Star of New Dune Adaptation Hints How Faithful It Will Be to Original Novel

Adapting a well-known story comes with a number of challenges, especially when that story is an incredibly dense sci-fi epic full of bizarre worlds and complex characters. Frank Herbert's Dune is considered by many to be one of the most defining sci-fi epics in history, the ambitious and complexity of which has made it difficult to adapt into a film. David Lynch previously delivered audiences an adaptation back in 1984, which fell short of expectations both financially and critically. Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is making an attempt to adapt the story, which star David Dastmalchian teases will be very faithful to the original novel.

"I'm so grateful and excited to be a part of Denis' vision," Dastmalchian shared with CinemaBlend. "I think that he is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time and any time, and I believe what he's going to do here, it's just going to take people to a whole other place. He brings so much. When you think about Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 specifically, because those are the two science fiction films that he's crafted, you see his gift for telling stories that are visually stunning, but that are also rooted in really complex ideas and really fascinating characters."

Lynch is considered a brilliant filmmaker who often possesses complete creative control over his films, but with Dune being earlier in his career, studio interference and the massive scale of the production contributed to that project's disappointment. The actor detailed his connection to that endeavor and what to expect from this new iteration.

"I'd read the book and I'd seen the film," Dastmalchian confessed. "I'm a very big David Lynch fan, so there was so much about the film that I had loved, but to be quite honest, I had not seen the film since probably college. It had been a long time since I'd seen the film. Once I got cast in [Dune], I decided not to revisit the film. But I did go back and revisited the book because like I said, I love it. I've only read the book once, but I've gone back to it many times just to dip in and out and pull quotes. It's just a fun and very dense piece of philosophical writing… It's so exciting the thought that this level of maturity and complexity in Herbert's writing is going to be put on a giant screen by Denis Villeneuve. And the cast that he's put together, it's so awesome."

The cast also includes Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Zendaya as Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Charlotte Rampling as Gaius Helen Mohiam.

Dune is slated to hit theaters on November 20, 2020.

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