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“May thy knife chip and shatter.” This past weekend, moviegoing audiences returned to the spice-filled world of Arrakis via the wide theatrical release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, which has received widespread critical acclaim. Now that giant sandworms, moisture-protecting stillsuits, and mystical Kwisatz Haderach prophecies are back in the cultural conversation, Universal Pictures decided to join the fun with a reminder of how it distributed the OG film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel that inspired the likes of Star Wars and Game of Thrones.
Posting to the Universal Pictures All-Access YouTube channel, the studio shared an extended preview of the 1984 film adaptation helmed by a young David Lynch (now available from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). While initially lambasted upon its initial debut in late 1984, Lynch’s take on the purportedly “unfilmable” source material has since gained a sizable cult following worthy of the Lisan al Gaib.
The 10-minute sneak peek begins with Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (José Ferrer) detailing his plan to destroy House Atreides. Duke Leto (Jürgen Prochnow) and his family will be lured to Arrakis under the auspices of taking over the all-important production of spice melange (the highly coveted substance that makes interstellar travel possible). Once the Atreides are exposed out in the open, Baron Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan) will wipe them out with a little help from the Emperor’s Sardaukar fighters. We then cut to Caladan, where young Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), still naive and bright-eyed, receives some impromptu combat training from Gurney Halleck (Patrick Stewart).
For More on Dune:
Exclusive: ‘Dune’ expands Gurney Halleck’s story with ‘The Waters of Kanly’ comics miniseries
Whatever happens in ‘Dune: Part Two,’ Javier Bardem just wants to ride a sandworm
Walmart’s limited edition home release of ‘Dune’ is shaped like the Bene Gesserit Pain Box
Check Out an Extended Preview from 1984’s Dune, David Lynch’s Wild Film Adaptation
What Happened to David Lynch’s Dune?
After Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott failed to get their visions of a Dune adaptation off the ground, Lynch (then hot off the success of 1980’s The Elephant Man) was brought onto the project, which needed to condense almost 900 pages of super-dense world-building into a runtime of just over two hours. A herculean task for even the most veteran filmmaker. Released into theaters just before Christmas 1984, Dune was a critical and box office failure, grossing just $30 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million. As we alluded to above, the movie has since been reappraised by viewers as a wildly ambitious and misunderstood Hollywood effort.
SYFY later gave the unwieldy mythos the breathing room it really needed with two miniseries adaptations in 2000 and 2003, which adapted the first (Dune) and third (Children of Dune) books in Frank Herbert’s original trilogy.
David Lynch’s Dune is now available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
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