
After a number of pandemic-induced delays, the latest movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi classic novel “Dune” is landing in theaters and on HBO Max this weekend. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, with its stars including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Oscar Isaac, the film is among this year’s most highly anticipated releases. (“Dune” studio Warner Bros., HBO Max and CNN are all part of WarnerMedia.)
But the movie is not the first onscreen adaptation of the novel — a much-maligned film came out in 1984, while a TV miniseries followed nearly two decades later. Even so, the source material has long been considered nearly impossible to adapt.
Set on Arrakis, an inhospitable desert planet valued for its hallucinogenic “spice,” the novel follows the journey of young Paul Atreides (Chalamet) whose family has been tasked with overseeing the planet — taking the place of their rivals, the Harkonnens. The story features everything from spaceships and extraterrestrial life forms called sandworms to themes revolving around betrayal, politics and religion.
The world established in “Dune” and its sequels is full of layers, many of which have been difficult to translate to the big screen. Here’s a look back at previous adaptations and why audiences today may be likely to appreciate Villeneuve’s adaptation.
The first adaptation of ‘Dune’ didn’t do so well
It took more than a decade for the first movie adaptation of “Dune” to get made after rights to the film changed hands multiple times during the 1970s. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (“El Topo”) — subject of the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” — was at the helm at one point, with grandiose casting plans that included Orson Welles and Salvador Dali. But the project ultimately collapsed thanks in part to a mounting budget and an unwieldy runtime.
A “Dune” film became reality when director David Lynch — coming off the success of “The Elephant Man” — took on the project. Released in 1984, Lynch’s “Dune” was a commercial and critical disaster, making just $30.9 million at the domestic box office on a budget of $40 million.
“This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time,” Roger Ebert wrote in his one-star review of the Lynch adaptation, calling it a “project that was seriously out of control from the start.”
“Producers crossed their fingers and hoped that everybody who has read the books will want to see the movie,” his review concluded. “Not if the word gets out, they won’t.”
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