Legendary Entertainment has acquired both film and television rights to Frank Herbert‘s classic science fiction novel, Dune.
This is not the first time Dune rights have been acquired for television and film since the book was published in 1965. The most well known adaptation is the 1984 David Lynch movie staring Sting and Patrick Stewart. While the movie wasn’t a critical favorite, it did catch the attention of science fiction fans and has gone on to become a cult classic. More recently, there was a Dune television mini-series in 2000, and a Children of Dune mini-series in 2003. Unfortunately, neither series gained much traction and have largely been forgotten.
This deal opens the door for Legendary to develop a television series or movie franchise. They could even go the route of Marvel and develop an interconnected world on both silver and small screens. There is definitely more than enough material in the series to do it. There are six books in the series written by Frank Herbert himself. After those, his son, Brian Herbert, with Kevin J. Anderson wrote fourteen more installments.
It’s unclear if all the Dune books are included in the deal or if only the first one. If the deal is only for the one book, it still sets up the possibility of a movie franchise or television series as the subject matter requires more than two hours to do it justice.
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family–and would bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is one of the grandest epics in science fiction.
Any film or TV project through this current Herbert estate deal will be produced by Thomas Tull, Mary Parent and Cale Boyter, with Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert serving as executive producers.
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