Keep an eye out for sandworms, because it's time to delve into the hidden history of one
of sci-fi's most popular franchises. From the classic book series to the movie adaptations,
this is the untold truth of "Dune."
Between the coastal town of Florence, Oregon, and the Pacific Ocean are the Oregon Dunes,
massive sand hills that, in the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered were actually
moving. They attempted to use certain breeds of grasses to stabilize and calm the dunes
before they could continue to grow, move, and, as Frank Herbert wrote to his literary agent,
"swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, and highways.
Having published a few successful science fiction novels already, Herbert traveled
to Florence in 1957 to explore this bizarre scientific phenomenon and to write an article.
That piece was never completed, but the concepts of precious natural resources,
monstrous sand dunes, and the mysteries that may lay within led to "Dune."
After five years of research and writing, Herbert published
"Dune World" and "The Prophet of Dune" in serial form in the Analog magazine from 1963 to 1965.
The author then compiled it into a single-volume novel, "Dune," which was published by technical
book publisher Chilton Books in August 1965 after more than 20 other publishers rejected it.
"Dune" was published in 1965, but it didn't hit the big screen until 1984.
For almost that entire span of 20 years, efforts were underway to adapt the book. In 1971,
Apjac International, best known for the "Planet of the Apes" movies, acquired the movie rights
and offered the director's chair to David Lean, the legendary British filmmaker behind another
desert-based movie, "Lawrence of Arabia." Lean passed, as did British director Charles Jarrott.
While a director was sought out, screenwriters worked on the script and production plans were
put into place, but it all fell apart when Apjac head Arthur P. Jacobs died in 1973.
Apjac sold the rights to "Dune" to a group of French investors,
who hired avant-garde film and theatrical director Alejandro Jodorwsky
as director. While he'd only directed three full-length films at that point,
he definitely had the enthusiasm and ambition necessary to direct "Dune" ... and then some.
As detailed in the fascinating 2013 documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune," the director planned to make
a 14-hour movie with a dream cast including Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, and Salvador Dali,
with a soundtrack provided by Pink Floyd. To nail down the production design, Jodorowsky
consulted such innovative artists as Moebius and H.R. Giger. He also wanted to depict melange,
"the spice," as a magical blue sponge and completely change the ending of the novel.
When that project died, the rights were sold to producer Dino De Laurentiis,
who hired Ridley Scott to direct. He dropped out because, as he related in a 1999 biography,
he was ready to film the movie immediately, but it was going to take at least two and half
more years of pre-production. Ultimately, the gig went to then-cult movie icon David Lynch.
"What the hell?"
"Dune" finally started being committed to film in 1983
at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. That location was chosen in part because it was
adjacent to large swaths of desert that could stand in for the planet Arrakis,
and because the Mexican economy was such that it would cost Universal Pictures far less to
shoot the movie than it would have cost in the U.S. Shooting in L.A., the producer estimates,
could have bumped the "Dune" price tag to $75 million; it ultimately cost about $40 million.
And filmmakers made sure that every penny counted. To create the intricate worlds of
Frank Herbert's novel, one of the biggest film crews of all time was assembled:
900 workers toiled for months to build 70 sets on eight sound stages. More
than 200 people alone had to clean three square miles of desert — down on their hands and knees,
no less — of scorpions, snakes, and cactuses to replicate the lifeless surface of Arrakis.
Universal hoped "Dune" would be the next "Star Wars," but while it was certainly as imaginative
and ambitious as George Lucas's epic, it ended up being a huge disaster. Critics absolutely hated
it: Roger Ebert said "Dune" was, quote, "a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured,
pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time."
David Lynch's "Dune" lacked the broad appeal and fun of more popular sci-fi like "Star Wars" — and
Universal knew it on some level before the movie was released, distributing hundreds of thousands
of vocabulary guides to movie theaters in order to familiarize audiences with the dense world
of "Dune" settings, characters, and words. The guides didn't help much—it ultimately earned
just $30 million at the box office, not even clearing its $40 million budget.
