Dune (1984) is a confounding, often-incomprehensible movie, which is to say, it’s a David Lynch movie. But unlike earlier works like Eraserhead and The Elephant Man and later masterpieces like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, there’s something… off about it. Dune has its hardcore defenders, of course, but even Denis Villeneuve, who directed the 2020 adaptation, admits he felt “half satisfied” while watching Lynch’s most expensive film.
“I’m a big David Lynch fan, he’s the master,” the Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival filmmaker told Empire. “When I saw [Lynch]’s Dune, I remember being excited, but his take… there are parts that I love and other elements that I am less comfortable with. So it’s like, I remember being half-satisfied. That’s why I was thinking to myself, there’s still a movie that needs to be made about that book, just a different sensibility.”
That “different sensibility” involves Big Dave looking like helmet-less Vader. I can’t wait.
Anyway, Villeneuve was respectful in his criticism of 1984’s Dune, but no one (with the exception of Roger Ebert) has fewer kind things to say about the film than Alan Smithee, I mean, David Lynch. “With Dune, I sold out on that early on, because I didn’t have final cut, and it was a commercial failure, so I died two times with that,” he recently told Deadline. We’ll find out what he thinks of Villeneuve’s Dune (and whether he agrees that Timmy has “insane charisma”) on December 18, when the film is scheduled to come out.
(Via Empire)
