Many sci-fi fans have long hoped for a version of "Dune" that would do greater visual and narrative
justice to Frank Herbert's work. Now, director Denis Villeneuve has been drafted to bring it
to the big-screen. Here's everything we know about the 2021 adaptation of “Dune” so far.
The road to making a new cinematic version of "Dune" was lengthy even
before the current roster of talent signed on for the film. Director Denis Villeneuve,
who'd long hoped to helm a new adaptation of the novel, signed on to make the film in 2017.
However, it wasn't until two years later that the project actually landed a 2020 release date.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, making a 2020 release for "Dune" very unlikely and leaving
Warner Bros. to make some new moves. In October of 2020, Warner Bros. announced that the film would
shift to October 1, 2021. Then, in December, the studio dropped some even bigger news.
Its entire 2021 film slate, including "Dune," would also simultaneously premiere on the HBO
Max streaming service, giving viewers a chance to watch the film at home without waiting.
“It’s time.”
Any "Dune" adaptation faces a monumental challenge in assembling a cast to fill Herbert's universe.
It starts with finding the perfect actors to stand in the center of it all as the Atreides
family. In 2018, Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet joined the film as Paul Atreides,
making Dune his first blockbuster role. Shortly after reports of Chalamet's involvement started
circulating, Rebecca Ferguson joined the film as Paul's mother, the Bene Gesserit woman Lady
Jessica. She first begins teaching him the gifts that will later manifest as messianic abilities.
With the two most prominent members of House Atreides in place, it was time for the film
to cast Duke Leto Atreides. This is Paul's father who brings his family to Arrakis to
take over leadership of the planet, and finds only trouble. In early 2019, it was revealed
that Duke Leto would be played by Oscar Isaac, who adds another major sci-fi franchise to his resume
just a few years after joining the "Star Wars" galaxy. These three actors form the core family
unit that is House Atreides, but they're far from the only major stars in the film.
"Dune" is an epic novel spanning several years and featuring two major royal houses, Atreides and
Harkonnen, who battle each other for supremacy on the planet. One that also includes its own native
race, the Fremen. That means a massive cast needed to be assembled to make the film work.
Because this is a Denis Villeneuve film adaptation of one of the most beloved genre novels ever,
A-list actors have lined up to make the supporting cast for "Dune" a truly all-star ensemble.
Among the stars assembled to round out the film's cast are Stellan Skarsgard,
Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, David Dastmalchian, Dave Bautista,
and Charlotte Rampling. It's an exciting, diverse roundup of some of the most
acclaimed actors working right now in both action blockbusters and prestige dramas.
It’s exactly the right blend for Herbert's sprawling space opera of warring dynasties.
"Dune" is one of the most celebrated and influential science fiction novels
ever written. First published in 1965, Frank Herbert's novel is set amid a future civilization
built on a kind of interplanetary feudal system. There's a central government led by an Emperor,
and various planets are controlled by his vassals, which take the title of Baron or Duke.
The main action of "Dune" takes place on the planet Arrakis. It’s one of the most
important fiefdoms in the Empire because its vast deserts contain "the spice," an addictive and
valuable substance. The novel follows the Atreides family as they are given control
of Arrakis by the Emperor, only to find that a vast plot to overthrow them is already underway.
Amid these political struggles, Duke Leto Atreides' young son, Paul, begins to manifest
superhuman abilities that make him a messiah figure among the local Fremen. A rebellion
begins, and Paul's abilities make him into a leader fit to challenge the Emperor himself.
“My lord, Duke.”
Of course, Herbert's novel is much more complicated than that,
and after "Dune" he just kept going. Herbert himself wrote five sequels to the novel
and concluded his series with "Chapterhouse: Dune" in 1985, but the story didn't end there.
Herbert's son Brian picked up the torch from his father and, with novelist Kevin J. Anderson,
has published more than a dozen more "Dune" books, many of them prequels to the original novel.
The earliest attempts to adapt Dune for the screen kicked off
just a few years after the novel was published. In the mid-1970s, director Alejandro Jodorowsky
launched a tremendously ambitious effort to bring the novel to the screen.
The project involved everyone from Orson Welles to Salvador Dalí to Pink Floyd. Jodorowsky eventually
abandoned the project when the financing for the film could not be fully realized,
but his efforts were later chronicled in the 2013 documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune."
The post-"Star Wars" era improved the fortunes of "Dune" as a movie. So,
in 1984 a big-screen version helmed by director David Lynch was finally released, starring Kyle
MacLachlan as Paul Atreides. Although it has since become a cult film, "Dune" was a box office flop
and earned negative reviews. Lynch, not yet the household name he would be after "Twin Peaks,"
was frustrated by a lack of creative control and eventually disowned his "Dune" altogether.
A longer and more faithful adaptation of Herbert's novel arrived on the small screen in 2000 as
"Frank Herbert's Dune." It’s a TV miniseries written by John Harrison that aired in three
two-hour installments on the Sci-Fi Channel. It was successful enough that a sequel, "Frank
Herbert's Children of Dune," followed in 2003 and adapted the next two novels in Herbert's series.
