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Since it was first published in 1965, Frank Herbert’s Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning science fiction novel, Dune](Amazon.com), has spawned six direct sequels penned in Herbert’s lifetime, a still ongoing series of prequels and sequels written by his son, Brian, with Kevin Anderson, a commercially unsuccessful 1984 big-screen adaptation directed by David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet), a 2000 miniseries made for the Sci-Fi Channel, followed by a miniseries that covered Herbert’s second and third novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, and if Paramount’s announcement two years ago holds, another big-screen adaptation slated for a 2012 release.
Lynch’s film may have been the first adaptation of Herbert’s novel, but it wasn’t the first attempt. Pre-Star Wars, George Lucas was interested in adapting Dune, but the film rights were unavailable. Lucas paid homage to *Dune *by setting some of the action in Star Wars on a desert planet, Tatooine. In the mid-1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, El Topo, Santa Sangre) attempted to bring Dune to the big screen with his son playing the central character, Paul Atreides, Orson Welles as the villainous Baron Harkonnen, and Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam IV. Jodorowsky hired Jean Giraud (Moebius) and H.R. Giger (Alien) as concept artists. Production stopped before principal photography began. Dino De Laurentiis picked up the film rights and eventually chose Lynch to direct.Filed under: Classics, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount
Continue reading Concept Art for Peter Berg’s Unrealized ‘Dune’ Project