Denis Villeneuve will direct the upcoming Dune reboot. The news was confirmed Wednesday morning in a tweet by Brian Herbert, the son of Frank, the author of the classic 1965 novel.
Often touted as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, Dune was made into a film in 1984, written and directed by David Lynch and starring Kyle MacLachlan. The film was received poorly by critics and Lynch has since distanced himself from the project. It has, however, gone on to gain cult status among devoted cinephiles.
Villeneuve may well be nominated for an Academy Award for Arrival this year, but the 49-year-old French-Canadian will need to be at his best to capture this supposedly "unfilmable" story. Before Lynch, Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky notoriously spent $2 million in pre-production (Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and Pink Floyd were all set to be involved) only for it never to come to fruition. The unrealized project was the subject of Frank Pavich’s documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.
Fingers crossed Villeneuve can pull this one off. Stay tuned for more information.
In other movie news, Diego Luna will play Tony Montana in a Scarface remake.
