David Lynch may be one of the most enigmatic artists of the modern era. The arthouse director who became a Hollywood legend seems to have a dynamic approach to his public relations as he does to content creation; he is always unpredictable, exciting, confusing, and highly compelling. His particular rabid fan base, sometimes referred to as Lynch-heads, are a loyal bunch of hipsters, often artists themselves, who aspire to achieve even a semblance of Lynch’s unlikely success as an artist.

When exploring what may seem like a simple concept, “What is David Lynch working on?” you find yourself traversing a web of rumors and hearsay that start to feel like you’re lost in one of his movies, trying to decipher reality from a dream. Or perhaps we’re all just traversing some ancient being’s consciousness in the form of characters derived from its incomprehensibly complex alien brain. These are the thoughts you find brewing in one’s mind as you begin to explore Lynch’s particular brand of high strangeness, and it’s a fun place to be.

Aside from concrete knowledge about the 4k release of Lost Highway dropping on October 11, 2022, to summarize news about his next project, something is in the works, but nothing is concrete. Back in April, a tweet from a film festival director inspired buzz about the new Lynch project. It’s titled Unrecorded Night on IMDB, but that may be a codename for Wisteria, a Netflix/David Lynch collaboration. The announcement was later confirmed by Variety, and awareness of this new mysterious Lynch film premiering at the Cannes Film Festival was abuzz.

It was also rumored to feature one of Lynch’s go-to talents, Laura Dern. Similar to Mulholland Drive, it sounded like what was once intended to be a Netflix show had now evolved into a feature film. Lynch, however, denied the reports of the new project entirely in his 4/13/22 Weather Report on his YouTube channel, “David Lynch Theater”.

David Lynch on Netflix

Showing up randomly back in 2020, before the pandemic hit, was a bizarre David Lynch short titled What Did Jack Do? The strange little film features Lynch interrogating a talking monkey named Jack. The two go back and forth concerned with a murder, spouting obscure proverbs and non sequiturs, ultimately breaking into a musical number as the Monkey professes its love for a chicken named Toototabon.

Related: Here’s What Makes Mulholland Drive One of the Greatest Fantasy Films Ever Made

The weird collaboration has likely led to a more involved project between Lynch and Netflix, and if it’s anything like the third season of Twin Peaks, fans are likely in store for something very special. Over the years, Lynch’s bold style has sharpened, and his studio-produced content has never been more fascinating. If you haven’t witnessed his latest season of Twin Peaks, seek it out. It has to be seen to be believed, or perhaps believed to be seen. Somewhere in our realm of consciousness, it exists, but it may disappear the next time scientists activate the Large Hadron Collider.

Theatrical Re-Relases

Fans have also been treated to a couple of re-releases of Lynch’s previous films as part of their promotion for 4K releases. Inland Empire hit select theaters back in April and Lost Highway in early July. Both films have aged in different ways. Inland Empire employed ugly digital filmmaking tools, and while the look of the film is generally gross, it thematically aligns with the story, which is loaded with meta ideas about Hollywood and filmmaking, and the effect real human relationships have on cinema and vice versa.

Related: Explained: How Twin Peaks Changed Television

Lost Highway is fascinating and perhaps even more haunting today than it was in 1997 with its ghostly theme by David Bowie singing about being “deranged.” With cast members like Gary Busey, Robert Blake, and a cameo by Marilyn Manson, the movie has an even more disturbing vibe as it explores themes of multiple personalities in the wake of sexual trauma and murder. It may also live in the same universe as Twin Peaks and has no shame in dipping into sci-fi territory. The appearance of science fiction concepts in Lynch’s work seemed to arrive after his efforts on the 1984 version of Dune, another film rumored to potentially be reworked by Lynch so that fans can finally see what it would have looked like entirely under his editorial control.

Meditation and Creativity

While Lynch is an undisputed master of the cinematic arts and maintains a fabulous level of mystery and secrecy about his movies, there is a visible evolution in his films that is coming from his well of creativity, a subject he has been very public about. Lynch is a spokesperson for Transcendental Meditation, a technique that employs a silent mantra to achieve “pure consciousness.” It is here where Lynch derives many of his ideas, ironically some very dark and abrasive, but he has often made the point that you can depict suffering without suffering yourself. Proponents of Transcendental Meditation will site research that promotes the idea that the more people meditate, the more improved life and society, in general, can be. It’s certainly worth a try.