The upcoming Dune remake from director Denis Villeneuve is being described as Star Wars for adults. An adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic 1965 novel of the same name came from acclaimed writer-director David Lynch in 1984, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesa Annis, and more. In spite of strong anticipation for the film, it significantly underperformed at the global box office in addition to earning widespread negative reviews. But, as with many of Lynch’s projects, Dune has become a cult classic over the years.
Lynch’s Dune (which the filmmaker has since disowned for various reasons) possesses a slew of redeemable qualities that can be carried over to Villeneuve’s adaptation, but the Arrival director previously stated that he will be taking visual cues from Herbert’s source material instead of adapting elements from the 1984 film. And now that Blade Runner 2049 is out on home video, Villeneuve plans on getting started on his Dune film, which is being written by Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button scribe Eric Roth.
Although not much is known about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, which is being produced by Legendary Entertainment, the filmmaker described the film as “Star Wars for adults” in a recent interview with Fandom.
A description such as the one above may irk fans of both franchises, but the fact is, there are many similarities between the two epic sagas - aside from being works of science fictions, of course, and being set in space - though many people may find that Dune actually has more in common with The Lord of the Rings above all. Still, referring to the film as Star Wars movie for adults is intriguing enough to capture the attention of general audiences who may not be familiar with the source material or Lynch’s 1984 film.
“Most of the main ideas of Star Wars are coming from Dune so it’s going to be a challenge to [tackle] this. The ambition is to do the Star Wars movie I never saw. In a way, it’s Star Wars for adults. We’ll see.”
At the moment, Villeneuve plans on only adopting Herbert’s novel onto the big screen, but he says he’s open to making a sequel in the future. He said: “I could be involved with one or two movies, if it happens.” Unfortunately, a script for the reboot hasn’t been completed and agreed upon yet, so there’s no guarantee that Villeneuve will even make Dune in the end; it may move on to another director. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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Source: Fandom
