Posted on 11/21/2016 7:35:08 PM PST by DCBryan1
In the history of science fiction literature, few novel series have reached the upper echelon of belovedness quite the way Frank Herbert’s Dune has. The incredibly dense, richly populated space opera is considered by many to be the best science fiction novel ever written, winning all kinds of awards upon its release in 1965. There has to date been a single feature film of the work–David Lynch’s head-scratching, though undeniably visually arresting, 1984 effort–but save a Syfy miniseries in the early-2000s, Dune has remained nigh-unfilmable…until now! Deadline is reporting that Legendary Pictures has reached an agreement with the Herbert estate for the film and TV rights to the classic novel.
Details are scant at the moment, but Legendary Pictures will be turning the novel series into a film franchise, with the hopes of it becoming a full-on saga like Star Wars or Star Trek. The agreement calls for the development and production of possible film and television projects for a global audience.
The novel tells the story of Paul Atreides, whose family accepts control of the planet Arrakis, a desert world which is the sole producer of an incredibly valuable spice. Hence, the world is heavily contested by all the galaxy’s ruling families. After his family is betrayed, Paul goes on a journey of religion, politics, and communing with nature as he realizes his true potential and leads a rebellion to retake control of the world.
Dune has been the holy grail of science fiction film projects. Lynch’s disowned film version was the aftermath of a lengthy pre-production process for an ultimately aborted film by surrealist filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky. That would have been a four-hour affair, with concept art by people like French comic artist Moebius and Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, and starring disparate people like Salvador Dali and Orson Welles. The saga of that woulda-been film is brilliantly depicted in the documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune.
With movies coming out that look as visually interesting as Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and with a plot that seems like an intergalactic Game of Thrones, Dune has the potential to be a true sci-fi opus, and in multiple media, considering the film and television contract. Maybe a Marvel-like cinematic universe? Time will tell. Let us know what you think about this Dune in the comments below!
Gawd did I think he was hawt when I was a teenager. Whew! Not so much, now.
Owning the eights to Dune is like owning the rights to Ebola.
Looks like a big doofus.
And seeing Sting drink the pus out of huge pustules on some fat freak’s face with a straw was classic filmmaking and science fiction (not). (Was that part in the book?).
I saw the movie when it came out in the 80s...........................hated it.
Oh gawd, let us hope not. Even Frank Herbert could not make anything work beyond the first novel. Subsequent books were each worse than the last, and his heirs' attempts have been even more feeble.
Do just Dune right, make a billion dollars, and quit. Please.
I saw this version on HBO back in the 1980s. Later it cane out on commercial TV with a 15-20 minute still art prologue explaining who is on first, what’s on second, Who is whom, for to those (like me) who have never read the story.
The 2000 Sci-Fi miniseries of ‘Dune’ is actually good and doesn’t have Sting in it.
Get the directors cut on DVD.
DUNE PING!
It might be good as a “Universe”. There is so much detail that it would take hundreds of hours to show it all on screen.
Dune will never have the following or potential of the Star Trek or Star Wars sagas.
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune would have been great.
Yea. Pretty Bad.
Dune - loved the book, hated the movie.
I preferred the Ringworld series. Dune was ok but no hard science. More a fantasy make believe thing. Worms the size of skyscrapers traveling through sand? Right....
Ringworld on the other hand did have a basis in science. A bit adolescent, but a fun read and will not make you dumber for having read it. (Dune does)
I stopped reading them when the titles got to long “God Emperor Fuhrer King Prime Minister of Dune.”
Agreed. If Dune chewed up David Lynch and spat him out, its highly unlikely any other director is up for the task. OF course they would have to make Paul a trans lesbian black teen because the source material isn’t progressive enough.
At a time when a lot of science fiction novelists were starting on the "in the future, everyone will be a faggot to some extent" theme, Herbert would have none of it. Consequently Harkonnen (and to a lesser but still obvious extent the bisexual Fedy-Rautha) is morally repugnant in every way.
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