Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired the North American rights to Frank Pavich’s documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune. Executive produced by Donald Rosenfeld and produced by Pavich, Stephen Scarlata, and Travis Stevens, the film was in the Directors Fortnight section at this years Cannes Film Festival.

Jodorowsky’s Dune explores legendary cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) and his staggeringly ambitious, yet ultimately doomed, mid-1970s film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel “Dune.” The tale of Jodorowsky and his Dune is a fascinating trip through creativity and imagination, a story about the relentless pursuit of a dream, and the necessity of art. In pre-production for over two years, the film was to star Jodorowsky’s own 12-year-old son Brontis alongside Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and even Salvador Dali, set to a musical score by Pink Floyd and art-design by some of the most provocative talents of the era, including H.R. Giger and Jean Moebius Giraud.

“To have my first film distributed by Sony Pictures Classics is a dream come true. I’m incredibly excited to know that we will be working alongside the company that so fully supported such great documentaries like ‘Crumb’ and ‘Searching for Sugar Man.’ SPC has seen that, even though this is a documentary about a never-completed film, it is not a story about failure. It’s a story about ambition and how the power of art can effectively change the world,” said filmmaker Frank Pavich.

Sony Pictures Classics added, ’Jodorowsky’s Dune’ is one of those great documentaries about a true visionary in a place where truth is stranger than fiction. We look forward to bringing it to the American public.