We're standing in the Imperial Palace which is the set of the Emperor Shaddam IV
Who is the ruler of all the known universe and the production designer Kreka
has incorporated many elements of art nouveau and baroque styles
into this incredible
set which is meant to represent wealth and power
and the Emperor's control of the entire universe.
Three years ago Richard Rubinstein and Mitch Galin came to me
and said that they've been able to get the television rights to Frank Herbert's Dune
and would I'd be interested in getting involved in it, and of course my initial response was how
fast can I sign up,
because I'd read the book when I was younger, I love the book, I was very much
hopeful that we could do something with it that hadn't been done previously.
I went into the network and I told them that I wanted to approach the book
in exactly the way that Frank Herbert had laid it out,
and there are three sub novels within
the first novel Dune.
And I thought that here was an opportunity to tell the story as Herbert
told it in the book, in three nights
each book representing a night of drama
and the network liked that very much
so we carried on that way and I wrote a story treatment based on that paradigm
they proved it, I started the first draft
and within a relatively short amount of time we had a very good workable first draft
made a few minor changes for the second draft and then we were off and running.
When I started this project I was determined
to be as faithful as possible to the book now of course these are two different medium,
one is a book, a novel, which can have a whole, an entire interior life
to its musings, which you can't have really in film.
In film you have to have a more straight-line narrative.
So yes there have been adaptations, some scenes happen before other scenes, some people say
some things in one scene in the book, and they say them a little differently in my film.
But I think at the end of the day people will look at this and
those who really know the book
will see that it's a very faithful adaptation
of the story.
When we were talking about casting Dune, we had to make certain choices
Were we going to go after certain names, to try and draw an audience by virtue of their names.
Were we going to go with unknowns.
My instinct was always to go with great actors,
and if they were unknowns so be it. The star of the movie is Dune.
The story is the star.
So I was insistent that we just find great actors for each of the roles, fortunately I
was lucky to get a man like William Hurt who wanted to play Duke Leto.
I went to London, I was looking around for Paul, I looked in New York, I looked in
Los Angeles, and almost by accident I found Alex Newman,
and it was just like a stroke of great luck, or maybe it was meant to be?
Maybe he was the Muad'Dib just waiting to happen.
But he is a terrific young actor out of England who has
taken on the challenge of
a character that has to go from being about 18 to about 22, 23 who
has to go from being a naive, a relatively naive young boy a young prince
to a mature desert harden leader of men into battle
and the character arc that Alec has gone through is just extraordinary
I also found Saskia Reeves in England
I saw an audition tape of hers where she did a half an hour monologue.
I had looked
far and wide for somebody to play Lady Jessica Who would have the gravitas, who would have the
sensitivity, who would have the emotional warmth.
And I saw this in this one half hour tape
everything that I want, she was just it.
In the Czech Republic I have found phenomenal actors, they have a great theater tradition here
That is gone for years and years and decades and decades
and their training is extraordinary.
Karel Dobrý who plays Doctor Kynes,
phenomenally intense actor
Barbora Kodetová who is Chani, as far as
I'm concerned after seeing her there just can't be anybody else but Barbora for Chani.
Giancarlo Giannini came from Italy to play the Emperor and
the day he walked on the set in his wardrobe
I am the Emperor
it was all, that was all that was needed.
Julie Cox, in London, a phenomenal young actress
who has taken the character of Princess Irulan
and given it a life that isn't even really in the book.
In in the book Irulan is a bit of a cypher, she's the chapter headings.
But from them I gleaned a whole character
and Julie has made it come to life
Ian McNeice lives in Los Angeles, Ian McNeice came to me through our casting agent Molly
Lopata, and he did one of the most outrageous auditions that I have ever seen, where he
literally pulled a skull cap off his head
in doing one of the scenes, and was just such a grotesque performance, it was just magical,
and he is the Baron, William Hurt told him the other day that he was born to play this role.
I'd seen Matt Keeslar in couple of films and I thought has a really interesting young actor
but I didn't know too much about him.
My friend Wes Craven did Scream 3 with him
and thought he did a terrific job.
And when I was suggested to me I thought well this is gonna be ... he's
kind of an emerging young star, maybe he won't want to come over and do Dune in the
Czech Republic for four months.
but he wanted to do it right away and we snatched him up and he's delightfully evil.