FOSS, Christopher "Chris" F. (b. 1946)
Shot-up Pirate Ship Spilling Spice - concept art for Alejandro Jodorowsky's movie adaptation of Dune
Circa 1975
Montage of line drawing with ink and acrylic paint on art board, with use of collage and airbrush
495 x 650 mm, framed.
“Dune, my Dune, starts with a long shot. I admire the long shot of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, where the camera goes and goes through the street -this fantastic, big, long shot. And then I wanted to start Dune with a long shot -better than the long shot of Orson Welles (laughs). I wanted to go further. And then, all the shot is traversing the whole universe. The camera traverses all the galaxy, and in the traversal of the galaxy you see pirates robbing a convoy of spice” (Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jodorowsky’s Dune, 2013).
This long, sequence shot is indeed what’s shown of the very first page of Moebius’ legendary storyboard, with some panels drawn after Chris Foss’ wonderful original painting. “I’ve got this sort of memory, of coming up with the pirate spaceship over a weekend. It’s been mortally wounded, and all its spice is spilling out of it, and it’s got a camouflage, which matches the asteroids. It was just like a fish : if it stayed very still, no one could see it. I remember seeing that very clearly in my head, you think you’re looking at a rock just here under the sea, and suddenly something moves, and you realize this is an object “(Chris Foss, Jodorowsky’s Dune, 2013).