With news that director Pierre Morel has walked away from Paramount’s big-screen production of “Dune,” word out of Hollywood is that the project could be doomed.
That’s because unless Paramount can get the project up and running in the next six months or so, the studio will lose the rights to adapt the best-selling novel. The studio has asked for an extension to the window to develop the project, but the estate of author Frank Herbert and ABC have declined to extend it.
Should the clock run out, Paramount would lose the six-figures it paid to the rights to the novel as well as the investment it has made in developing the project.
However, that doesn’t mean the studio will rush to churn out any project based on the novel. According to Deadline, the price tag along for “Dune” would be over $100 million and that suits at Paramount want to make sure that the project is done right.
The novel is no stranger to the screen. It was adapted by David Lynch in the mid-80s but was a box-office failure. The film ha been re-evaluated by fans since that time and it seen as better than initially thought. The SciFi Channel also did a mini-series based on the novel, which some fans prefer to the Lynch version.
I sincerely want a *good* Dune film. I did enjoy both the Lynch film and the SciFi miniseries. But I’m re-reading the book now (yay ebooks!) and it makes me want to see it again.
I’m meh on this. I like both the Hollywood and Sci-Fi series. One for the pomp, the other for the circumstance.
I just saw Kyle Mclaughlin on an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” and I could see him playing Duke Leto Atreides.
Dunes been done… why not one of the other in the series ?
just reading today on the bbc that one of the producers of the 1984 film died. Dino De Laurentiis (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Dino_De_Laurentiis)
his work reads like a list of some of the great sci fi of all time. barbarella, conan, flash gordon not to mention the hannibal movies.
never realised that one guy was behind so many of the gilms that i liked.
This kind of thing has happened before. All Paramount has to do is shoot something, anything; they don’t even have to release it, and they can keep the rights to Dune.