Is it just me, or does anyone else think it’s likely that despite Paramount playing around with the idea of adapting Frank Herbert’s much Dune for the screen, it’s never going to actually happen? While Avatar may have made all things set on other planets popular, as David Lynch discovered in the early 80s, Herbert’s comples novels are tough to film (a 10-hour version planned in the mid-70s never got past preproduction).
However at the moment Dune is said to be a priority for Paramount and so they’re forging onwards with their plan to remake the story of the battle to control the supply of a valuable spice, set amid a complex web of planetary fiefdoms, politics, religion and technology.
A few weeks ago it was announced that after working on it for quite a white, Hancock director Peter Berg was leaving the poposed Dune redo so he could concentrate on Battleship, and now Variety reports that the man taking over is Pierre Morel, helmer of District 13, Taken and the upcoming From Paris With Love.
Morel is a longtime fan of Herbert’s work, and apparently took his well-worn copy of Dune to his meeting with Paramount with him. However while the French director has had success with action flicks, Dune is a whole new ball game and takes him into a realm we haven’t seen him attempt before – big budget sci-fi.
The current plan is to take the Josh Zetumer screenplay which was put together while Berg was still attached to the project and then find a new writer who will adapt the script to Morel’s vision for the film. As I said, I’m not 100% convinced that the film will ever go in front of the camera, simply because it’s so difficult to make a film out of Herbert’s 1965 book without gutting it, but Paramount is certainly going to give it a good shot, and if they see it as a chance of having their own Avatar, there is a chance it will actually get made.