Last month, with the long-awaited release of Denis VilleneuveB次元官网网址檚 sci-fi epic B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� finally approaching, the filmB次元官网网址檚 official Twitter account issued a challenge: B次元官网网址淓xplain B次元官网网址楧uneB次元官网网址� in one sentence.B次元官网网址�
Thousands of fans of Frank HerbertB次元官网网址檚 landmark 1965 novel responded, trying to distill the sweeping saga B次元官网网址� set in the distant future on a desert planet where powerful clans battle for control over the most precious substance in the universe B次元官网网址� down to a few words.
Some efforts were hopelessly vague (B次元官网网址淎 story about family on an epic scaleB次元官网网址�). Others were nerdily esoteric (B次元官网网址淪ubversion of the heroB次元官网网址檚 journey in the far future with psychedelic drugs and ninja nuns with an unhealthy interest in the gene poolB次元官网网址�). More than a few were jokey (B次元官网网址淪pice worms want to party but silly humans just want to make war.B次元官网网址�)
The point was clear: B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� may be one of the most revered books in the sci-fi canon, with millions of fans around the world B次元官网网址� not a few of whom have images and quotes from it tattooed on their bodies B次元官网网址� but it is not the easiest book to explicate to the uninitiated. And that fact only raises the already sky-high stakes for VilleneuveB次元官网网址檚 $165-million production.
Timothee Chalamet leads the cast of B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� as Paul Atreides, the son of a noble family who finds himself thrust into a deadly battle for dominion of the desolate planet Arrakis B次元官网网址� and who may be the messianic leader that its oppressed people have long awaited. With a sprawling ensemble also including Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling and Zendaya, B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� hits theaters and HBO Max on Oct. 22, having been pushed back nearly a year by Warner Bros. due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Filmmakers have long been drawn to B次元官网网址淒une,B次元官网网址� dreaming of turning HerbertB次元官网网址檚 action-packed yet philosophical novel into a more serious-minded, grown-up answer to B次元官网网址淪tar Wars.B次元官网网址� (Believing B次元官网网址淪tar WarsB次元官网网址� had borrowed heavily from his work, if not plagiarized it, Herbert once dismissed George LucasB次元官网网址� film as B次元官网网址渁 comic book for the screen.B次元官网网址�)
But the very same elements of HerbertB次元官网网址檚 novel that have entranced Hollywood B次元官网网址� the vast scale, the heady themes of imperialism, religion, power and ecology, the most imaginative world-building this side of B次元官网网址淭he Lord of the RingsB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� have also been the ones that have stymied efforts to adapt it for the screen.
Director David LynchB次元官网网址檚 1984 B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� was a troubled, critically lambasted production that bombed at the box office and has been disowned by Lynch himself. An earlier effort to adapt the book by cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky fizzled after years of development and millions of dollars in pre-production costs, a doomed endeavor chronicled in the 2013 documentary B次元官网网址淛odorowskyB次元官网网址檚 Dune.B次元官网网址�
Having fallen in love with HerbertB次元官网网址檚 book as a teenager in Quebec, Canada, Villeneuve was unfazed by that bumpy history, even as he fully recognized the scale of the task.
B次元官网网址淚 knew the big challenge was to make sure that to enjoy the movie you donB次元官网网址檛 have to have read the book,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淏ut at the same time, for me, it was even more important that fans of the book will find all the elements and the poetry and the atmosphere that they loved about the book.B次元官网网址�
VilleneuveB次元官网网址檚 last two films, 2016B次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淎rrivalB次元官网网址� and 2017B次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淏lade Runner 2049,B次元官网网址� were each ambitious and technically daunting sci-fi movies. But as the first installment in a planned two-part epic, B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� is a gamble of another order of magnitude.
To help crack HerbertB次元官网网址檚 novel, Villeneuve partnered with screenwriters Eric Roth, whose credits include B次元官网网址淔orrest Gump,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淢unichB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淎 Star Is Born,B次元官网网址� and Jon Spaihts, who has worked on films like B次元官网网址淧rometheusB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淒octor Strange.B次元官网网址�
The Los Angeles Times spoke with the three collaborators about the principles that guided them as they took on what many consider to be the best sci-fi novel of all time.
