David Lynch’s Rabbits is getting an online public release 18 years after it premiered on June 7, 2002, on the director’s former subscription site, DAVIDLYNCH.COM, and was included in edited form on David Lynch: The Lime Green Set (Amazon) as well as his 10th feature film, Inland Empire.
A new 15-minute edit of the material, RABBITS 1, is now available for streaming for the first time in HD in the best possible quality through the recently launched YouTube channel, David Lynch Theater. Since the original footage was about 45 minutes long and given the numbering, it’s safe to assume a second and third part will be uploaded in the near future.
In a nameless city, deluged by a continuous rain, three rabbits live with a fearful mystery.
UPDATE: A new 7-minute part featuring just Naomi Watts titled RABBITS STARRING SUZIE has been uploaded on June 17, 2020. Watch it below.
The absurd web sitcom stars three life-size rabbits played by Mulholland Drive alumni Scott Coffey (also in Lost Highway and Twin Peaks: The Return) as Jack Rabbit, Laura Elena Harring as Jane (replaced by Rebekah Del Rio in the 3rd episode), and Naomi Watts (also in Twin Peaks: The Return) as Suzie. Their conversations in nonsequiturs alternate with long pauses, an unexpected sitcom laughing track, and one of David Lynch’s signature sounds, a distant train whistle. The living room set was built in David Lynch’s garden in L.A., and they shot at night with gigantic film lights. Angelo Badalamenti composed the Rabbits Theme while John Neff did the sound design.
RABBITS 1
RABBITS STARRING SUZIE
RABBITS 1 (Partial Transcript)
Jane sits on the couch, Suzie irons. Jack enters. Applause. Jack sits.
Jane: I am going to find out one day.
Suzie: When will you tell it?
Jack: Were there any calls?
Jane: What time is it?
[Laughter]
Jack stands.
Jack: I have a secret.
Jane: There have been no calls today.
[Laughter]
Jack sits.
Jack: I am not sure.
Suzie walks over.
Jack: A coincidence.
Suzie laughs.
Suzie: Do not forget that today is Friday.
[Laughter]
Suzie: Where was it?
Jack: I hear someone.
Jane: There is something I would like to say to you, Suzie.
[Laughter]
Jack gets up, opens the door, and leaves.
Fire walk with 
This must be where pies go to die.
It isn’t and will never be HD. It looks horrible now as it was back then. same for Inland Empire ????.
Can’t release in HD what was filmed in SD.
Well you can – countless old movies have been released on Blu-ray. It’s just that they will look the same unless they are remastered and/or restored.
Old movies were generally shot on 35mm film, which can be scanned in HD. Standard definition video has nowhere near the resolution of 35mm or even 16mm.
Inland Empire was “up-rezzed” to 35mm for its theatrical release, and while they could certainly scan that and release it in “HD”, it is still going to obviously look like SD. Only so much information was captured by Lynch’s PD-150 camcorder, and no amount of remastering is going to add information that isn’t there. (Unless you’re talking about some kind of machine learning, AI-generated information which will probably be available soon, but I don’t know if we want to go down that road.)
Either way, I highly doubt any of this is ever going to apply to Rabbits.
Indeed, you can’t really release in HD what was filmed in SD.
It is now possible to upscale SD material using AI and it is pretty stunning. However I would never want to see an upscaled version of Inland Empire. I think the SD format is the intended format for it and it would not benefit from upscaling.
this is the same edit as featured on the lime green set dvd!
It’s not meant to be and HD movie isn’t that so obvious?