David Lynch turned down Return of the Jedi to make Dune

Eventually, David Lynch agreed to direct ‘Dune’ after Dino was impressed by his work on ‘The Elephant Man’, but there was another sci-fi movie that he was in the running to helm.

George Lucas, the visionary of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, had offered David the opportunity to direct the third picture, ‘Return of the Jedi’. However, the director eventually decided it wasn’t for him, and opted to helm ‘Dune’ instead.

He recalled: “I went to meet George Lucas, who had offered me the third ‘Star Wars’ to direct, but I’ve never even really liked science fiction. I like elements of it, but it needs to be combined with other genres. And, obviously, ‘Star Wars’ was totally George’s thing.”