It’s been only four months since David Lynch passed away, and fans of the director are still mourning the loss. And then there’s the mystery that remains about the project Lynch was developing as his health took a turn: “Unrecorded Night,” a series at Netflix. Just how close was Lynch to starting work on the series, and what was it about?
The Film Stage was able to sit down with Lynch’s longtime cinematographer Peter Deming this week to discuss “Unrecorded Night” and what might have been. And according to Deming, Lynch had completed writing the series, but he and the director didn’t get very far into pre-production before the COVID-19 pandemic and Lynch’s health brought their work to a halt.
“Shortly before he passed––well, like a year, because it was pre-COVID––there was “Unrecorded Night,” which he had written,” said Demind. “I’d read it, and we actually went on one scout, looking at locations. Then COVID hit, so everything shut down, and it never rekindled.”
As for the project’s structure, Deming said Lynch envisioned it as a long series, similar to 2017’s “Twin Peaks: The Return.” “It’s definitely its own original thing, and how it was formatted, I don’t really know,” he explained. “It was going to be a lot of episodes, because David really liked what he called ‘the continuing story.’ Because I tried to… you know, I really love the feature stuff, but he was like, ‘I’m not going to make any more movies. I’m just going to make longer stories because I love the longer story.’”
Lynch’s love of the “longer story” was also how he concocted the third season of “Twin Peaks.” “In fact, “Twin Peaks: The Return,” we weren’t really sure how many episodes there were going to be until it got into post-production, because it wasn’t really written that way,” continued Deming. “It was written as a 550-page film. So how that was sliced and diced really was a post-production question. “”Unrecorded Night” was the same way. It took me three sittings to read it because it was so thick, but it was definitely not “Twin Peaks.” It was definitely a really interesting… mystery, I would say. Yeah, it’s too bad. It really is. Because it would’ve been good.”
As for explicit plot details for “Unrecorded Night,” Deming wouldn’t give any away, except that it was set in LA and dealt with Old Hollywood. “You know, I have to talk to Sabrina about this—are we letting this cat out of the bag or not? I don’t want to be premature about that, but there’s definitely… I mean, I kind of saw it as… you know, he loved to make films about Los Angeles,” he said. “He wasn’t trying to hide the setting. “Lost Highway,” while not implicit, was certainly implied. “Mulholland Dr.” was obvious. “INLAND EMPIRE” was obvious. To me, this was another LA canon for him, and one that sort of mixed in filmmaking and Old Hollywood a bit, and it was just, maybe, number four in that line of products.”
Unfortunately, “Unrecorded Night” as Lynch envisioned it will never happen, and fans of the director have known that since Netflix canceled the project in light of Lynch’s failing health. But there may be hope yet for connoisseurs of the director’s work who want to know what story “Unrecorded Night” would tell. In a new interview with The Times Lynch’s daughter Jennifer revealed Lynch’s script for the series may get published. We are considering offering that as a published piece,” she told the outlet. “It would be very sad if people didn’t get to see it.” Jennifer also revealed that Lynch wanted regulars Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Naomi Watts in major roles on the show. No surprise there: the bond and loyalty Lynch had for the actors he worked with, and vice versa, guaranteed those three would’ve shown up somehow.
But for now, “Unrecorded Night” remains a mystery for Lynch fans, who still mourn his passing earlier this year. Let’s hope the project makes its way to us someday, even if it’s only in published screenplay format.
