IGN wrote:Dune's New Messiah
IGN's exclusive chat with the latest director to take on the classic novel.
There have been filmed versions of Dune done before, of course, and there have also been more than a few failed cinematic takes on the classic Frank Herbert sci-fi novel that never got off the ground. But the feeling remains among fans, and apparently Hollywood too, that the tale has yet to be properly, fully adapted.
Enter French director Pierre Morel, who is the latest filmmaker to attempt to take control of Herbert's space-saga like a Fremen riding a sandworm. IGN spoke to Morel today about his plans for the epic, which he's developing for Paramount. Morel, who also directed Taken and has From Paris with Love coming out next week, inherited the project from Peter Berg, who left to make Battleship. Berg was working with a script by Joshua Zetumer, but Morel is jettisoning that version of Herbert's tale.
"We're starting from scratch," says Morel. "Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again. I don't think we're going to keep any elements of the Peter Berg script. It was good, actually. It was interesting. It was just not our vision. I can't tell you right now [who's writing it with me], it's going to be official next week. The deals are not done!"
The helmer does confirm that right now and for the next couple of months he will be focusing on developing Dune, and that he and his mystery scribes will start writing the screenplay in early February. Still, he seems cautious when talking about it -- as if he doesn't want to jinx his good fortune of landing the project.
"Dune is such a huge, huge project," he says. "It's big, it's challenging, it's long-term -- we're only starting. We have to rewrite the script, we have to develop a whole universe. It's going to be a long thing, so who knows. But I'm passionate about Dune so I'd love to do it next."
He says it's an intimidating film to undertake, especially since he's personally such a big fan of the series of books.
"It's tricky. Everybody refers to both the book and to David Lynch's film, which was in a way a monument to the '80s," he laughs. "It became a huge event. It didn't do well theatrically, I think, but in a way it kind of marked and printed an image on Dune. Everybody now who reads Dune reads it with David Lynch's images in mind. So we have to get away from that. It's not a remake of David Lynch's movie. We're doing a re-reading, a brand new approach on the book, a very true approach to the book, the original material. So we will have to deal with trying to erase the image that David Lynch did so we can propose our image."
One of the great difficulties of adapting the book is the delicate matter of the inner monologues, where the reader hears the thoughts of the characters. Lynch's version attempted to reconcile this situation with strange sort of quasi-narrations, but Morel acknowledges that this is an element that needs to be addressed in his version.
"That's one of the challenges, yes," he says. "Everything that is in Paul's head, we'll have to show it on screen and find the right approach to make it visually interesting. But I think the technology we have now allows us much more than we could do before, so we'll see."
And speaking of technology, Morel also addressed the most obvious question that comes up these days regarding any big-budget sci-fi movie: 3D or not 3D?
"I don't know," he laughs. "It's so early in the project that we haven't had that conversation yet. I'd love it to be 3D, of course. It's the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D. Will they do it in 3D? I'd push for that, but I don't know. As a viewer, I've just been watching Avatar with my kids twice in the theater already and had a blast. It's an amazing experience."