Dune: Remake Announces Director

How fucking lucky is Denis Villeneuve right now?  I don’t mean lucky like “he didn’t earn it” lucky, I mean this guy is directing the Blade Runner sequel AND the Dune remake?  Someone played his cards right in Hollywood, and did his job.

Brian Herbert, son of Dune creator Frank Herbert, has continued to write in the Arrakis universe with a hefty sum of entries in the saga under his belt. He tweeted yesterday:

It's official — Legendary Pictures has signed the very talented Denis Villeneuve to direct the exciting new DUNE series film project.

— Brian Herbert (@DuneAuthor) February 1, 2017

However, Legendary STILL hasn’t commented on this announcement.  With the busy week they’re having with the next installment of Godzilla news casting Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown and bringing director Mike Dougherty onboard, maybe it was an oversight.  Legendary is ALSO gearing up for the opening of Kong: Skull Island, they could be waiting for the right time?  I guess?

Denis Villeneuve was rumored for this project as early as last year, when Arrival was burning up the box office numbers.  He’s got a pretty hefty directorial string behind him, from the highly acclaimed Oscar nominated Sicario to 2013’s Prisoners.  If he brings his cinematographer Roger Deakins with him, this could be a brilliant choice to continue the story of Dune.

It’s funny, because one of the first images released for Blade Runner 2049 looked suspiciously like a test shot for a sandworm homestead.

The heartbreaking this is, we’ll never get Chilean conceptual artist Alejandro Jodorowsky’s lush take on Dune.  If you’ve never seen the documentary about the doomed project, you really should. Sure, it’s weird as hell, but so is the source material.  One of my favorite novels ever written, there is so much more to the world than we’ve seen in the previous versions of the story from both David Lynch and SyFy/BBC.

Lynch’s Dune remains a classic, and I will Harkonnen Knife Fight anyone who says otherwise. Yes, there were many things he changed from the source material in order to placate the studio, which all in all didn’t turn out the way it should’ve (weirding modules, anyone?).  (The reason why the Weirding Way WASN’T hand to hand combat solely was because the studio didn’t want everything to look “Kung Fu”.)  We didn’t get the deeper story of the Bene Gesserit breeding programs, even though it was touched on, but the characters were all in the proper places at the proper times.  Yes, I’m looking at YOU SyFy/BBC version with freaking Princess Irulan meeting Paul at the palace at the BEGINNING of the story rather than at the END.  UGH.  Sorry, sorry, this is a passion of mine.

Oddly enough, this is a remake I am looking forward to, because the sandy surface of Arrakis has barely been touched by the current filmography.  With the right casting and script, we could be in for a multi picture saga worthy of the Maker and his vision.  I mean with the current political climate like it is, Harkonnens are normal.

Legendary’s Dune has no current release date set, and we’ll keep you updated with news as it happens.