This is some spicy good news. The remake of Dune that had been lounging around in development hell at Paramount for the last four years is officially dead as the rights have expired. There was a lot of talk about the movie and directors were attached but ultimately it proved fruitless. Richard Rubenstein, the owner of the rights and creator of the 2000 Dune miniseries, is still looking to get the franchise off the sand again though no studio, director, or anyone is attached at this moment.
Let’s all just rejoice that this happened. I want a good Dune movie/miniseries as much as the next wormrider, but seeing it in development hell was not a good sign. True, these things take time, but it takes productive time. This was just sitting on a shelf somewhere, going nowhere, twiddling its thumbs. (Scripts have thumbs, right?) Anyway, we don’t want a repeat of the David Lynch film, do we? No, we need someone that knows how to handle the story properly. Now, apparently Rubenstein’s script (by Chase Palmer) found a way to shrink the incredible plot into something worthy of a feature, but it lingered too long and the studio lost the rights. I appreciate that they tried the miniseries, but the story needs someone like HBO behind it to really get it right. Until someone comes along with a brilliant plan and $150 million dollars, let’s leave this one alone.
Source: Deadline
