According to Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb there’s really only one reason why David Lynch doesn’t have any desire to watch the upcoming Dune remake, and it has a lot to do with his own inability to push forth the project that he created years ago. His own version of Dune, starring Kyle McLachlan and Patrick Stewart, wasn’t readily accepted by the fans that had read Frank Herbert’s novel and was for the most part a huge failure that Lynch didn’t take very well. His own version that he wished to push would have been around three hours long, and at that time such a length would have been interminable to many people since sitting in the theater today for that long is still hard to do. The best that Lynch could have hoped for was to create a TV miniseries that would have spanned for two to three parts and thus given him a lot more leeway when it came to telling the story. Unfortunately the version that people saw was missing quite a few parts and as a result the story line suffered horribly and the overall reaction was less than what was desired. Personally I happened to like the 1984 version but obviously came to it later when the effects were a little less impressive thanks to the advances made in the 90s. The next version of Dune to come after Lynch’s however was interesting but somehow not quite as satisfying.
This upcoming movie looks as though it might take full advantage of the effects and the story as it delves in Herbert’s vision once again, but Lynch isn’t going to bother with it. On one hand a person might call him bitter and resentful. It could appear that he can’t just suck up the failure and move on and is bound and determined to hate something that he did with such a passion that he’s going to take it out on another artist by snubbing him completely. That’s not the case really but it might look that. Instead it’s more or less because Lynch felt that he could have done better with his own version of Herbert’s story and watching another version would be a painful reminder of this. Allie Gemmill of Collider has more to say on this topic. Some might cling to the idea that Lynch is being a little naive and even vain in his decision, but that’s not for any of us to decide. There are those directors that can learn from their mistakes and pass the torch easily to another director that might be able to take on the same project and do well with it. But then there are those that bring themselves to watch a movie that they’ve already made being given yet another version by another director. Lynch’s reasoning does sound like an excuse right off the bat but at the same time it sounds reasonable enough to cut him some slack when it comes to why he won’t watch the upcoming movie.
Dune was obviously meant to be viewed in its entirety since there are simply too many elements that are crucial to the story and can’t be easily pared down or done away with in the name of expediency or efficiency. This next attempt will span two movies, which is far more appropriate since it gives the necessary time and space to work with the story and to explore the characters and their relationships to each other. It will also be bringing in an entirely new cast of characters that are, for the most part, very well known in today’s era as some of the biggest stars around. From Jason Momoa to Zendaya to Timothee Chalet there are going to be plenty of familiar faces on screen that a lot of people might find themselves cheering for or wishing had been replaced by someone else. It might be that this new version of Dune will see plenty of criticism since whether the characters feel right or not for their given roles there are bound to be some folks that think that the entire thing could have done better. But as it’s been seen throughout history the worst critic that any director or actor could ever deal with is the person in the mirror. Dealing with fan disappointment is fairly easy since fans can be ignored and discounted unless there are too many of them saying the same thing. The doubts in a person’s head though are harder to get away from and tend to make a person more critical of themselves than anyone else could hope to be.
Whether Lynch relents and changes his mind or keeps his word and doesn’t bother with the movie when it comes out isn’t that important really since like it or not, Dune is happening again and despite his own perceived failure, Lynch did what he could decades ago. The 1984 version really wasn’t that bad.
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Why yet ANOTHER remake of original movie? Why can’t film makers make films the rest of the series?
Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, Heretics of Dune, God Emporer Dune, Chapter House Dune.
6 books in the entire series, but only 1 film based on the first book and a lame atttempt at combining the rest into a 3 part series entitled “Children of Dune”.
Frank Herbet was an amazing writer with the ability to embed many simultaneous plots into a single book and how he kept track of them all is a total mystery. So many factions, each having their own agenda including the Bene Gesseret, the Navigators Guild and Tleilaxu (or Bene Tleilax) who created the Ghola and Mentats, that’s before you consider the houses of Harkonnen, Atreides and Corrino and of course, the Fremen. I am quite sure if the worms weren’t depicted as mindless beasts, they would have had an agenda that would have been woven into the novels too.
It’s sad that the original film didn’t explore all those plots deeply enough and more films, one for each of the 5 remaining books should have been made. The original film only really focussed on the Atreides plot with occasional nods to the Bene Gesserit plan for the Kwisatz Haderach, the Navigators Guild was seen no more after the opening scene and the Bene Tleilax were never mentioned beyond the navigators ramblings of “Many machines on Ix”.
In reality, these 6 books could have been made into a long running series with weekly episodes, much like the Stargate series. If they do Frank Herbert the honour of keeping to his original story, padding it out a bit to make each episode last the 45 minutes or so, I feel it could be a big hit. There is enough information in the books to enable script writers to create a script for those other factions to give viewers an idea of their plans.
You make a very good point and I would love to give you a definitive answer on why there’s no real innovation left in Hollywood but the best I can do is repeat what everyone else says these days, reboots, sequels, and remakes are considered reliable since they’re being made based on formulas that have worked in the past. I agree with you entirely, there’s SO much more to the story of Dune that could be unveiled and it would likely run on for years at this point without getting old. Unfortunately everyone has their version of the story that they want to tell, but maybe if this version is popular enough they’ll keep going with it finally. It’s something to hope for. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.