As a result, Frank Herbert's other "Dune" books were never adapted for the big screen.​
"Dune" and its sequels make for a thoughtful, sprawling, imaginative sci-fi epic,
and the books were popular in the '60s and '70s, which can mean only one thing:
It inspired a lot of progressive rock. In 1977, jazz keyboardist David Matthews released
"Dune," inspired by the books. In 1979, experimental German electronic music composer,
and Tangerine Dream member, Klaus Schulze released "Dune," an album of the music inspired by the
novel. That same year, French electronica pioneer Bernard Szajner, under the name Z,
released a "Dune"-themed album called "Visions of Dune." Around the time of the film's release,
Iron Maiden included the song "To Tame a Land" on its 1983 album "Piece of Mind," having changed the
song from its original title of "Dune," because Herbert wouldn't give permission. In 1999,
German metal band Golem released the "Dune"-themed concept album "The 2nd Moon."
Lynch estimated that his shooting script would translate to a running
time of about three hours, but once it was filmed, edited, and effects were added in,
"Dune" wound up being well over four. Seeing that as completely unmarketable, Universal ordered
Lynch to cut a bunch of scenes and streamline the plot; because of all that unused footage,
rumors have persisted for more than 30 years that there's a special, Lynch-curated "director's cut."
There isn't — Universal has approached Lynch, but his displeasure and
disappointment in the film has kept him from returning to cobble together another version.
There is, however, a three-hour version of "Dune" with extra scenes added in,
assembled without Lynch's involvement for television broadcast. Lynch was so upset
that he demanded his name taken off the credits for this version, replaced with
the standard director pseudonym of Alan Smithee, with the fake name "Judas Booth" subbed in for
screenwriter — so named because Universal betrayed Lynch, like Judas did to Jesus,
and also killed the movie, like John Wilkes Booth did to Abraham Lincoln.
In a career filled with weird, challenging movies and zero bona fide box office hits,
"Dune" is about the only project that writer-director David Lynch
says he truly wishes he hadn't made. In fact, he says it even soiled him as an
artist. Lynch later told Extrovert that he only has himself to blame. He said,
"I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things
I loved, and this was the structure to do them in. There was so much room to create a world."
"Far off in the control rooms of spice gas, traveling… without moving."
After years of research and writing, Frank Herbert completed two short science fiction novels — "Dune
World" in 1963, and "The Prophet of Dune" in 1965. The stories were published in serialized form in
Analog Magazine, one of the major outlets for genre stories in the mid-20th century.
At the time, short stories dominated sci-fi, because, according to The Guardian, that's
what publishers thought readers wanted. That's probably a big reason why "Dune"
was rejected by more than 20 publishers before it found a champion in Chilton.
"Dune" proved that there was a market not just for long-form science fiction,
but high-end science fiction with literary merit.
"Dune" is one of the first modern-day sci-fi epics, and was thusly rewarded,
capturing the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Consumers responded in a big way to "Dune" and its descendants. It's still a consistent seller
and is one of the most-purchased sci-fi books in history, while sequel "Children of Dune"
went down as the first novel in the genre to become a bestseller in hardback form.
Pre-production on the 1984 "Dune," including the months it took writer-director David Lynch
to adapt Frank Herbert's novel into a screenplay, took a very long time,
and filmmakers wanted to make sure they cast the perfect performers to portray the
potentially lucrative franchise's already well-known characters.
Glenn Close turned down the role of Jessica, believing that the character was a "cliche" of
a helpless woman. Aldo Ray was actually cast as Gurney Halleck and reported to the set,
but was soon dismissed and replaced by Patrick Stewart. Kenneth Branagh auditioned
for the lead role of Paul Atreides, but lost out to newcomer Kyle MacLachlan.
Branagh's future partner, Helena Bonham Carter, was also nearly a part of the "Dune" cast.