Divide and conquer
Tackling B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� in the mid-1970s, Jodorowsky felt heB次元官网网址檇 need 10 to 14 hours of screen time to properly tell the story, crafting a script that Herbert later said was B次元官网网址渢he size of a phone book.B次元官网网址� LynchB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淒une,B次元官网网址� in turn, tried to pack the novel into a single film, resulting in what was widely deemed a confusing mess. (A three-part B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� miniseries that aired on what was then called the Sci Fi Channel in 2000 ran four-and-a-half hours in total.)
From the start, Villeneuve made clear that he would only take on B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� if he could break the book into two films. That approach made perfect sense to Legendary Entertainment, which had acquired the rights to HerbertB次元官网网址檚 work and saw the film as a way to launch a larger franchise that could leverage the novelB次元官网网址檚 numerous sequels and prequels.
B次元官网网址淚 didnB次元官网网址檛 have to fight for this idea,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淚 just said to them, B次元官网网址楪uys, the story is so rich, so complex, it takes all its strength from its details and its poetry. I truly think to do justice to the book, we should do it in two parts.B次元官网网址� And they immediately said yes.B次元官网网址�
The challenge then was to figure out how to cleave a single work into two parts in a way that felt organic and narratively satisfying. B次元官网网址淭he storytelling kind of let us know where this movie should lead us to the next one,B次元官网网址� Roth says. B次元官网网址淥ne of the wonderful things about this movie is that you really feel thereB次元官网网址檚 another journey ahead that could even be richer.B次元官网网址�
Embrace the mystery
The universe of B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� operates by its own rules, which can at times be hard to wrap your head around.
The planet Arrakis is home to giant sandworms whose larvae produce a drug colloquially called B次元官网网址渢he spiceB次元官网网址� that extends life, provides superhuman cognitive abilities and makes interstellar travel possible. An ancient, secretive order of women called the Bene Gesserit attempt to steer humanity toward a higher plane of development through genetic experimentation and the use of their own mental powers B次元官网网址� and believe that Paul may be the long-awaited messianic figure they call the Kwisatz Haderach.
B次元官网网址淔rank Herbert created a uniquely rich culture in his futuristic world,B次元官网网址� says Spaihts. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a wild and woolly universe with deep mysticism, complex politics, different rivers of thought running through it. It would be very easy to take the source material and make a cerebral project that sort of wanders off into the philosophical bushes.B次元官网网址�
For Villeneuve, figuring out how to orient the audience in this strange universe was no easy feat. B次元官网网址淭he storyline is actually pretty simple but itB次元官网网址檚 more the density of the world and how rich and complex it is,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淭he big challenge was to try not to crush the audience at the start with an insane amount of exposition. It took a long time to find the right equilibrium.B次元官网网址�
Even as he sought to ground HerbertB次元官网网址檚 story and make it comprehensible to newcomers, Villeneuve didnB次元官网网址檛 want to lose the more inexplicable qualities that had fired his own imagination at a young age.
B次元官网网址淚 love the unknown,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淚 love to feel vertigo, to feel that thereB次元官网网址檚 a door that is not open for you, that you have to peek through. ThereB次元官网网址檚 a word in French that you donB次元官网网址檛 have in English, envoutant, which means being bewitched by mystery. It was very important for me that we not explain everything.B次元官网网址�
Accentuate the feminine
The audience for science fiction tends to skew male but with B次元官网网址淒une,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve saw the opportunity to make a film with strong, fully rounded female characters, starting with Lady Jessica (Ferguson), the mother of Paul and a member of the Bene Gesserit.
B次元官网网址淎t the very beginning of the creative process, I remember Eric Roth asking me, B次元官网网址榃hat is the most important element I should focus as IB次元官网网址檓 starting to write the first draft?B次元官网网址� I said, B次元官网网址榃omen,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淭here are so many things in the book that are so relevant and so prophetic but I felt that femininity should be up front. We needed to make sure that Lady Jessica is not an expensive extra.B次元官网网址�
To further bring forward the bookB次元官网网址檚 female characters, Villeneuve made the desert-dwelling warrior Chani, played by Zendaya, a significant presence in the film despite the fact that she doesnB次元官网网址檛 appear until the second half of HerbertB次元官网网址檚 novel.
B次元官网网址淎s the movie was evolving, Chani just kept growing and growing because I just was fascinated by Zendaya and her presence and how magnetic she was,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淚 shot more and more scenes with her. We improvised stuff. I was just so inspired by her.B次元官网网址�
In one of the biggest departures from the novel, the film changes the gender of the character of Liet Kynes, a planetologist who has a deep understanding and love for Arrakis and its native people, the Fremen. In HerbertB次元官网网址檚 book, Kynes is a man but in the film she is a woman, played by British actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster.
