Denis Villeneuve Teases His ‘Dune’ Reboot Plans

Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune is one of the most acclaimed and influential pieces of sci-fi literature, which makes the pressure to adapt the narrative into a feature film immense. Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has been tasked with developing the upcoming adaptation and promises that his version will have no connection to previous adaptations.

“David Lynch did an adaptation in the ’80s that has some very strong qualities. I mean, David Lynch is one of the best filmmakers alive, I have massive respect for him,” Villeneuve told Yahoo! Movies. “But when I saw his adaptation, I was impressed, but it was not what I had dreamed of, so I’m trying to make the adaptation of my dreams. It will not have any link with the David Lynch movie. I’m going back to the book, and going to the images that came out when I read it.”

Attempts to create a film that honored the source material date back to the ’70s, with filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky creating a massive tome that compiled not just the filmmaker’s script and notes, but storyboards for virtually every shot in the film. Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles and Mick Jagger were all attached to this version of the film.

Unfortunately, this production never panned out, with the tomes created by Jodorowsky still influencing filmmakers to this day, as documented in the film Jodorowsky’s Dune.

With rights to the film set to expire, a production was rushed with David Lynch at the helm, hot off the success of films like Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. Despite the author being happy with this 1984 adaptation, critics found the film to be incomprehensible without a knowledge of the original story, while fans of the story were disappointed with Lynch’s deviations from the original narrative.

In 2000, the miniseries Frank Herbert’s Dune premiered on the SYFY channel, which was received much more positively, as its more than four-hour runtime allowed the series to be a more faithful adaptation.

In October, the Blade Runner sequel from Villeneuve received a positive critical reaction despite its long runtime and complex narrative preventing it from becoming a blockbuster.

Stay tuned for more details about the filmmaker’s development on Dune.

[H/T IndieWire]