She'd landed the role of Princess Irulan, but due to a scheduling conflict on "A Room with a
View," she had to quit the sci-fi epic, leaving the door open for Virginia Madsen to take over.
Although "Dune" is set among sophisticated planets in the distant future,
the entertainment options of its residents have a distinctively ancient and rustic sensibility.
Gurney Halleck is a major figure in the life of Paul Atreides, a warrior, teacher,
and ally who loved to perform old, minstrel-style ballads to entertain guests and associates,
all while accompanying himself on a long, nine-stringed instrument called the baliset.
Something of a cross between a guitar and a zither, it provided enough music to help
Halleck emphasize his proverbs, scripture readings, and lyrics.
In the 1984 film version of "Dune," Patrick Stewart plays Halleck — and the baliset.
It was mentioned by name in Frank Herbert's original "Dune" novel, but filmmakers took a real
(although obscure) Earth instrument and painted it gold. The baliset is actually a Chapman Stick,
a fretboard-based, elaborately strung, strummable wooden instrument invented
by musician Emmett Chapman. In 1985, Chapman released "Parallel Galaxy," an
album of Chapman Stick compositions, which includes "Backyard," heard in
the Alan Smithee cut of the "Dune" movie — with Stewart miming playing to Chapman's recording.
At the time that "Dune" was filmed in the early 1980s,
Sean Young was one of the biggest new stars in Hollywood thanks to prominent roles in the hit
comedy "Stripes" and the sci-fi classic "Blade Runner." She signed on to play Chani Kynes,
the enchanting Fremen in "Dune" — but she nearly missed out on the role.
According to "The Making of Dune," Young's agency set up a meeting in New York City with
director David Lynch and producer Raffaella De Laurentiis, but then forgot to tell Young
about it. On the day it was scheduled, she hopped a flight to California to go
meet about another film. Meanwhile, Lynch and De Laurentiis missed their flight to the west
coast because they'd been waiting around for no-show Young. The actor, director,
and producer all wound up on the same plane, and De Laurentiis asked a flight attendant if Young,
whom she'd never met or seen, was an actor. The worker reportedly said, "She is. Her name is
Sean Young." De Laurentiis confronted Young, telling her that the agency said she refused
the audition, which simply wasn't true. The trio cleared the air over drinks. He recalled,
"I sit with her and David and we all start drinking champagne.
By the time we arrived in L.A., we were roaring drunk."
Young got the part, of course.
For the role of House Atreides patriarch Duke Leto Atreides,
"Dune" writer-director David Lynch cast German actor Jürgen Prochnow , the breakout star of
the 1981 World War II submarine thriller "Das Boot." According to "The Making of
Dune," the last scene Prochnow had to film was a drug-induced nightmare sequence in which he lays
unconscious on a stretcher while the wicked Baron Harkonnen, played by Kenneth McMillan,
crudely shoves his fingers into a facial wound, expelling spooky green gas.
To bring this concept to life, the "Dune" special effects team created a fake cheek
out of rubber and makeup, stuck it to Prochnow's face, and attached a
tube that ran behind the actor's ear and onto the stretcher. Off-camera,
a tech would pump green smoke into the device that would plume out when McMillan prodded it.
The crew tested the effect on a dummy and Prochnow before cameras rolled. When it came time to film,
McMillan did what he was supposed to do, sticking his fingers into the wound, and the smoke came
out. Something had gone wrong, however, because Prochnow ran off the set, clutching his face.
An investigation revealed that the device had malfunctioned. It hadn't been properly sealed,
and hot smoke from a test had built up inside the fake cheek before McMillan tore it open,
resulting in near-molten goo spilling onto Prochnow's face.
He suffered first and second degree burns in the accident.
David Lynch's "Dune" was obviously supposed to be a franchise-starter,
a new blockbuster series to rival other sci-fi brands like "Star Wars" and "Star Trek."
