by Michelle Paster
AFI FEST Daily News

David Lynch, director, INLAND EMPIRE

For INLAND EMPIRE, a Centerpiece Gala at AFI FEST 2006 presented by Audi, AFI Conservatory Alum David Lynch turns his camera once again on timeless beauty Laura Dern.

In Lynch's latest, Dern plays a movie actress who learns her script, based on a folktale, is a remake of a previous film, never completed because the original stars were murdered. Dern also starred in Lynch's WILD AT HEART (1990) and BLUE VELVET (1986).

INLAND EMPIRE also features talent from another Lynch feature, MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001). Justin Theroux and Laura Harring appear in both, and Naomi Watts, who played an amnesiac actress in MULHOLLAND DRIVE, has a voice part in INLAND EMPIRE.

Harry Dean Stanton, who has appeared in three other Lynch features, scores a fourth in INLAND EMPIRE.

"My rule of thumb is to try to get the right person for the part," Lynch told the AFI FEST Daily News. "I always say when you find somebody you love working with, you are looking to see if they are right for the part. And sometimes it happens that they are."

"So it's a double plus when you've worked with them before."

Lynch wrote the screenplay to INLAND EMPIRE as he was marking the film, uncertain where the story might lead.

He'd write a scene, then shoot a scene. The script and the film evolved together.

Laura Dern, left, stars in INLAND EMPIRE by director David Lynch, right.

For INLAND EMPIRE, Lynch was about a third of the way through this process before he saw the whole story emerge.

The writer, director, editor, producer, composer and actor introduces another personal innovation to INLAND EMPIRE. This is Lynch's first feature shot digitally.

"I love digital, and this digital world is a world that allows people to get back to working like a painter," Lynch explains. "You just do it."

"You still need a crew, really good people helping you, but so much you can do yourself now."

With this in mind, Lynch attributes his success to the American Film Institute, where he got his start.

Lynch was accepted as a directing fellow in 1970 and received a grant from AFI to make a 34-minute film, THE GRANDMOTHER.

Over the next five years working in and around AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies (now the AFI Conservatory), Lynch created ERASERHEAD (1977).

The success of ERASERHEAD brought Lynch to the attention of Mel Brooks who recruited him to direct what subsequently became THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980).

The film was a critical and box-office success and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations for Lynch.

"AFI put me on the map," Lynch exclaims. "There I was able to make my first feature film. Without AFI I don't know what would've happened to me. They were saviors."

Other groundbreaking projects followed, including BLUE VELVET (1986) for which Lynch received a Best Director Academy Award nomination, WILD AT HEART, LOST HIGHWAY, the television series TWIN PEAKS, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE, which earned Lynch his third Best Director Academy nomination in 2002.