20 facts you might not know about 'Dune'

In 1965, sci-fi writer Frank Herbert wrote the sprawling science-fiction novel Dune. The original story covers over 400 pages and was a big success. It won a Hugo and a Nebula and ended up the first book in a series that ended in 1985.

People said Dune was unfilmable, but that didn’t stop some from trying. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed try became so infamous that it became the focus of a documentary. David Lynch did complete an adaptation in 1984, but it was a flop. There was also a miniseries in 2000 that basically nobody remembers. And yet, they decided to try again.

In September 2016, Villeneuve mentioned wanting to direct an adaptation of Dune, calling it a “longstanding dream.” However, at the time the rights were up for grabs, and Villeneuve didn’t think he would be able to make it happen. Then, that November, Legendary got the rights to Dune. The following February, Frank Herbert’s son Brian announced that Villeneuve would be directing this adaptation.

Dune is a massive book, and Villeneuve seemed to sense that turning it into one movie was not manageable. Calling the book “too complex,” Villeneuve requested the opportunity to turn the book into two films. While producers agreed to let his first film focus on the first half of the book, they also didn’t sign off on a two-picture deal, meaning that the second film was not guaranteed.

Three people collaborated on the screenplay for Dune, which, as you know now, could be called Dune: Part One. One of them is big-time screenwriter Eric Roth, who wrote movies like Munich, The Insider, and Forrest Gump, which won him an Oscar. Later, Jon Spaihts was added as another writer. He’s used to collaborating. He doesn’t have a single solo screenwriting credit. That being said, he’s written on movies such as Prometheus and Doctor Strange.

Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays the role of Dr. Liet-Kynes, an ecologist on Arrakis. This is a notable change from the book. In Herbert’s novel, Liet-Kynes is a man, but her character is female in the film.

Skarsgard plays the primary antagonist of the story, Baron Harkonnen. The Baron has unusual physiology that has been described as a “rhino in human form.” While the Baron has a small role in the first half of Dune, Skarsgard had to sit through seven hours of makeup every day he was shooting.

Hans Zimmer, perhaps the most famous film composer working today, give or take John Williams, had an offer to do the score for Tenet. That makes sense, given that Christopher Nolan and Zimmer are synonymous. Zimmer was also offered the chance to score Dune, and he couldn’t do both. Zimmer went with Dune, as he loved the novel.

We spend time on a couple of planets in Dune, which meant spending time in different shooting locations. For Caladan, they filmed on the Stadlandet Peninsula in Norway. The Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates was used as part of the desert planet Arrakis, and for that, the Wadi Rum in Jordan was important.

The sandworms of Arrakis are a big part of the lore of Dune. They waited until the very end of the first trailer to unveil a sandworm for a reason. Villeneuve and his crew put a lot of thought into creating their look. They wanted something that felt “prehistoric” and were influenced by whales. Ultimately, they spent a year designing the sandworms.

In David Lynch’s adaptation, Sting (yes, that Sting) plays the character of Feyd-Rautha. However, you won’t find Feyd-Rautha in Dune at all. The general feeling seems to be that his role has been folded into David Bautista’s character of Glossu Rabban, the nephew of Baron Harkonnen.

In the novel, Paul Atreides is 15 years old. While Timothee Chalamet looks young, he’s not that young. When he began filming, Chalamet was 23. Granted, that’s still closer than in Lynch’s film. Kyle MacLachlan played Paul in his Dune, and he was 25 at the time.

Linguist David J. Peterson is probably the only renowned language creator going today. He’s the guy who created the languages of Dothraki and Valyrian for Game of Thrones, which gave him a lot of cache. Peterson worked on Dune as well, creating the Fremen language.

With some movie productions, you hear about all the actors up for certain roles and lengthy casting sessions. That evidently wasn’t the case with Dune. By all accounts, Villeneuve got his first choice for almost everybody. One notable role that involved some more extensive work was Chani. Ultimately, Zendaya won the role based on her chemistry with Chalamet.

Dune, unfortunately, got caught up in the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially scheduled for a release on November 20, 2020, which got pushed back a couple of times until it eventually landed on October 22, 2021. However, it was also announced it would be released simultaneously on HBO Max. This was greeted with disappointment by Legendary and Villeneuve. He even contributed a column to Variety to express his disappointment.

The trailer for Dune did not tell the full picture. For example, it would have led you to believe that Zendaya is a crucial character. However, Chani barely appears in the first film. Watching the movie was also the first time you were told that this was, in fact, only part one of the story.

The pandemic cut into the film’s opportunity to make money, and the same goes for the HBO Max release. However, Dune still made quite a bit of cash worldwide. Off of a budget of $165 million, it earned $397 million.

Villeneuve managed to avoid the perils of filming the unfilmable. Not only did the movie make money worldwide, but it also has gotten a lot of critical adoration. Both AFI and the National Board of Review named it one of the top 10 movies of the year. It’s gotten wins and nominations for all sorts of critic groups, the Golden Globes, and even a Grammy nomination for Hans Zimmer.

While Dune: Part Two wasn’t officially greenlit when the first movie was announced, they didn’t wait long to make it a reality. Though it was likely inevitable, the sequel to Dune was greenlit on October 26, 2021, less than a week after it was released. Dune: Part Two is currently scheduled for a release in October 2023.

This time, Legendary is happy to give a project to HBO Max. A TV series called Dune: The Sisterhood has been announced for the streaming service. It will focus on Bene Gesserit, the mysterious order of women with supernatural powers. Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts were originally going to be working on the show, but with the sequel in the works, they are no longer all that active on the project, though both are still executive producers.