A new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune is headed to theaters this December from director Denis Villeneuve, but don’t count on director David Lynch checking out the film, as his frustrating attempts to bring the story to life for a 1984 film has resulted in him having “zero interest” in this new take on the material. Lynch famously had trouble when bringing the story to life back in the early ’80s, due largely to the studio denying him final cut of the film, making the ambitious endeavor disappointing to both fans and critics and ultimately preventing Lynch from having any interest in the narrative from any filmmaking team.
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“I have zero interest in Dune,” Lynch confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. “Because it was a heartache for me. It was a failure and I didn’t have final cut. I’ve told this story a billion times. It’s not the film I wanted to make. I like certain parts of it very much — but it was a total failure for me.”
When asked if he would potentially be interested in a filmmaker’s take on the story that wasn’t Villeneuve’s, Lynch confirmed, “I said I’ve got zero interest.”
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
While Villeneuve himself has shared his appreciation for Lynch as a filmmaker and the film he crafted, he previously teased that he would be attempting to more directly lift iconography from the source material than Lynch did.
“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 back in 2017. “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.”
Dune is set to land in theaters on December 18th.
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