FWIW, I've heard from someone who is in a position to know that this was definitely not written by David Lynch, famous filmmaker and artist. (It may have been written by A David Lynch in 1971, just not him.)

Yeah I’m suspicious. There’s no record of him being at that address. The way he refers to “the College” in the letter makes it sound like he’s a Georgetown student. And after hearing so much about Lynch’s early creative work (like Gardenback) it feels odd we’d have never heard a peep about this.

FWIW, they're also selling another copy of Lynch's (to-date publicly unreleased) screenplay THE DREAM OF THE BOVINE, from the estate of Harry Dean Stanton. They include a sample page of the screenplay, the first ever publicly released excerpt from it, AFAIK.
Dumb wordplay galore!

I don't think someone would make up something this specific. And it seems quite a coincidence if a totally different David Lynch were responsible for writing this, and it's all a big mix-up... and yet! That's what I lean towards: two David Lynches. A David doppelgänger.

Anyone else have thoughts?

They claim Lynch sent the script to an independent producer (and Georgetown prof.) in '71 while seeking to stir up interest in it. They include Lynch's purported cover letter; they acknowledge the signature is not his handwriting, but speculate someone secretarial helped him with the cover letter.

If true, it would seemingly be Lynch's first full-length completed script, done between his short THE GRANDMOTHER and the start of his work on ERASERHEAD. I've never heard of Lynch having worked on anything remotely like this, so AFAIK it'd be breaking news.
www.juliensauctions.com/en/items/210...

I was hoping to get a chance to ask Hurley that (understanding that he may well not know since that was before his time) but never got an opportunity, alas.

Which character that voice is supposed to be on the other side of Mr. C’s call is one of The Return’s thornier questions, and certainly isn’t getting resolved in this thread (indeed, its ambiguity is part of the point), but it’s nonetheless interesting to receive new information about it 8 yrs later

That angle is particularly relevant to The Return given its oneiric throughlines.

In Hurley’s case, the fact that he was the Sound/Music Supervisor is of additional salience, given the seemingly critical (if nebulous) role “sounds” play in The Return’s web of meaning.

Lynch appreciated the suggestive resonance of having creators of the film themselves appear as characters—think, e.g., Cori Glazer, Script Supervisor for Mulholland Dr., appearing as the Blue-Haired “Silencio” lady. Or Lynch as Gordon Cole, the dreamer who lives inside the dream.

While fans have previously guessed at any number of performers providing these voices with some technical manipulation (Lynch himself, Sheryl Lee, Grace Z., Al S., Sherilyn F., etc.), I think there’s a certain Lynchian logic in them being Hurley, the TP Sound & Music Supervisor…

Hurley added that there are “quite a number of things” he voiced in The Return, mentioning the voice of Johnny Horne’s teddy bear, but leaving the rest unspecified.

For what it’s worth, my guess is that Hurley also provides the voice for The Evolution of the Arm…

Hurley: “That’s kind of me there. And that was always a confusing plot point to me, because I’m thinking it needed to be Phillip - he’s supposedly calling Phillip Jeffries… It’s so hard sort of figuring out his stuff in general, but I feel like some of those clues are like there…”

More from Kyle (via NPR's Wild Card) re: his last meeting w Lynch:
"He loved a chocolate croissant...So we'd go to Porto's, a great bakery in the valley, & get some croissant there & bring it back, open up the box, & he'd be like, 'YEAH!'...he'd just stuff it in <makes gobbling sounds>. So much fun.

Peter Deming on Lynch's unfinished projects: "In the time I knew him, there were half a dozen projects that almost got off the ground, & I never found out exactly why they didn’t, but I know it’s down to control. If he doesn’t get final cut, he won’t do it."
bsky.app/profile/fate...

Peter Deming on UNRECORDED NIGHT: "We went on one location scout, David hired a produdction designer, & was talking to Laura [Dern] & Naomi [Watts] about parts in it, & then COVID happened.... I know Jennifer [Lynch] & the kids are talking about publishing it as a book."
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Correction, fwiw: the final selling price for all the script copies was actually $760,500. (I failed to realize that the Lost Highway and Wild at Heart lots still hadn't yet come up for final bidding when I posted the initial tweet.)

Finally, some interesting thoughts by Dean Hurley on Lynch's "DIY approach" (where Hurley reveals that he himself is the voice of Johnny Horne's bear saying "hello Johnny, how are you today?").
[Recommend reading the article, linked in QT above, which also interviews Frost...]

Via the same article (linked above):
Dana Ashbrook—"he was aware of his own eccentricity. In [The Return] there’s a scene where I go and talk to Norma...during rehearsal he comes up and pulls me aside and says, ‘hey, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but could you be less weird?’ [laughs]