David Lynch is working on a film about a monkey?

December 18, 2014
by Matteo Marino
in collaboration with James Woolley

Let’s not monkey around. We have not yet recovered from the extraordinary news of a third season of Twin Peaks25 years later (9 episodes written by Mark Frost and David Lynch and all directed by Lynch himself for Showtime, scheduled for 2016). Nonetheless, our favourite director releases another piece of staggering news with his usual nonchalance.

The Guardian said this:

Although Twin Peaks is taking up most of his time he is also working on something that sounds typically Lynchian. “Right now I’m mostly writing, I’ve got a painting going and I’m building a chair. I love to build things and this is for a monkey film. I’m working with a monkey named Jack and that’ll come out sometime. It is not a chimpanzee, the monkey came up from South America.”

Too many layers of mystery to even begin to comprehend. My mind immediately went to the monkey that we saw in the finale of INLAND EMPIRE along with all the other characters (in the picture above)…

What are you really referring to Lynch?

Jack of course makes us remember the great Jack Nance, who played Henry Spencer in his debut feature Eraserhead and was a regular star of Lynch’s movies. He was a much-loved character in Twin Peaks and features in a fresh deleted scene from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – a scene which could easily have made the final edit if only the film ran for 3 hours. His last movie was Lost Highway, again with his close friend Lynch.

“A monkey film…”. Is it a short series in the style of Rabbits? Another ad? A feature film?! Maybe not. Something we’ll see in the new volume of Twin Peaks ? In fact, there is another monkey in the filmography Lynchian, that appeared blue in Fire Walk with me. At some point near the end titles, he turns up and seems to say “Judy” (it’s a long and interesting history, we’ll have to talk further). Why a blue monkey? A blue rose is a central mystery case in the film so it’s apt for the story to end in that chapter on a blue monkey I suppose. ‘Animal life’ is something mentioned in the deleted scenes too, not linking the characters to some un-evolved violence and savagery though. I feel that Lynch portrays animals as sentient and mysterious beings that point to the true richness of nature. They seem to offer a message which needs to be listened to. Maybe the next volume of Twin Peaks will feature more monkeys, more owls or bears in the woods with many secrets?

Note that the blue flying monkeys of the Wicked Witch of the West, from The Wizard of Oz, Lynch would be highly aware of considering all of the Oz references in Wild at Heart. These are many and may be of some interest to Lynch fans. Red shoes, Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) as a Good Witch, fortune telling and crystal balls. Toto – a dog owned again by our man Jack Nance!

Or… is it a monkey business, a joke?

Meanwhile, I prefer to continue to think that yes, David Lynch is really working on a new film. Of a monkey. Named Jack.

Source: The Guardian