Dune is getting the big screen treatment again, and today Paramount announced that actor-turned-director Peter Berg will be at the helm of the project. This was already widely known for some time, but the wheels now appear to be in motion and everything is official now. The good folks over at Variety tell us:
The project is out to writers, with the producers looking for a faithful adaptation of the Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning book. The filmmakers consider its theme of finite ecological resources particularly timely. New Amsterdam’s Richard Rubenstein, who produced Sci Fi’s “Dune” and sequel “Children of Dune,” is also producing alongside Sarah Aubrey of Film 44, Berg’s production banner. John Harrison and Mike Messina exec produce.
I’ve got to say I like this news for a couple of reasons. First of all Dune is a fantastic story and deserves another shot at a big screen treatment. I am not, nor have ever been a fan of the David Lynch 1984 version. You could see all the pieces there in that film… but to me it had no heart and never touched the essence of the story. As silly as it may sound, I actually MUCH preferred the mini-seres Dune that the Sci-Fi channel did a few years back. Yeah the production values were terrible, but I thought they got a lot closer to the essence of the tale than the Lynch movie did.
Secondly, I like this news because Berg is directing. No, I haven’t loved everything he’s done to this point, but “The Kingdom” was a damn hard project that I think was handled quite well, and “Friday Night Lights” is a terribly underrated film in my opinion.
Thirdly, I’m a sci-fi geek so anything in that genre gets my attention. Overall, this is good news and I can’t wait to see it. The only possible drawback is that it seems they’re aiming for just one movie. Dune is a HUGE story… one much more suited to a 4-5 hour telling (over 2 movies) than a single 2 hour telling. I’m not convinced they can do this story justice in just one film… which is probably why i thought the mini-seres was more successful than the original movie.
(Type your comment here. Make sure you’ve read the commenting rules before doing so)This is a very complex story and with the new background stories by the author’s son it is only getting better. David lynch’s movie was a landmark because it was the first and gave us insight on the story and made you want to read the books and that is a good thing. Because no one had did anything like that before, and I know looking back we tend to rip it because he tried to compact too much into two hour and we all know the story of Dune can’t be told in ten hour let alone two. So with that I will say I’ve enjoyed all the books and the movies but this time I hope they tell the back story on the rift between the great house. oh I think that it is going to be a great movie or maybe three?
Visually the 1984 Dune was impressive, narratively less so. The same issues with a script will face Berg et al. I liked the Sci-Fi channels version of the first three books because they had the time to tell the story. I think Paramount should try and bring the most compelling book of the series to the Big Screen and that would be ‘God Emperor of Dune’.
” millions will die in his “holy” war,” I meant…
Berg also brought Friday Night Lights TV. The first season is some of the best television to ever air. Never really knew much about Dune, but if Berg is directing, I’m interested.
I don’t know if Berg can make one movie for Dune – seems to be a two parter to me. I hope he can pull off Hancock – then maybe we’ll see what he’s learned from that movie and add his knowledge to this movie.
Will not work. No way, no how. As cheesy as the Lynch version turned out to be, I think it should be a signifier as to how hard it is to put (as mentioned above) such an amazing complex story onto screen. It just doesn’t work.
Now, I might be intrigued if they use the Moebius sketches and digitally insert Dali into the film.
I am a firm believer that Dune, written nearly 40 years ago, is probably the most important work of science fiction of modern times. If you replace “spice” with “oil” and “Arakkis” for the Middle East, you would almost believe that Herbert is prophesizing events to come. And yet, as important as I think Dune is in modern literature, is there any need for another rendition of this story? Yes, Pride and Prejudice has been made a billion times, the most recent being the best in my opinion. And I might feel the same way about this newest version of Dune. But is it just me or this yet another symptom of Remake Fever?
I liked the Lynch version: the first time I saw it I thought it was great even though it made no sense to me (hadn’t read the book) and still still believe it has more of the ‘feel’ of the novel than the miniseries. It is a deeply flawed film, but I’m afraid I feel the opposite to the article: I felt Lynch’s film had more heart (and heartplugs! Okay, those were crap…) than the mini-series, but that might just be because of the shite production values.
Dune deserves two 2.5/3 hour films. After reading the book I’m certain of it and I think it would really work best as a 6/8 hour TV serial in 1-hour slots, but that’s just me.
I must not fear, fear is the mind killer, fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration
I loved the David Lynch version (except the US cut which he took his name off) but i got the impression that if you didnt already know the story you would become hopelessly lost.
I agree, i think they need atleast 5 hours to tell that story