Attempts to bring "Dune" back to the big screen kicked into gear in 2008, when Paramount Pictures
announced Peter Berg would direct a new adaptation. That effort eventually stalled,
and in 2016 Legendary Pictures announced that they had landed the film and TV rights for "Dune."
Soon after Legendary's announcement that they would be adapting "Dune" for the screen again,
reports began to circulate that director Denis Villeneuve was the studio's choice to direct the
new film version. Villeneuve's involvement was confirmed by Brian Herbert in 2017,
after he dazzled audiences with "Arrival" but before "Blade Runner 2049" arrived in
theaters to critical acclaim. Thanks to those two films in particular,
Villeneuve is one of the most important voices in science fiction cinema right now.
He's a lifelong "Dune" fan who called the chance to adapt the book the project of his life.
But he made it clear that he wouldn't be relying on the Lynch film version at all. Villeneuve said,
"I mean, David Lynch is one of the best filmmakers alive. I have massive respect
for him, but when I saw his adaptation, I was impressed, but it was not what I had dreamed of,
so I'm trying to make the adaptation of my dreams. It will not have any link with the
David Lynch movie. I'm going back to the book, and going to the images that came out when I read it."
Frank Herbert's original novel is not the longest genre epic you're likely to find on the shelves
at your local bookstores, but it is among the most dense. "Dune" is a book absolutely packed
with plot, covering dozens of characters, multiple groups and cultures, and a vast mythology — some
of which is only hinted at in the first novel. It's the kind of book so full of detail that it
needs an appendix at the back so you can look up various invented terms for more clarity.
That means adapting the book to the screen is hard, particularly when you're working within
the constraints of a big-budget film. These days that pretty much demands you weigh in
with a runtime of three hours or less. Even with that in mind, though, adapting "Dune"
as one three-hour story is a daunting prospect that's defeated filmmakers in the past.
So, for Villeneuve's film version, the solution was obvious: don't try to make "Dune" one film.
Villeneuve made it clear that he was setting a goal of two films for "Dune." In the summer of
2018, Brian Herbert confirmed that the screenplay for the new film would adapt approximately half of
the first novel in the series. It's not clear how far "approximately half" will take us,
but the novel does include a time jump to allow Paul Atreides to age a bit at one point, so
it's possible the first film will leave off there.
Brian Herbert confirmed in 2018 that Villeneuve's desire to split "Dune"
into two films had come to fruition, and that the film we'd see first would only adapt half
the novel. This was reaffirmed in the spring of 2019 by Legendary Pictures CEO Joshua Grode,
who added a little context as to why the split happened. He shared,
"There's a backstory that was hinted at in some of the books [that we expanded]. Also,
when you read the book there's a logical place to stop the movie before the book is over."
There's one really interesting wrinkle in all of this, though.
Yes, "Dune" will be split into two films, but it's not like "The Lord of the Rings."
Peter Jackson shot all of those movies back-to-back,
but Villeneuve is not making one "Dune" film right after the other. Instead, Legendary seems
to be waiting to see how the first film fares before launching into production on a sequel.
This adds intrigue to what Villeneuve said when he first discussed his two-movie plan. He said,
"'Dune will probably take two years to make. The goal is to make two films, maybe more."
So far, the only adaptation we've gotten beyond Herbert's first novel is the "Children of Dune"
miniseries. However, if Villeneuve has his way we could one day see a film version of other books.
After years of anticipation, the first official trailer for "Dune"
arrived in September of 2020. This was back when Warner Bros. was still holding
out hope that the film might make it into theaters that December. That, of course,
didn't happen. But the trailer still managed to capture the hearts and imaginations of fans,
raising the anticipation level for the film more than a year before its eventual release.
The first trailer is much more of a teaser than a full plot breakdown. It spends much of its time
with Paul Atreides as he grapples with visions of what might happen to him and his family as
they head for the desert planet of Arrakis. We see him tested, tormented, and doing his best to
be strong even as the dangers of the planet become apparent. The trailer is, of course,
packed with dazzling visuals, leading up to the reveal of a sandworm at the end.
The second official trailer, released in the summer of 2021, digs more heavily into the plot
and the supporting cast of the film, and pays particular attention to Chani, the Fremen girl
Paul eventually falls in love with. In this trailer we get a much better sense of the plot.
Paul begins to realize not only that his family is in grave danger from the evil Harkonnens,
but that he himself might not actually be the person to lead House Atreides into the future.
It's a much fuller view of the film, one that allows us to see more of the
internal dynamics of the ensemble, as well as some great action sequences.
“Get everything with guns off the ground. Go”
Not all were happy when WarnerMedia announced “Dune” would simultaneously premiere in
theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service, including "Dune" director Denis Villeneuve.
In a statement released to Variety at the time, Villeneuve blasted Warners' parent company,
AT&T. He explained that he learned about the release plans, quote,
"in the news" like everyone else. He wrote,
"With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in
film history. There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here."
Though Villeneuve was not the only critic of the release strategy,
he has remained among the loudest. In an August 2021 interview with “Total Film,”
he called the move ridiculous and regarding watching "Dune" on a home TV, said,
"[It’s like] driv[ing] a speedboat in your bathtub."
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