Won't somebody let David Lynch turn our world into Snootworld
David Lynch wants to make an animated movie called Snootworld, and someone should probably just let him
Photo: Ernesto S. Ruscio
Snootworld is in crisis. Don’t know what Snootworld is? Neither do we! At this rate, we’ll never know because America’s favorite weatherman, David Lynch, says Netflix passed on the project.
Snootworld is one of those unrealized Lynch projects, like One Saliva Bubble and Ronnie Rocket, that the director has been hyping for decades. The fansite Lynchnet mentions that the Eraserhead helmer discussed a script for “an animated film for children called Snootworld” in December of 2003. Twenty years on, our world continues its current Snoot-less state unabated.
Speaking to Deadline, Lynch says Netflix recently “rejected” his script for Snootworld. He wrote the screenplay with Edward Scissorhands scribe and former Burton-whisperer Caroline Thompson, who says the script is so “wacky” it “takes her breath away.” She also provided an actual description of what the heck a Snoot is.
“The Snoots are these tiny creatures who have a ritual transition at age eight, at which time they get tinier, and they’re sent away for a year so they are protected,” She told Deadline. “The world goes into chaos when the Snoot hero of the story disappears into the carpet, and his family can’t find him, and he enters a crazy, magnificent world.”
That crazy, magnificent world is not our own. In Lynch’s estimation, Snootworld is a little too “old fashioned” for modern audiences, which are used to contemporary animation that’s “more about surface jokes” and killing Lois. Snootworld is a “fairy tale,” and, unfortunately, according to Lynch, those are “considered groaners” that “apparently people don’t want to see.”
Lynch and Netflix have been circling each other for the last few years. In 2020, Netflix released what is, at this moment in time, Lynch’s final film, the talking monkey short, What Did Jack Do? Since then, Netflix has been rumored to pick up the next season of Twin Peaks and a new original project from Lynch called Wisteria. However, outside of annual speculation that he will show up at Cannes with a secret project, there’s been no mention of any new film project from the director. Lynch spent much of the pandemic entertaining people on YouTube with various projects, weather reports, and short films.
Ever the optimist, Lynch presses forward, hoping to find these Snoots a home before they become so small they disappear into the carpet.