The latest news from the US suggests that director Pierre Morel has ended his involvement with Paramount’s adaptation, leaving the sci-fi project hanging in the balance...
History has already demonstrated that Dune films are nigh-on impossible to make. From Alejandro Jodorowsky's doomed (and spectacular-sounding) attempt to bring Frank Herbert's sprawling sci-fi story to the screen in the 70s, to the commercial flop that was David Lynch's movie that ultimately appeared in 1984, you'd be forgiven for thinking that any attempt to make a further Dune film would amount to financial suicide.
But despite its financial failure, there were inarguably some quite brilliant moments in Lynch's Dune, in spite of its flaws, and there's potentially enough dramatic material in Herbert's novels to make an entire series of films.
Yet, the latest news from the US indicates that even the most recent attempts to again adapt Dune for the big screen have been beset with difficulties. According to Deadline, the project's latest director, Pierre Morel, who previously helmed such films as Taken and From Paris With Love, has recently quit.
Morel follows in the footsteps of the project's last director, Peter Berg, who bowed out of the production some time ago to direct an adaptation of the board game Battleship.
This leaves Paramount's adaptation of Dune hanging in the balance, and unless a replacement director can be found soon, the studio may yet be forced to cut its losses and cancel the movie altogether.
The rights holders have given Paramount until next spring to organise a firm shoot date for the picture, and are unwilling to provide the studio with another extension.
More news on Paramount's Dune adaptation as we get it.
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