More Space Opera On The Way, Legendary Picks Up Dune Rights

[Darth Godzilla]

Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Fox's upcoming Avatar films and their maybe upcoming Flash Gordon—now one more can be added to that list as Legendary has picked up the film and TV rights for Dune. This new agreement calls for the development and production of possible film and TV projects for a global audience.

[codystarbuck]

Well, good luck with that. Many have tried, none succeeded to any great degree. I enjoy the lynch film and the Sci-Fi Channel attempt (here and there); but, it's a dense one to adapt.

[batnbreakfast]

When I first stumbled upon Game of Thrones it really made me often think of Dune (different houses battle for spice/Dune/Iron Throne and extreme weather conditions). The 1st novel was a book I held in high regard, so... yay more Dune

[a moment closer]

This is the time to do it. TV would be best to adapt this series. I hope they'd start with the prequel storyline of the Houses that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson wrote. It is a great trilogy that is more rooted in human experiences everyone can relate to or understand. The more fantastical elements of Dune are in the background and can be slowly introduced allowing new viewers to enjoy the character interactions without feeling too overwhelmed. It would show how this universe works, who the players are, what the governing bodies are, what the religious ideals are, what spice is and why it is so important. It really would be the perfect way to build this universe for viewers so that they keep interested in it.

[Darth Godzilla]

They'd probably have to do it as a movie first just to build all sets, do all the costumes, and have the CGI or whatever looking good just so they could have the budget to not make it look like a tv show. Doing Dune, and making it actually look good isn't something they can really do on a tv budget. Probably not even on a crazy tv budget.

[Sighphi]

if this is a movie it better be a trilogy. This is something i would be fine being a trilogy.

[TomServofan]

HBO is a best bet for a Dune series as it is better suited that way since some say the books are unfilmable and it's true but a show can do Herbert's masterpiece justice.

I totally hated both the Lynch monstrosity and the Sci-fi channel mini-series but Children of Dune was good but that's all.

[wjowski]

There's no way you can do Dune in a single movie, or probably even a series of movies. You're talking about a single book that's more dense than the entire LotR trilogy.

[Jared]

If you distill Dune down enough to be one movie, you end with a very cliched "rrr, I must avenge my father get powers and become a messiah in space!" story. What would be the selling point, more realistic-looking sandworms than were possible before?

It really would work much better for high-end TV. Pitch it as Game of Thrones in Space. Maybe take some elements from the prequel novels just so Leto is built up a lot more.