin Peaks, protesting against the imminent cancellation of the series. Now he is campaigning for a similar cause: to find homes for his newest creatures.
“I don’t know when I started thinking about Snoots, it was after a couple of drawings that the story started to take shape […] I sat down with Caroline and we worked on the script. Snootworld is quite an old-fashioned story, and animation these days is more about surface jokes. Old-fashioned stories are considered groan-worthy: people don’t seem to want to see them. It’s a different world now, and it’s easier to say no than yes.”
Thompson was certainly enthusiastic about the idea: “It takes my breath away how crazy it is. The Snoots are tiny creatures who have a ritual transition at the age of eight, when they become increasingly snooty, get smaller and smaller, and are sent away for a year to be protected. The world is thrown into chaos when the hero of the story disappears into the carpet, his family can’t find him, and he is transported into a crazy, wonderful world”. Lynch, now 78, hasn’t directed a film since Inland Empire nearly 20 years ago, so it would be absolutely bombastic to see the almost-retired master back in the director’s chair. In any case, Lynch has not yet officially retired. He still wants to make more films, which is great news for film fans.