Its success was so assured that before the film's theatrical release in 1984,
star Kyle MacLachlan signed a contract to appear in four more films in the "Dune"
cinematic universe. Virginia Madsen, who landed the small role of Princess Irulan told "The Kevin
Pollak Chat Show" that she'd signed a deal to reprise the role in two more films. She recalled,
"They thought they were gonna make 'Star Wars' for grown-ups. And it didn't work out that way."
When "Dune" was greeted with critical shrugs and less-than-huge numbers at the box office — a $30
million total run, against a $40 million budget — plans for more movies were canceled. "Dune"
screenwriter-director David Lynch was already deep into the screenplay for the next movie in
the series, based on Frank Herbert's "Dune Messiah," which was subsequently abandoned.
"Muad'dib had become the hand of God fulfilling the fremen's prophecy."
Rather than seek out an orchestral composer to create and conduct the score for the original
"Dune" film from 1984, filmmakers used rock band Toto to source the movie's spooky, futuristic,
synth-based music. The group, consisting of successful Los Angeles session musicians,
was just coming off a career peak, winning the Album of the Year Grammy Award in 1983
for "Toto IV," which included the smash hits "Rosanna" and "Africa."
The band was at a crossroads when it came time to record the "Dune" music,
with singer Bobby Kimball having just departed and the group deciding to score David Lynch's sci-fi
adaptation instead of another gig it had been offered: recording the soundtrack to "Footloose."
Nevertheless, the album flopped. Released back-to-back with Toto's fifth studio
album "Isolation," the "Dune" soundtrack tanked almost as hard as the movie did,
peaking at #168 on the Billboard album chart and soon falling out of print for decades.
According to Vintage Guitar, members of the group saw the film at its premiere
and called it a "turkey" and privately took to referring to the movie as "Doom."
Regardless of the film's lackluster performance, the "Dune" franchise continued to gather
more fans with each passing year. The franchise itself also grew,
with a well-received miniseries airing on The Sci-Fi Channel in 2003, and Herbert's son Brian
Herbert writing more bestselling "Dune" sequel and prequel novels with Kevin J. Anderson. By 2008,
Hollywood once again saw "Dune" as a hot property with a lot of commercial potential.
Paramount announced plans for a new version of the first novel, and hired Peter Berg, the
director of "Hancock" and "Battleship" to direct. A year later, Berg dropped out and Pierre Morel,
of "Taken" fame replaced him, but the studio called the whole thing off in March 2011.
Once again, "Dune" refused to die: In 2016, Legendary Entertainment restarted the project
again. Denis Villeneuve, the Oscar-nominated director of "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049,"
signed on to direct a new adaptation of Frank Herbert's original novel from 1965.
With a budget reportedly around $200 million,
it ranks among the most expensive undertakings in Hollywood history — and that's just the beginning,
as the project was planned from the start to be split into two movies.
Madsen claimed that filmmakers had attempted to make "'Star Wars' for grown-ups." That's
the exact same approach that writer-director Denis Villeneuve took when he set out to bring "Dune" to
the screen again, more than three decades after that ill-fated attempt. Villeneuve told Fandom,
"The ambition is to do the 'Star Wars' movie I never saw. In a way, it's 'Star Wars' for adults."
Ironically, 'Star Wars' began as a riff on "Dune." George Lucas's first drafts of the
script that would become 1977's "Star Wars: A New Hope" contained fighting bloodlines
and a princess who guarded not the plans for a Death Star, but something called "aura spice."
The cinematographer on his new "Dune" films? Grieg Fraser,
who had the same job on the "Star Wars" spinoff "Rogue One," a film Villeneuve enjoyed.
"Dune" is a passion project for the director, who told press that in adapting the work correctly,
he dealt, quote, "with the pressure of the dreams" he had as a teenager,
picturing the world of "Dune" in his head as he read Frank Herbert's novel. Still,
when Warner Bros. wanted him to direct, he agreed to do so if two conditions were met: "Dune" had to
be split into two films, and the crew would film the Arrakis scenes in a real desert.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.