Editing Dune (section)

== The films ==
Dune has become quite well known for being considered almost impossible to make an adaptation of. There have been several attempts, some more successful than others.

Alejandro Jodorowsky, a French-Chilean director that made balls-to-the-walls experimental movies, was slated to direct a '' very loose'' (by his own account, "I was raping Frank Herbert... with love.” ), film adaptation with set design from H.R. Giger, effects by Dan O'Bannon, conceptual art by comic book artist Moebius, music from Pink Floyd and Magma, and starring Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, David Carradine, and Mick Jagger, though sadly it ran out of money in pre-production. Even if it has never been realized, it has a cult following for just the possibilities of "what could've been", even though it would take the already psychedelic book and ramp the weirdness up to eleven and it would have been at least 14 to 20 hours long. The failed production would also be very influential in later science fiction films; Giger and O'Bannon would go on to contribute to the production of ''Alien'', and many of its sets were recycled by George Lucas in ''[[Star Wars]]''.

The David Lynch movie absolutely sucked in that it managed to make an already very weird book into an even weirder movie (<s>saying this out loud is a good way to troll hipsters</s> Not really. Even Lynch knew it sucked, as evidenced by the fact he had his name removed from the television cut). If you want a good laugh I'd suggest you watch it -- it's not often that you'll see a fetal manatee shit/barf lasers. It's a classic case of Hollywood taking an amazing work of art and deciding "the audience" won't like it, so they got rid of the parts they didn't understand. If you've read the book, the butchery is even more <s>hilarious</s> <s>cringe-worthy</s> full of [[lulz]], though I suggest you don't watch the movie first. Who, after all, would want to read ''The Odyssey'' after seeing the movie? I'd suggest you see the movie as well, as it is also <s>''that bad''</s> awesome. Good soundtrack though. The film is still a worthwhile experience just for the setting, but absolutely fails at making the narrative compelling. Also Herbert liked it, and even Villeneuve took design cues from it. Finally, there is a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yw2nGCUPa4&t=0s| 3 hour fan edit of David Lynch's film]; this is the best version one could watch (unless Lynch finally decides to release a Director's Cut), since it ties up loose ends and reorganises some scenes for better pacing. 

The Syfy Channel produced two six-hour mini-series based on the first three books. Their budget was low (it has the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' problem of painfully crude CGI), and many of the costume choices are downright ridiculous; instead of going with the Geiger-esque alien futurism of the Lynch film, or the grounded reality of the Villeneuve film, this aesthetic can be described as “flamboyant local theater costume department in overdrive”.  However, they do manage to touch on each of the important plot points from those books and there's no skimping on the action to make "weirding module" toys to be sold as merchandise.  Worth watching for what it is, and not ironically like the abortion above.  If you watch both you can imagine how much better it would have been with the budget and actors Lynch had at his disposal.  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShlhYT4FxGI Also the soundtrack for the second instalment is dope; same guy who did Thor: The Dark World.]

Denis Villeneuve of ''Arrival'' and ''Sicario'' fame made his own adaptation in 2021, adapting only the first half of the original novel. Villeneuve's movie was a marked improvement over any previous adaptions- it has all of Villeneuve's flair for well crafted visuals and big ideas, and captures the mood and pace of the book much more than Lynch's. The pacing is much, ''much'' better as well, since it's not burdened by trying to cram the whole book into one movie. The transition from page to film has it's upsides and downsides - book lovers will be very pleased by the attention to detail, but the film itself is very dense and filled with near endless exposition and talking/scheming, which may bore people going in expecting a non-stop sci-fi war film (which the new trailers were really trying to convince us of), although anyone who's read the book before is likely expecting this. The visuals are very, very impressive (The scene where the Sardaukar are introduced ''will'' make you cream your pants, even if you don't know anything about the setting). You can't say Villeneuve didn't pour his heart into it.

There ''have'' been some changes made to the story. For example they seem to have simplified the Fremen's story; in the film, they rose up and were defeated by the Harkonnens, which lead to their situation, while in the original book it was shown they were intentionally avoiding conflict with the Harkonnens and were deliberately hiding their numbers. Luckily there isn't much that would drastically change any upcoming events, but there remains the possibility that the films may not finish exactly like the books. Which to be honest is understandable, Herbert's books can have a tendency to disappear up its own ass (making the story overtly 
more complicated for its own sake, even when a simpler narrative would be objectively better) that some simplifications in some areas might even be a blessing and be at least more understandable to general audiences (which to be fair this series desperately needs if made into movies). Still no all black-blue eyes Fremens.

A second movie has been announced for release on November 3rd of 2023.