Script For Unreleased David Lynch Work Sparks Bidding War at $4.5 Million Estate Auction Event

David Lynch’s fans showed just how much his work meant to them this week. At an estate auction held at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel, over 450 personal items from the late director’s collection were sold. The event, run by Julien’s Auctions in partnership with Turner Classic Movies, pulled in more than $4.5 million in total.

The highest bids of the day went to two pieces: a script from Lynch’s 1997 film Lost Highway and a group of screenplays for his long-abandoned movie idea Ronnie Rocket. Each sold for $150,000.

These screenplays are part of what fans and film lovers consider one of Lynch’s biggest “what ifs”—a strange and surreal film he tried for years to make but never did.

Lynch first came up with Ronnie Rocket in the late 1970s. He described it as being about “electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair.” Despite returning to the project again and again, it never moved into full production.

In a 2013 interview with writer David Breskin, Lynch said he still hadn’t let it go. “No, no, no, no, never, not in a million years,” he said when asked if the project was dead. “I’m waiting for a time where I don’t really care what happens, except that the film is finished.”

An Kroeber, the widow of Lynch’s longtime sound designer Alan Splet, said Lynch had worked on the story over many years. “Ronnie scripts have gone through all sorts of permutations,” she said. “I suspect that Ronnie Rocket is David’s most thought-about story.”

The auction wasn’t just about rare scripts. Fans also paid high prices for Lynch’s personal belongings. A print of his first film Eraserhead sold for $40,000. His director’s chair went for $70,000. One buyer grabbed a script from Mulholland Drive for $98,000. Even his espresso machine brought in $35,000, a nod to his well-known coffee habit.

There were also items from his popular series Twin Peaks. The red curtain and black-and-white floor from the show’s famous Black Lodge scene sold for $25,000. A framed photo of a nuclear explosion—seen in the office of Lynch’s character Gordon Cole—was bought for $35,000.

The collection included cameras, props, home goods, books, and even old coffee machines. Many bids came in before the auction officially began, with over $1 million already pledged online.

Catherine Williamson from Julien’s Auctions said the turnout and prices show how deeply people connect with Lynch’s work. “Every object in this collection served as a window into Lynch’s surreal and uncompromising creative world,” she said in a statement. “The global response to the auction speaks not only to the cultural importance of his legacy, but to the profound admiration and reverence he inspires among fans, collaborators, and collectors alike.”

This auction didn’t just honor Lynch’s work. It showed how much of a mark he left on film, television, and art. His fans didn’t just watch his movies—they felt them. And now, some of them own a piece of that legacy.

I think it’s amazing how Lynch’s stories continue to reach people, even through old scripts and props. It also makes you wonder what Ronnie Rocket could’ve been if it had made it to screen. Would you have watched it? Let us know what you think in the comments.