Published in the mid-'60s, author Frank Herbert’s science-fiction epic Dune became one of the genre’s bibles, and was long-considered impossible to adapt for the screen. Set in the distant future, it told an interstellar tale of noble houses and planetary fiefs, and of how the Artreides family accept stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of melange, a spice that can extend life, enhance the mind’s capabilities, and aid space travel. But to protect Arrakis – its resources and its inhabitants, the Fremen – young Paul Atreides must go on a dangerous journey and prove himself as the chosen one long foretold.
In Dune (2021), which gave viewers the first half of the story, Timothée Chalamet wowed as Paul, while visionary director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) succeeded where David Lynch floundered in the '80s, proving that the novel could be adapted, and how. Villeneuve’s extraordinary world-building plonked us firmly down on Arrakis; you could feel the blast of sand as the spaceships landed, and the rumble of the desert floor as gigantic subterranean sandworms burst into view on the horizon.
