Dune. Written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. A landmark of science fiction set on a distant desert planet in a distant future, a planet which is the only known source of a consciousness-altering spice which is propping up the imperial economy. Add in some generations-old familial vendettas, an order of myth-planting nuns, a secret civilization of desert soldiers, and a teenaged boy with special abilities... and you’ve got a legendary tale. One which led to five sequels of varying reputation, which has inspired fifty-plus years of passionate fandom, and which, very soon, is going to find its way (again) to the big screen via a major Hollywood adaptation.

The movie industry these days is a bit depressing. It’s all about intellectual property. Sequels on top of sequels, all merging in together. Fair play to the Marvel Cinematic Universe because they cracked the code but it doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room for anybody else at the upper end of the budget scale. Independent films and lower budget efforts, those are always gonna be around because at the core they’re fuelled by an artistic passion. Not saying that’s not an element involved in MCU & co but it’s not the main element. Nah, when that amount of money is being spent on a film then it’s a business prospect and when things become business prospects they tend to play by a certain formula in order to limit the risk.

The newest Star Wars trilogy was a great example. A revival of a beloved franchise with all sorts of nostalgia and existing mythology to play off of, which began with a complete rehashing of the first Star Wars, threatened to stray into a really exciting fresh area in the second film... and then went to deranged lengths in the third one to undo all of that excitement and serve up a paint by numbers popcorn companion.

Which, again, when you’re dealing with that much money there’s a limit to how bad a film like that can be – the special effects and the quality of casting and the marketing and all those things are going to be top notch regardless of how wonky the script is. There’s a baseline of quality that’s only gonna missed in the rarest of examples. But there’s also a limit to how good a film like that can be for the same reasons. Pretty sure this is what Marty Scorsese has been on about when he compares modern Hollywood blockbusters to amusement park rides. Roller coasters are great fun... but they’re gonna follow the same course every time, right?

Money doesn’t just talk it screams. Go to the movies over the last couple years (when movie theatres have been open) and even if you’re watching something really cool you can still be guaranteed to see about three trailers beforehand which are either sequels, remakes, spinoffs, or unsubtle copies of something else. That’s what’s propping up the top end of the industry these days. You don’t have to come up with any fresh ideas. People watch ‘em. It’s just easier.

Thus we come to Dune. The book mostly follows the course of young Paul Atreides through tragedy and outcast and then back the other way as he allies himself with the Fremen folk and comes to be seen as this prophecy-fulfilling messiah. It’s a vast novel. A deeply philosophical one too. Not gonna spoil anything that isn’t on the back cover blurb here, you’ll have to read it yourself (or just wait for the movie), but suffice to say there’s a reason it’s become such an admired text. It’s also, by the way, nowhere near as dense as people say. Dune is actually a ceaseless page-turner. It’s full of action with a rapid plot and an incredible depth to the world it creates... although it does help immensely if you have a version with the glossary in the back. Easy to see why they’d wanna make a movie out of it.

Even easier to see when you consider that it’s an existing IP with a vast legion of fans and the potential for sequels on top of sequels. The Dune Cinematic Universe? Yeah, well, it might happen. This film could be to the movie industry what Paul Atreides was to the Fremen, who knows. (If you’ve read beyond the first book then mouth closed, please - the book was always written as a cautionary tale against messianic thinking but that theme’s a couple movie sequels away from fruition for now).

Denis Villaneuve is the man bringing Dune to the big screen and there’s no doubt that this is a dream project for him, something that his career has been building towards over the last several years with excellent features like Sicario, Arrival, and Prisoners. He’s even dabbled in the existing IP arena before with the really underrated Blade Runner 2049 which apparently didn’t do so flash at the box office but it’s a great movie that builds on the original in really clever ways (although there’s no competing with Rutger Hauer, let’s be fair). Then take a peek at the cast with the likes of Timothee Chalamet (Paul), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto), Zendaya (Chani), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), and Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Harkonnen) all involved. They’ve even got Hans Zimmer doing the score! It doesn’t get said often but this is a genuine A-List movie which meets all the usual big studio criteria... yet thanks to its subject matter still has the potential to break the Hollywood mould in truly exciting ways.

