David Lynch Seeks Backers for ‘Snootworld’ Animated Project

Four-time Oscar-nominated writer-director David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man Twin Peaks) is seeking financing for an animated fantasy-adventure project titled Snootworld. The celebrated filmmaker has been developing the script for two decades with writer Caroline Thompson (The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family [1991], Welcome to Marwen).

Lynch and Thompson revealed more details of the plot to Deadline, as well as sharing that Netflix has just passed on the pitch. This Lynchian fairytale centers on the Snoots — tiny creatures who undergo a ritual transition when they turn eight, at which time they become even tinier for a year and must be sent away for their own protection. This micro-rumspringa goes awry for the hero of the story, who disappears into the carpet and enters a “crazy, magnificent world,” according to Thompson.

“I don’t know when I started thinking about Snoots, but I’d do these drawings of Snoots and then a story started to emerge. I got together with Caroline and we worked on a script. Just recently I thought someone might be interested in getting behind this so I presented it to Netflix in the last few months but they rejected it,” Lynch explained to the trade. “Snootworld is kind of an old-fashioned story and animation today is more about surface jokes. Old-fashioned fairy tales are considered groaners: apparently people don’t want to see them. It’s a different world now and it’s easier to say no than to say yes.”

[Source: Deadline]