By Travis Johnson
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Legendary Entertainment have bought the rights to the landmark science fiction epic, Dune, from the estate of author, Frank Herbert.
For the uninitiated, Dune is a sprawling epic set in a far future universe ruled by feuding noble houses. When the House Atreides is betrayed and defeated by their rivals, young heir Paul Atreides, left to die on the titular desert planet, becomes the messiah of a fierce native people, the Fremen, leading them on a jihad to avenge his family.It’s one of the core texts of the SF canon – the only real comparison is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and, of the two, Dune is far more challenging and intricate.
That’s just the Cliffs Notes – it’s complex and, especially in the current political and cultural climate, controversial stuff, dealing with religious fanaticism, gendered power, ecological issues and more. Perhaps that’s why Dune‘s relationship with both the big and small screens is a fraught but interesting one. We have two extant Dune adaptations – David Lynch’s fatally flawed but striking 1984 movie, and the now largely forgotten Syfy Channel miniseries, Frank Herbert’s Dune, from 2000, which begat a sequel, Children of Dune. There is also the great unmade version by visionary madman, Alejandro Jodorowsky, as recorded in the incredible documentary, Jodorowksy’s Dune, and the less-than-great unmade version by Peter Berg, and we probably dodged a bullet on that one – the notion of the director of Lone Survivor tackling a story that deals with a deeply religious desert people rising up against an imperialist occupying force should give you pause.
Legendary’s deal allows for them to develop Dune for both cinema and television and, of the two, the latter is probably the best fit. Dune realised as a sprawling, intelligent SF soap opera ala Game of Thrones is a pretty perfect fit, and recent triumphs such as Westworld and The Expanse have proven that rich, vibrant and spectacular worlds are doable on a modern prestige TV budget. Now, if only Legendary can figure out a way to mitigate the unfortunate White Saviour implications inherent in the novels, we might be in for something amazing.
