Earlier today, a group calling itself Spice DAO tweeted that they were the proud owners of an original Jodorowsky’s clit book, the compendium of concept art and notes that included the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s convicted attempt to get a Dune films made in the 1970s. Spends much more than it’s worth, all in an attempt at crypto-sham.
Became (recently) famous by a 2014 documentary about the project, the film’s attempts to marry Moebius, Chris Foss and HR Giger’s iconic art styles, along with heavy doses of batshit crazy theatrical surpluses from Jodorowsky himself, have given the tom a cult-like status among Dune fans.
The thing is, there is not a single book. Several copies had to be made at that time to be shared between different production members and managers, and it is estimated that there are still about ten copies out there in the wild. One sold three years ago for only $ 42,500.
Which brings us to Spice DAO, who last year bought a copy at auction for € 2.66 million, which is approx USD 3 million. Earlier today, a few months later, the group tweeted this incredibly ambitious mission:
This is the part where I tell you that Spice DAO is a crypto hustle (there were quarrels going on with the auction itself you can read more about at Thatzzfeed), by using the preservation of the book as a nice excuse to sell $ SPICE tokens to people whose only return—apart from the speculatively driven “value” of the token itself– will be a chance to vote on what’s actually happening with the book.
Which will not be much, because they can not sell everyone on making it public, because it already is. The book was scanned and photographed in 2021, and is available to everyone to read and enjoy right now, without having to spend millions on auction or contribute to a crypto scam (UPDATE: I’ve since been told that this existing upload does not include every single page, so maybe there is some little good that can come out of this). And the “original animated series” is even stupider, because if it’s too close to Herbert’s story and / or Jodorowsky’s vision, they’ll be shut down by lawyers. They only bought a copy of a book, not the rights to the project, and if it is only loosely based on it, then why should they buy the book?
Leaving the team with … a copy of the book. Good luck voting on who should have it at home on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, guys.
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