The Elephant Man: Commercial success

After the great success that was Eraserhead on the critical and independent film world, Lynch was approached by some executives to be the head of a new project called The Elephant Man, a movie which would tell the story of John Merrick, a man who was born with a facial deformity that shaped his whole life, and Frederick Teaves, the doctor that cared for him and gave him a safe home.

Lynch was interested right from the start with this project, which would combine the darker parts of his work with a hopeful touch of optimism, something he always likes to leave his audience with. The movie was much easier to make than Eraserhead, mainly because of a bigger budget and Lynch's moving to Los Angeles, where most of the filming took place. Big star Anthony Hopkins approached the production early on, to play Dr. Frederick Teaves, and newcomer actor John Hurt ended up being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his incredible portrayal of John Merrick.

The movie was Lynch's first commercial success, and it would not be his last. The Elephant Man created Lynch's main following, a lot of people interested in weird and ironic stories that have a lot of heart and great intentions in them. The movie was nominated for an astonishing 8 Academy Awards, although it ended up winning none of them. Lynch for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, John Hurt for Best Actor, Patricia Norris for Best Costume Design, Stuart Craig for Best Art Direction, Anne V. Coates for Best Film Editing, John Morris for Best Original Score and the movie itself for Best Picture.



One of the movie's most known scenes:


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