Although Jodorowsky’s attempt to cast artist Salvador Dali in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV soon fell apart – Dali demanded the absurd sum of $100,000 per hour, and was later asked to leave the production for making “pro-Franco statements” – the pre-production was wildly productive. Giger was generating some quite remarkable designs, including a huge castle that was simultaneously a stronghold and a hideous replica of its builder, Baron Harkonnen, and some beautifully creepy, skeletal chairs. Foss designed some appropriately fantastical space ships, and Giraud had painstakingly drew storyboards based on the hulking Dune script.

Then, after two years of work and the outlay of about $2 million in pre-production fees, Dune fell apart. Its French financiers grew nervous of its spiralling budget, and when Jodorowsky’s attempts to gain some co-funding in Los Angeles failed, it seemed that the director’s Dune had been thwarted by its soaring ambition.

In the best of possible outcomes, Jodorowsky’s Dune could perhaps have been a trippier take on Star Wars – a film that bore several similarities to Herbert’s novel, and whose success in 1977 would revive interest in bringing a Dune adaptation to the screen. It’s also possible, of course, that Jodorowsky’s film would have been just as flawed and commercially troubled as the one made by David Lynch in the 80s. But with the sheer amount of talent involved in Jodorowsky’s Dune, and the remarkable work its artists turned out, it’s impossible not to look back and wonder what might have been.

Although Dune’s collapse left its collaborators despondent in the aftermath – Dan O’Bannon returned to the US, emotionally shattered and penniless in 1975 – the project was indirectly responsible for several happier events. Had O’Bannon never been involved in Dune, he may never have formed a partnership with Ronald Shusett, with whom he co-wrote the original story for Alien. Had Salvador Dali never mentioned the name HR Giger to Jodorowsky, it’s far less likely that the Swiss artist and O’Bannon would have met, either – and without Giger, the Alien creature we all recognise today would never have been born.

Jodorowsky, meanwhile, looks back at the production of Dune fondly. “It was a wonderful failure,” he once said, and pointing to a book of Giraud’s storyboards, added, “For me, the film remains there, and that’s okay.”