Alejandro Jodorowsky

Is a chilean filmmaker who tried to make the movie "Dune" first. I discovered who he was when somebody in toronto was telling me about who he was. He recruited, H.R. giger, Jean Giraud alias Moebius, Salvador Dali, Dan O Banon, and Pink floyd to name few to make this movie. Hollywood abandoned the project saying it was too french. Later, the visual aspect of Star Wars strangely resembled the style of Jodorowsky's Dune project. To make Alien, they called Moebius, Foss, Giger, O'Bannon, etc. The project signalled to Americans the possibility of making a big show of science-fiction films, outside of the scientific rigour of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In 1970 he directed El Topo, a deranged peyote western that some have interpreted as a metaphor for the Old and New Testaments. It starred himself as a cold-blooded gunslinger in rabbinical black and his son Brontis, buck naked beneath a Stetson hat. El Topo eventually came to the attention of John Lennon who hailed it as a counter-culture masterpiece. Lennon introduced the film in New York, where it later played in special midnight screenings for almost a year. He also convinced Klein to stump up $1m for Jodorowsky's ambitious next production. And that's where the trouble began.

http://www.hotweird.com/jodorowsky/dunestory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Jodorowsky

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2050577,00.html

I find this all very interesting cause, Im chilean, and I have never heard of this guy till now.