Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is being hailed as a sci-fi epic and the film’s box office just proves this description. Villeneuve was a long-time fan of Frank Herbert’s novel and revealed that a young Paul Atreides’ story influenced him in a way to venture into filmmaking. However, he was not completely satisfied by the first cinematic adaptation of the novel by David Lynch.
The Mulholland Drive director’s film received criticism upon release for its not-so-accurate adaptation of the novel’s essence. Lynch largely tried to disassociate himself from the film due to the negative comments and box office failure, but the film has a cult following among certain fans.
Denis Villeneuve Was Unimpressed By David Lynch’s Adaptation Of Dune
Denis Villeneuve is on cloud nine with his latest film, Dune: Part Two. The Timothée Chalamet-led film has crossed $500 million at the global box office (via Collider). The Sicario director managed to add several elements to his favorite work that elevated the whole movie experience. Frank Herbert‘s novel’s protagonist influenced Villeneuve who found the idea of a boy finding home in a foreign land and adapting to their culture as super interesting.
During an interview with NPR’s podcast Fresh Air, Villeneuve shared that he and a friend began drafting storyboards for a hypothetical film adaptation. When David Lynch‘s adaptation finally hit theaters in 1984, Villeneuve was eager to see the vision that the director had created from the books.
While the Blade Runner 2049 filmmaker admitted that he was mesmerized and impressed by Lynch’s approach, he shared that he disliked some of the choices in the film. Villeneuve shared with NPR’s Fresh Air:
“I was very excited when I learned that the book would be brought to the screen. I remember watching the movie and being very mesmerized and impressed by how David Lynch approached it. I was destabilized by some of his choices.”
Villeneuve respected Lynch’s choices as a filmmaker and even shared that he did a fantastic interpretation of Herbert’s novel. However, some of his choices did not appeal to the Arrival director’s sensibility. He particularly was not impressed by how David Lynch captured the essence of the Fremen culture in the film. Villeneuve further added:
“Yeah, David Lynch has a very strong identity as a filmmaker, of course, and it bled into the — it’s a fantastic interpretation of the book. But there were some choices that were made that was very far away from my sensibility. […] Because I didn’t feel that he captured some of the essence of, specifically, the Fremen culture — I felt that there was some things that were missing.”
Villeneuve was sure that someone was bound to make another adaptation in the future as Lynch’s storytelling had a lot of missing elements. He added that he was “still pinching” himself as he never envisioned him to be the one making the Dune adaptation almost four decades after Lynch’s film.
How Did Denis Villeneuve Make His Films Stand Out From The Book And David Lynch’s Dune?
Denis Villeneuve made several changes to the books that elevated his story for modern audiences. Villeneuve shared with Empire that he wanted to “bring more femininity” to the story and gave some amazing character arcs to the female characters. He changed the Bene Gesserit from traditional female roles to strong characters in the film, with a highlight performance from Rebecca Ferguson, who played Lady Jessica.
Villeneuve also changed Zendaya’s Chani from just being a love interest of Paul to a Fremen non-believer who challenges the idea of the Bene Gesserit (via Den of Greek). Apart from these changes, Villeneuve also carefully adapted Herbert’s exposition-heavy Dune finale to a streamlined movie. This writing process took months as he wanted the visuals to speak louder and the dialogues to be economical.
Denis Villeneuve also compressed the timeframe of the events from the books to give Paul’s story some “momentum” and keep him “more on edge”. Dune: Part Two is now running successfully in theaters. Dune is available for streaming on Max.
