David Lynch

David Lynch And Kurt Loder Plus Transcendental Meditation At Maharishi University? Awesome

Posted 5/13/08 8:18 pm EST by Matt Harper in Hot Stuff, Video

In what turned out to be a weekend that can only be described as (excuse the pun) 'Lynchian,' Kurt Loder and a few lucky other folks from MTV News travelled deep into the heart of the Midwest to chat with the legendary filmmaker and artist David Lynch at the Maharishi University of Management -- the first school in America founded and based on the principles of Transcendental Meditation.

And after dealing with cancelled flights, missing luggage, and 6 – count 'em, SIX – errant tornadoes, we managed to make it to Fairfield, Iowa. Fairfield is a town of less than 9000, but is notable as the home of Maharishi University.

Now while the bulk of our discussion with Lynch dealt with Transcendental Meditation, and the nature of inspiration and creativity, we also touched on one of Lynch's favorite topics; new digital media...in fact, we were taken aback, not to mention pleasantly surprised, when during the interview, Lynch snapped up one of our handheld video cams and decided to shoot a bit of the interview himself.

Lynch ended up shooting for about 45 minutes, so we had to cut it down a bit...but take a minute and check out our first ever David Lynch/MTV News Joint as Kurt Loder interviews the acclaimed filmmaker. After that, click here to read Kurt's thoughts on the experience.

Tags david lynch, eraserhead, kurt loder, transcendental meditation

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'Return Of The Jedi,' Directed By...David Lynch?!?

Posted 8/22/07 2:19 pm EST by Josh Horowitz in News

Oh, what would he have done with those sweet little ewoks?!? The mind reels at the possibilities. The "Star Wars" story is replete with "almosts" and "what ifs." Christopher Walken as Han Solo? Luke Starkiller? Yeah, yeah, we know all of them. But my favorite "what might have been?" has got to be a "Return of the Jedi" directed by David Lynch.

I had a long chat with the insanely personable maverick that is Mr. Lynch the other day and I couldn't help but ask him how close it came to happening. So I posed the question, "How close did you come?"

"Not close at all," he told me. "I had a meeting with George [Lucas]. I like George. It was his thing. I said, "You should direct this. It’s your thing! It’s not my thing."

Okay, so bottom line, was the offer on the table? Did George offer him the gig? "Yeah," he said, before quickly following the statement up by telling me he officially passed the next day.

It's almost too much for my brain to handle. What do you think Lynch would have made of "Return of the Jedi"? Are you bummed he passed on the opportunity? Sound off below.

Tags david lynch, return of the jedi, star warks

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Eli Roth Diaries: The Secret Is Good Coffee

Posted 5/22/07 10:57 am EST by Eli Roth in Guest Bloggers

Eli Roth has been documenting the making of "Hostel: Part II" with a series of diary entries for MTV. Yesterday Roth introduced us to his editor. Today he reveals his secret weapon in the edit room.

The secret ingredient to a good editing room is the coffee. I never -- ever -- drank coffee before "Hostel: Part II." I just didn't like the taste. Even all those years I worked with David Lynch, I don't think I ever had so much as a single cup, and he's a coffee addict. But somewhere along the way living in Prague I got hooked on the European coffee. It's what got me through the exhaustion of the shoot. I had no idea that if you were tired you could drink coffee and it totally wakes you up (I'm a little slow when it comes to some things.)

By the time I got back to Los Angeles, I was craving the European coffee. Luckily, [the editor] George is a coffee afficionado, and has a beautiful 30-year-old Spanish espresso machine all set up in the editing room. He gets the beans from this place in Beverly Hills, and grinds them up fresh. When I get into the editing room, we usually spend about half an hour making coffee. We just grind up the beans and talk about terrible coffee drinking experiences we've had. By the end of the first week we've pretty much gone through all our stories, but we'll then talk about how great it is that we have the best coffee on the lot, and isn't it wonderful how we can drink all this coffee, and -- oh -- wait, we should probably edit. Then we got into the editing room and start to look at footage.

Missed any of his daily entries? Click here for the "Eli Roth Diaries" archive.

Tags david lynch, eli roth, hostel part-ii