The switch was suggested by Spaihts as a way to make the story feel more up to date.
B次元官网网址淗erbertB次元官网网址檚 novel is, to some extent, an artifact of its time and it definitely skews male in ways that donB次元官网网址檛 feel completely contemporary now,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淥f all the messages in the story, the message brought by Liet Kynes of planetary stewardship, of the preciousness of resources, of the necessity of building bridges to local communities to sustain ourselves going forward B次元官网网址� those are modern messages, and it seemed right to modernize the messenger.B次元官网网址�
Streamline judiciously
Even after splitting the book into two movies, there were still some elements that Villeneuve decided to pare back to avoid overloading the film with too many characters and subplots.
Memorably, if campily, played by Sting in LynchB次元官网网址檚 movie, the character of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen B次元官网网址� the scheming nephew of the villainous Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Skarsgard) B次元官网网址� does not appear in VilleneuveB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淒une.B次元官网网址�
At the same time, the characters of Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Piter De Vries (David Dastmalchian) B次元官网网址� cognitively super-powered B次元官网网址渕entatsB次元官网网址� who work for the Atreides and Harkonnen families, respectively B次元官网网址� have less prominent roles in the film than they do in the novel.
B次元官网网址淚 gave Denis a very full script that was probably too long and a little too fanciful in some areas,B次元官网网址� says Roth, who tackled the initial draft before Spaihts came on board. B次元官网网址淗e did what all good directors do: he edited it and also did his own writing to bring it down to size. You couldnB次元官网网址檛 have everything [in the book] B次元官网网址� it would be an eight-hour movie. You have to tell what you consider the best parts of it, the most emotional and adventurous and curious B次元官网网址� all the things that make it interesting.B次元官网网址�
That said, while the second B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� film hasnB次元官网网址檛 officially been greenlit yet, Villeneuve says some things that may have been trimmed from this installment could show up in the next one.
B次元官网网址淭here are some elements that I went a bit fast on and some characters that are less developed that IB次元官网网址檓 keeping for the second one,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淲e tried in this one to stay as close as possible to PaulB次元官网网址檚 experience. Then in the second one, I will have time to develop more some characters that were left aside a little bit. That is the theory. I hope it will work.B次元官网网址�
When in doubt, return to the book
With so much on the line, it may have been tempting to try to turn B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� into a simpler and more easily marketable kind of spectacle, downplaying the more woo-woo spiritual aspects of the story in favor of slam-bang space battles in the hopes of selling more B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� toys come Christmas. But no one involved in the film wanted to stray far from HerbertB次元官网网址檚 vision.
Author Brian Herbert, who has co-written a number of B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� prequel novels with Kevin J. Anderson that expand upon the universe that his father created and who manages the Herbert literary estate along with other family members, served as an executive producer on the film and weighed in on the script while it was being developed.
B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e very protective of their father and grandfatherB次元官网网址檚 work,B次元官网网址� Roth says of the Herbert family. B次元官网网址淏ut everybody was so true to the book. Nobody was going to try to do something that flipped it on its head.B次元官网网址� (Brian was unavailable to comment for this story but told an interviewer for the website Inverse last year that VilleneuveB次元官网网址檚 film B次元官网网址渨ill forever be considered the definitive film adaptationB次元官网网址� of his fatherB次元官网网址檚 novel.)
Asked if he ever reached out to either Jodorowsky or Lynch to get their hard-won insights on how B次元官网网址� or, perhaps more importantly, how not B次元官网网址� to wrangle B次元官网网址淒uneB次元官网网址� onto the screen, Villeneuve said he did not.
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 a big fan of both of them B次元官网网址� these are two masters,B次元官网网址� Villeneuve says. B次元官网网址淚 will say, I think if Jodorowsky had made his movie, it would have been an insanely fantastic movie. Would it have been the best B次元官网网址楧uneB次元官网网址� adaptation? I donB次元官网网址檛 know.
B次元官网网址淭he thing is, from the start, I didnB次元官网网址檛 talk about JodorowskyB次元官网网址檚 ideas or David LynchB次元官网网址檚 ideas. What I said to the studio and my crew was to start from scratch and go back to that, the essence of the book. The book was the bible. I kept saying to my crew, B次元官网网址業 want the people who love the book to feel that we put a camera in their mind as as they were reading.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址� Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times
