The last time a major Hollywood studio Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel Dune hit the big screen, it didn’t go so well. Director David Lynch was bombarded with notes and, at least on some cuts, he had his credit replaced with “Alan Smithee,” the name directors use when they disavow one of their films.
Unsurprisingly, this behind-the-scenes drama ended with a movie that was poorly reviewed and failed at the box office. Legendary Pictures is giving it another crack with Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve, the saving grace of modern science fiction. Here is everything we know (so far) about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.
It’s a passion project for Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve has such care for his craft that you’d think all of his movies were passion projects, but his new adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic actually is. When Villeneuve was making Arrival and Blade Runner 2017 back-to-back and an interviewer for Variety asked him about his attachment to the science fiction genre, he said, “I’m always looking for sci-fi material, and it’s difficult to find original and strong material that’s not just about weaponry. A longstanding dream of mine is to adapt Dune, but it’s a long process to get the rights, and I don’t think I will succeed.”
The cast is filled with A-listers
The cast of Dune includes a bunch of today’s biggest stars. Timothée Chalamet, the indie darling who starred in Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name, and Rebecca Ferguson, who has played the female lead in the last couple of Mission: Impossible movies, are playing the lead roles of Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica, respectively.
Oscar Isaac is the third-billed star, and whether he’s in a big-budget spectacle like Star Wars or a low-budget, small-scale thriller like The Two Faces of January, he’s always fantastic. Foreign film favorites Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling will also appear in the film.
It has a lot of MCU actors in its cast
The star-studded cast of the new Dune movie reportedly includes a total of five actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Zendaya, who recently solidified her place as an MCU great in her second appearance as MJ in Spider-Man: Far From Home, showing her character’s deep vulnerability; Josh Brolin, who played Thanos in the last two Avengers movies (and a handful of prior cameos and post-credits scenes); Stellan Skarsgård, and who played the unfortunately forgotten Erik Selvig in a few early MCU installments, starting with Thor; Dave Bautista, who (obviously) plays Drax the Destroyer; and David Dastmalchian, who plays an associate of Scott and Luis in the Ant-Man movies. Perhaps Villeneuve is a big fan of comic book movies. He also threw in a DCEU star, Jason Momoa, for good measure.
It’ll be released on November 20, 2020
Dune is set to be released in 3D and IMAX formats on November 20, 2020. November isn’t typically a blockbuster-filled season, because it’s just after the summer rush and just before the holiday rush. It doesn’t have any stiff competition slated for that weekend just yet, but an as-yet-untitled Disney animated movie is coming out the following week. Plus, Dune will face holdovers from the previous weeks, including the Dwayne Johnson action vehicle Red Notice and a movie adaptation of the Clifford the Big Red Dog books. An MCU movie is hitting theaters on November 6, so it might also face rivalry from that.
Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts are co-writing with Villeneuve
While Denis Villeneuve is working on the script for his own adaptation of Dune, he’s not writing it alone. He’s joined by co-writers Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. Roth wrote the scripts for Forrest Gump (for which he won an Oscar) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Most recently, he wrote the acclaimed Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga vehicle A Star is Born. Spaihts wrote the Chris Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence sci-fi romance Passengers and contributed to the screenplays for such big-budget blockbusters as Doctor Strange, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, and Prometheus. He’s also attached as an executive producer on the upcoming Minecraft movie.
It’s been in development since 2008
A new film version of Frank Herbert’s Dune has been in development since 2008. Paramount Pictures was initially handling the film, with Deepwater Horizon director Peter Berg attached to helm the project. By late 2009, Berg had dropped out and Pierre Morel, the filmmaker behind Taken, was signed on in early 2010. In 2011, Paramount dropped the project altogether and development came grinding to a halt. The project wouldn’t be revived until 2016, when Legendary Pictures bought the film and television rights to Dune and started work on what would become Denis Villeneuve’s vision for the adaptation that we’ll see next year.
The languages are being created by Game of Thrones’ Dothraki creator
The producers of Dune have hired David J. Peterson, a professional language creator (yes, that’s a real job), to develop some alien languages for the film. Peterson is best known for creating the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for HBO’s Game of Thrones, but he’s also worked on MCU movies, creating languages for Doctor Strange and Thor: The Dark World. For Dune, he is creating the Chakobsa language, which is spoken by the Fremen on the desert planet of Arrakis. It’s been announced that the language will be derived from Arabic (a not-so-well-hidden secret is that most made-up languages are derived from real-life languages).
The movie only covers the first half of the novel to leave room for a sequel
According to Brian Herbert, the son of Dune author Frank Herbert, the screenplay for the new adaptation will cover “approximately half of the novel” in order to leave room for a possible sequel to follow it up. Legendary Pictures boss Joshua Grode has confirmed the studio’s plans to begin a Dune franchise and lead into a sequel, saying, “There’s a logical place to stop the [first] movie before the book is over.” It’s not always a good idea to talk about sequels before the first one has even been released, but the powers that be behind this one seem pretty confident.
There’s already a Dune franchise in the works
In addition to the door being left open for a sequel, there’s a TV spin-off from Dune in the works. It’ll be called Dune: The Sisterhood and it will premiere exclusively on WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service (the one that they’re taking Friends back from Netflix for).
The series will serve as a prequel to the plot of the film, focusing on the Bene Gesserit. Jon Spaihts, one of the screenwriters credited on the movie, has been signed on to write the pilot script for the series, while Denis Villeneuve himself will direct the show’s first episode, and both will act as executive producers.
It’ll be ‘Star Wars for adults’
Denis Villeneuve has said that his vision for the movie adaptation of Dune is basically “Star Wars for adults.” He explained, “Most of the main ideas of Star Wars are coming from Dune, so it’s going to be a challenge to [tackle] this.
The ambition is to do the Star Wars movie I never saw. In a way, it’s Star Wars for adults. We’ll see.” Funnily enough, David Lynch turned down George Lucas’ offer to helm Return of the Jedi in order to direct his own adaptation of Dune, so the two have always been closely linked behind the scenes.
- Dune Release Date: 2021-10-22
