Peter Deming Reveals New Information About David Lynch's Unrecorded Night

      David Lynch’s passing served as a reminder—one that not everyone needed—that his latter years were frequently devoted to pursuing projects that studios, with Netflix being a major one, ultimately rejected. Although they had accepted his pitch for the series Unrecorded Night, COVID acted as a barrier to its further development. As Lynch remarked about Snootworld, another animated project that fell by the wayside, it’s “a different world now and it’s easier to say no than to say yes.” Whether or not Ted Sarandos was genuinely stating that Netflix was ready to produce the series post-COVID (I have my doubts), Lynch’s emphysema largely ensured that, once filmed, the series wouldn’t appear as originally envisioned.

      Among the select few who had the opportunity to experience any version of Unrecorded Night is Peter Deming, who was Lynch’s cinematographer from the often-overlooked TV show On the Air through the third season of Twin Peaks. Before a Film at Lincoln Center screening of Lost Highway on Thursday, I had the pleasure of speaking with Deming. While discussing the nearly ten-year gap from INLAND EMPIRE (on which Deming contributed) to Twin Peaks, a list of unproduced titles known to Lynch fans surfaced: Dream of the Bovine, Ronnie Rocket, and Unrecorded Night. Deming mentioned:

      “Shortly before he passed—around a year prior, as it was before COVID—there was Unrecorded Night, which he had written. I read it, and we actually went on a location scout. Then COVID hit, and everything came to a halt, and it never got renewed.”

      When I brought up various rumors that had circulated about it—whether it was an original series, a series of feature-length standalone episodes, or a continuation of Twin Peaks—Deming clarified:

      “It’s definitely its own original project, and I’m not really sure how it was formatted. It was set to be a lot of episodes because David really enjoyed what he called ‘the continuing story.’ I tried to… you know, I really appreciate feature films, but he stated, ‘I’m not making any more movies. I’m just focusing on longer stories because I love them.’ In fact, with Twin Peaks: The Return, we weren’t certain how many episodes there would be until post-production, as it wasn’t originally written that way; it was conceived as a 550-page film. So how it was edited was truly a post-production matter.

      Unrecorded Night was structured similarly. It took me three sittings to get through it because it was quite dense, but it was definitely not Twin Peaks. It was undoubtedly a fascinating… mystery, I would say. It’s unfortunate. [Laughs] It truly is. Because it would have been great.”

      Though I pressed him for story elements, Deming was wisely reserved:

      “You know, I need to check with [Laughs] Sabrina about this—are we spilling the beans too soon? I don’t want to jump the gun on that, but there’s definitely… I mean, I viewed it as… you know, he loved making films about Los Angeles. He wasn’t trying to obscure the setting. Lost Highway, while not explicit, certainly suggested it. Mulholland Dr. was clear. INLAND EMPIRE was overt. To me, this was another piece in his LA canon, one that blended filmmaking and Old Hollywood a little, and it was just maybe the fourth in that series.”

      As intriguing as all these clues are—a project comparable in scope to Twin Peaks, an LA story with reflections of the city's history—this part of the conversation ultimately concluded there. However, it might not be the end of this narrative; it’s hard to believe that Unrecorded Night will remain an enduring mystery. (To put it plainly, we are prepared to share the full story as per Sutherland’s desires and her first call.) Check back in a few days for my complete interview with Deming.