Over the weekend came the surprising, and for many, very sad news, that David Lynch and Showtime have parted ways on the "Twin Peaks" revival. The new season might live on, but it will have to be without Lynch’s involvement. The director said he wanted more money from the network to get the scripts in a place where he would’ve been happy. And while we can only guess what Lynch had in mind for his latest installment in the cult series, it may surprise many to know he was ready to return to film for the show.
Indeed, Lynch is one of the filmmakers who embraced digital filmmaking very, very early on, becoming a big fan of being able to turn around projects quickly, and shoot longer takes. "Inland Empire" perhaps represents his peak obsession with the format, with a Blu-ray featurette finding the filmmaker extolling on the virtues of pixels over celluloid (watch below). But now it seems he has changed his tune.
Last fall, Welcome To Twin Peaks picked up on an interview the director did with Agenda Magazine, where he made it clear he was going back to analog. "…we had freedom on ‘Twin Peaks.’ Way more than you imagine. I don’t know how it happened, but there were hardly any restrictions. So it’s not like we’re saying now: ‘Oh boy, we’re gonna really do some raunchy things.’ We’re gonna do the same things, but in better quality. And film remains the best quality," Lynch said. He was really excited to be working back in television.
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"[The show is] for the biggest screen you can get in your house. I’ve made television before. You build it for that. At the time, it was network television: the sound wasn’t good. Now it’s not so bad any more," he said. But alas, his big plans won’t be coming to fruition.
Can "Twin Peaks" continue without Lynch, or should Showtime throw in the towel? Let us know below. And also let us know if you’re glad Lynch is back on Team Film.