Frank Herbert’s Son Visited ‘Dune’ Set and Said It’ll ‘Forever Be the Definitive Adaptation’

Zack Sharf
·2 min read
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Brian Herbert, son of legendary “Dune” author Frank Herbert, had one major takeaway after visiting the Budapest set of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of his father’s science-fiction epic: “It will forever be considered the definition adaptation” of the book (via Inverse). Villeneuve’s “Dune” is backed by Legendary and Warner Bros. and features a star-studded cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Mamoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, and Stellan Skarsgard. The film was originally scheduled to open in theaters December 18, but the pandemic pushed the tentpole into October 2021.

Prior to Villeneuve’s anticipated take on Herbert’s novel, other attempts to adapt “Dune” for the screen mostly failed. Alejandro Jodorowsky famously tried to get a “Dune” movie off the ground in the 1970s but the project never made it past the development stage. David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation was a critical failure, one that remains a tragic experience for the director after his creative control was taken away by the studio.

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Lynch’s “Dune” was followed by director John Harrison’s “Frank Herbert’s Dune,” a three-part miniseries that aired on Sci Fi Channel in 2000 and won Emmys for Outstanding Cinematography and Outstanding Special Visual Effects. None of these “Dune” adaptations come close to Villeneuve’s achievement, according to Brian Herbert.

“I was very impressed by the trailer, and I was thrilled to actually be on the movie set in Budapest last year, where my wife and I watched the filming of several scenes,” Brian Herbert told Inverse about Villeneuve’s adaptation. “This is a really big movie, a major project that will forever be considered the definitive film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic novel. Fans are going to love this movie. Denis Villeneuve is the perfect director to do ‘Dune.'”

“Dune” co-star David Dastmalchian shared similar thoughts over a year ago when he promised fans that Villeneuve’s adaptation would remain faithful to Herbert’s novel. The actor added about the film, “I can just tell you that that old phrase ‘true to the spirit’ or ‘honoring the spirit of’ [applies]…it’s absolutely true to and in honor of everything that Frank put into the novel.”

Brian Herbert is the author of the new “Dune” prequel comic book, published by BOOM! Studios earlier this year. Both the comic and Villeneuve’s film were set to arrive back to back for “Dune” fans, but now the movie adaptation isn’t debuting until October 1, 2021. Warner Bros. announced this week that “Dune” will open in theaters at the same time it becomes available to stream on HBO Max for 31 days.

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