Legendary Films now has the TV and movie rights for Dune

I’ve always thought of Dune as one of the weirdest sci-fi properties out there. It is epic stuff, no doubt about that, but it’s essentially a series about royal families going to war over the best spice in the galaxy just so that they can shave a few years off of their interstellar travel by hideously mutating people into navigators. I mean, imagine going to war over the contents of your spice rack, just because it could give you visions, maaaaaaaaaan.

Anyway, while Dune is built on a bonkers concept, the resulting media that spawned out of it was brilliant stuff. The original Frank Herbert saga stretched across several books, the Westwood strategy games were the stuff of legend and once you saw Sting in his Harkonnen speedo you’d forever be altered. David Lynch’s original 1984 movie is the weirdest of high concept science fiction sagas, while the series lived on decades later in an original TV mini-series that was far more faithful to the original books.

The third time may be the charm however, as the house of Godzilla and Pacific Rim has managed to get their hands on the film rights for Herbert’s epic tale of worms and sand. Legendary Pictures announced yesterday via Collider that they now have film and TV rights to Dune that will have Thomas Tull, Mary Parent, and Cale Boyter working as producers. Frank Herbert estate heads Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, and Kim Herbert will serve as executive producers, as a new synopsis for the series was posted online as well:

Set in the distant future, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides whose family accepts control of the desert planet Arrakis. As the only producer of a highly valuable resource, control of Arrakis is highly contested among the noble families. After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship to nature as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s control of Arrakis.

Cool stuff! Now bear in mind that Legendary can produce anything from an actual movie through to an animated series if the fancy strikes them, and we’ve got the making of something that could be special here. Bear in mind that Dune has been notoriously difficult to properly adapt because of the way it crafted its mythos, but it’s still worth pursuing.

Something that Alejandro Jodorowsky discovered in the 1970s.

Last Updated: November 22, 2016