David Lynch is a great expert in the field of often disturbing, eccentric and usually quite dark psychological thrillers – just think of masterpieces such as ‘Blue Velvet’, ‘Lost Highway’ or ‘Mulholland Drive’. Since his legendary cult series ‘Twin Peaks’, we know that despite all the intensity, violence and often unsolved mysteries, it can still be entertaining with a wink.
Like any great, prolific director, Lynch has, in addition to the films he actually managed to make, a long list of projects that he put a lot of work into, but that for various reasons never made it to the big screen. For some it is a real shame that we will never see them. For example, there is the detective story ‘Ronnie Rocket’, set in different dimensions, or a ‘Fantômas’ reboot planned for the mid-1990s.
An adaptation by Lynch of the erotic epistolary novel “The White Hotel” by DM Thomas, written partly in poetry form, would certainly have been exciting for his fans. Especially because the director had already had a script written by Dennis Potter and had already chosen his then partner Isabella Rossellini as the leading actress.
Canceled at the last minute
However, one of the most bizarre and absurd projects, even in the career of the American, who is notorious for his idiosyncratic films, would certainly have been a completely different project: ‘One Saliva Bubble’ was a film for which Lynch wrote the script. with Mark Frost (“Twin Peaks”) and wanted to shoot the film in 1987.
For two of the leading roles. Shortly before filming for “One Salive Bubble” was to begin, Dino De Laurentiis’ production company had to file for bankruptcy and the whole thing was demolished.
That would have been the story of ‘One Salivary Bubble’.
The place of action is the city of Newtonville in the American state of Kansas. Here, among others, the average citizen Wally, the extremely simple Newt, the brilliant Swiss scientist Professor Hugo and a sadistic serial killer named Horton do their daily tasks and errands.
Meanwhile, some guards stand outside a top-secret military base outside of Philadelphia and tell jokes to each other. With his laugh, one of them produces the titular saliva bubble that flies through the air. Carried by the wind to the guarded facility, he short-circuits the computer system used by the scientists working here to conduct experimental research.
A secret government satellite connected to the now broken computer malfunctions and sends gamma rays towards Earth, specifically Newtonville. At this time, all the inhabitants of the entire city, including the four men mentioned at the beginning, mysteriously exchange their fleshly coverings. The bumbling Newt ends up in the professor’s body and vice versa, while the innocent Wally similarly switches places with Horton – chaos erupts in which the lives of everyone involved are thrown completely out of order…
‘One Saliva Bubble’ meets ‘Only Murders In The Building’?
That, combined with the typically idiosyncratic way in which Lynch brings his films to the screen, sounds quite entertaining, right? Steve Martin should have given Wally and his friend Martin Short the Newt. It is not known who the director had in mind for the other two leading roles. Perhaps it was one of his long-time collaborators, such as Harry Dean Stanton, Kyle MacLachlan, Jack Nance, Freddie Jones, Everett McGill, Miguel Ferrer or Michael J. Anderson?
Unfortunately, no real collaboration between Lynch and Martin and Short ever took place. Perhaps the comedy duo should ask the filmmaker to write and direct a few episodes of their joint crime comedy series ‘Only Murders In The Building’, which is currently extremely successful on Disney+. That would certainly be a great way for all three men to honor their canceled ’80s project – and a lot of fun for us viewers too!