Although this ain’t the first attempt to visualise the world of Dune. Back in the 70s, Chilean/French surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky picked up the rights to the book and was agonisingly close to getting his unique version made only for it to fall apart at the last minute. Ultimately the industry was not ready for that film. Probably still isn’t. Jodo had the most incredible artistic team on board (including HR Giger). He’d managed to convince the likes of Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, David Carradine, Gloria Swanson... and his own son... to star in the thing. They’d storyboarded the entire script. There’s a documentary about the process called Jodorowsky’s Dune which very much worth a watch. You’ll struggle to find a movie that went deeper into pre-production without being made.

Alas ‘twas not to be. The rights then moved elsewhere and David Lynch was tapped to direct a version in the early 80s following the success of Eraserhead and The Elephant Man, his first two features. This one did get made but Lynch himself absolutely hates it, in fact when they recut if for telly he told them to take his name off it entirely. Lynch being Lynch, his main gripe was that he made the fatal error of compromising his vision. He sold out, in other words. He let the studio dictate things to him. A lesson that he learned and has never again strayed from so in a way his rendition of Dune is responsible for one of the most thrillingly unique filmographies out there.

Dune (1984) is a strange film. There were scripts on top of scripts and even after Lynch had it chopped his initial cut down to a tidy three hours the producers interfered and chopped it up some more. Honestly, it should have been two films. If not three. There are the makings of a really fascinating movie buried in there but it got ripped it to shreds (plus they also ran out of money in post, leading to some embarrassingly bad special effects) and the end result is a ragged curiosity with only hints of brilliance. The first hour is quite good but then the second half runs through things so fast it’s like all they were doing was ticking boxes.

Amidst all that you have these really clever uses of voiceovers to express characters’ inner thoughts, you have this intricately designed world that mostly lives up to the book, you have these symbolic and psychedelic dream sequences that are Pure Lynch, and most of the main cast are excellent (terrible accents aside). You can see why it still has its fans. But, damn man, it falls apart down the stretch. The Fremen stuff is the best part of the book and the worst part of the film.

The Villeneuve version is apparently only covering half the first novel with a planned sequel likely to get the go ahead so long as Dune (2021) isn’t a complete disaster when it comes out. Gotta admit that’s always a possibility with these things – and would be bloody depressing given here’s a chance to sneak a genuinely challenging story though the Hollywood system and a failure only makes it even less likely for... to say ‘adult-orientated’ blockbusters feels condescending to both young film viewers and older comic book movie fans but hopefully you get the idea. This isn’t an anti-MCU thing. Those movies are going nowhere. They’re enormous. It’s just about how much variety we get around them, ya dig?

Early festival release reviews have been largely glowing which is always a nice starting point. Meanwhile Villeneuve has been having a moan at the film getting a dual cinema/streaming release. Which seems strange, gotta agree with the man there. If you want Dune to be the next MCU then you’ve gotta treat it that way, give it all the hype and glamour and grand openings or whatever. Although, let’s be honest, part of that is just DV having a moan because his kid didn’t win Baby of the Year (many of my favourite ever movies I watched first on a laptop screen, gonna assume you’re in a similar boat too reading this).

No, it wouldn’t happen to Avengers Endgame. But producers Legendary Entertainment and distributors Warner Brothers are walking a much more delicate line here, there’s a lot riding on this film. Warner Bros do the DC films (several of them joint-productions working with Legendary – Legendary have a first-refusal distribution agreement with WB) and it’s a recurring theme that Marvel > DC when it comes to the box office. Take a quick peek at Warner Bros’ highest ever grossing films and the top 15 are all either DC, Harry Potter, or The Hobbit. Harry Potter is done and the spin-offs haven’t had the same impact. The Hobbit movies sucked. Apologies to Peter Jackson but they were terrible. And DC gets swamped by Marvel.

Hence Warners are on the lookout for a new franchise, something that can set them apart from the rivals, and here’s a golden opportunity. More sophisticated than Star Wars. More ambitious than Marvel. Can that sort of movie reach the level of commercial success that a US$165m film is supposed to? Dunno, but it has an A-List cast and a visionary director with the potential for a critical acclaim and, crucially in an IP-driven industry: there’s already a planned sequel plus room for several more as well as, get this, a spin-off TV series already in the works. The action figures will already be hitting the shelves.

There’s obviously something special about Frank Herbert’s creation because even the two failed movies were still hugely influential. Jodorowsky’s Dune was an industry legend that inspired a lot of the next generation of sci-fi without even being made, while Lynch’s version bombed but led to a popular board game as well as a pair of video games which pretty much established the modern real-time strategy genre. Time shall tell what this new film influences but just know that he who controls the spice controls the universe.

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