It looks like Peter Berg’s version of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” may be getting its writer — or at least according to The Hollywood Reporter, who says that Josh Zetumer is currently in negotiations for the job. Herbert’s sprawling book was made once into a movie, in 1984 by David Lynch, which I actually kind of liked; it was followed up with a 2000 mini-series on the Sci Fi Channel that I also liked. The mini-series proved successful enough to spawn a sequel, “Children of Dune”.
THR has more:
The “Dune” property, one of the best-selling science fiction series of all time, has spawned an enormous and devoted fan base and could provide a lucrative new franchise for Paramount. The studio is running hot off its blockbuster launch of “Iron Man” and its resurrection of the “Indiana Jones” juggernaut.
No one involved would comment on Zetumer’s take on the “Dune” saga. The writer, repped by UTA and Management 360, also has “Villain” at 2929 Prods. and “The Infiltrator” set up at Warner Bros. He most recently did production work on the next Bond film, “Quantum of Solace.”
I seriously don’t know how you would turn Herbert’s massive tome (544 pages!) into a movie that’ll be even remotely faithful. The book is just bloody ginormous. I suppose they could cut the thing up into sections, and do a trilogy just for this one book…
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having just got around to renting that latest Indiana Jones movie and forcing myself to sit through it to the end, all I gotta say is, “SOMEONE KILL THAT WRITER BEFORE HE KILLS US WITH DISGUST AND DISSAPOINTMENT”
Gawd….WTF was that writer thinking? Bigger still, what was Spielburg thinking letting this one happen? Crap. Utter and completely over the top crap. A two hour movie that if you removed all the extremely bad chase scenes, you were left with 30 minutes of actual story.
Which leads me to ask this all important question. That writers guild strike we had to endure a while back…those guys are getting better pay for shittier story lines it would seem. I mean, Knight Rider (crap stories), Flash Gordon (crap series in its entirety) just to name a few. Enough with the crap or I will never rent a movie or go to the theater again. I’ll wait for a screen capture bit torrent release for everything if that is the quality I can expect.