Keep an eye out for sandworms, because it's
time to delve into the hidden history of one of sci-fi's most popular franchises. From the
classic book series to the movie adaptations, this is the untold truth of "Dune." Between the coastal town of Florence, Oregon,
and the Pacific Ocean are the Oregon Dunes, massive sand hills that, in the 1950s, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture discovered were actually moving. They attempted to use certain breeds
of grasses to stabilize and calm the dunes before they could continue to grow, move, and,
as Frank Herbert wrote to his literary agent, "swallow whole cities,
lakes, rivers, and highways. Having published a few successful science
fiction novels already, Herbert traveled to Florence in 1957 to explore this bizarre
scientific phenomenon and to write an article. That piece was never completed, but the
concepts of precious natural resources, monstrous sand dunes, and the mysteries
that may lay within led to "Dune." After five years of research
and writing, Herbert published "Dune World" and "The Prophet of Dune" in serial
form in the Analog magazine from 1963 to 1965. The author then compiled it into a single-volume
novel, "Dune," which was published by technical book publisher Chilton Books in August 1965
after more than 20 other publishers rejected it. "Dune" was published in 1965, but it
didn't hit the big screen until 1984. For almost that entire span of 20 years, efforts
were underway to adapt the book. In 1971, Apjac International, best known for the "Planet
of the Apes" movies, acquired the movie rights and offered the director's chair to David Lean,
the legendary British filmmaker behind another desert-based movie, "Lawrence of Arabia." Lean
passed, as did British director Charles Jarrott. While a director was sought out, screenwriters
worked on the script and production plans were put into place, but it all fell apart when
Apjac head Arthur P. Jacobs died in 1973. Apjac sold the rights to "Dune"
to a group of French investors, who hired avant-garde film and
theatrical director Alejandro Jodorwsky as director. While he'd only directed
three full-length films at that point, he definitely had the enthusiasm and ambition
necessary to direct "Dune" ... and then some. As detailed in the fascinating 2013 documentary
"Jodorowsky's Dune," the director planned to make a 14-hour movie with a dream cast including
Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, and Salvador Dali, with a soundtrack provided by Pink Floyd. To
nail down the production design, Jodorowsky consulted such innovative artists as Moebius and
H.R. Giger. He also wanted to depict melange, "the spice," as a magical blue sponge and
completely change the ending of the novel. When that project died, the rights were
sold to producer Dino De Laurentiis, who hired Ridley Scott to direct. He dropped
out because, as he related in a 1999 biography, he was ready to film the movie immediately,
but it was going to take at least two and half more years of pre-production. Ultimately, the
gig went to then-cult movie icon David Lynch. "What the hell?" "Dune" finally started being
committed to film in 1983 at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. That
location was chosen in part because it was adjacent to large swaths of desert that
could stand in for the planet Arrakis, and because the Mexican economy was such that
it would cost Universal Pictures far less to shoot the movie than it would have cost in the
U.S. Shooting in L.A., the producer estimates, could have bumped the "Dune" price tag to $75
million; it ultimately cost about $40 million. And filmmakers made sure that every penny
counted. To create the intricate worlds of Frank Herbert's novel, one of the biggest
film crews of all time was assembled: 900 workers toiled for months to build
70 sets on eight sound stages. More than 200 people alone had to clean three square
miles of desert — down on their hands and knees, no less — of scorpions, snakes, and cactuses
to replicate the lifeless surface of Arrakis. Universal hoped "Dune" would be the next "Star
Wars," but while it was certainly as imaginative and ambitious as George Lucas's epic, it ended up
being a huge disaster. Critics absolutely hated it: Roger Ebert said "Dune" was, quote, "a real
mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one
of the most confusing screenplays of all time." David Lynch's "Dune" lacked the broad appeal and
fun of more popular sci-fi like "Star Wars" — and Universal knew it on some level before the movie
was released, distributing hundreds of thousands of vocabulary guides to movie theaters in order
to familiarize audiences with the dense world of "Dune" settings, characters, and words. The
guides didn't help much—it ultimately earned just $30 million at the box office, not
even clearing its $40 million budget. As a result, Frank Herbert's other "Dune"
books were never adapted for the big screen. "Dune" and its sequels make for a thoughtful,
sprawling, imaginative sci-fi epic, and the books were popular in the '60s
and '70s, which can mean only one thing: It inspired a lot of progressive rock. In
1977, jazz keyboardist David Matthews released "Dune," inspired by the books. In 1979,
experimental German electronic music composer, and Tangerine Dream member, Klaus Schulze released
"Dune," an album of the music inspired by the novel. That same year, French electronica
pioneer Bernard Szajner, under the name Z, released a "Dune"-themed album called "Visions
of Dune." Around the time of the film's release, Iron Maiden included the song "To Tame a Land" on
its 1983 album "Piece of Mind," having changed the song from its original title of "Dune," because
Herbert wouldn't give permission. In 1999, German metal band Golem released the
"Dune"-themed concept album "The 2nd Moon." Lynch estimated that his shooting
script would translate to a running time of about three hours, but once it was
filmed, edited, and effects were added in, "Dune" wound up being well over four. Seeing that
as completely unmarketable, Universal ordered Lynch to cut a bunch of scenes and streamline
the plot; because of all that unused footage, rumors have persisted for more than 30 years that
there's a special, Lynch-curated "director's cut." There isn't — Universal has approached
Lynch, but his displeasure and disappointment in the film has kept him from
returning to cobble together another version. There is, however, a three-hour version
of "Dune" with extra scenes added in, assembled without Lynch's involvement for
television broadcast. Lynch was so upset that he demanded his name taken off the
credits for this version, replaced with the standard director pseudonym of Alan Smithee,
with the fake name "Judas Booth" subbed in for screenwriter — so named because Universal
betrayed Lynch, like Judas did to Jesus, and also killed the movie, like John
Wilkes Booth did to Abraham Lincoln. In a career filled with weird, challenging
movies and zero bona fide box office hits, "Dune" is about the only project
that writer-director David Lynch says he truly wishes he hadn't made. In
fact, he says it even soiled him as an artist. Lynch later told Extrovert that
he only has himself to blame. He said, "I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but
I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them
in. There was so much room to create a world." "Far off in the control rooms of
spice gas, traveling… without moving." After years of research and writing, Frank Herbert
completed two short science fiction novels — "Dune World" in 1963, and "The Prophet of Dune" in 1965.
The stories were published in serialized form in Analog Magazine, one of the major outlets
for genre stories in the mid-20th century. At the time, short stories dominated sci-fi,
because, according to The Guardian, that's what publishers thought readers wanted.
That's probably a big reason why "Dune" was rejected by more than 20 publishers
before it found a champion in Chilton. "Dune" proved that there was a market
not just for long-form science fiction, but high-end science fiction with literary merit. "Dune" is one of the first modern-day
sci-fi epics, and was thusly rewarded, capturing the inaugural
Nebula Award for Best Novel. Consumers responded in a big way to "Dune" and
its descendants. It's still a consistent seller and is one of the most-purchased sci-fi books
in history, while sequel "Children of Dune" went down as the first novel in the genre
to become a bestseller in hardback form. Pre-production on the 1984 "Dune," including
the months it took writer-director David Lynch to adapt Frank Herbert's novel into
a screenplay, took a very long time, and filmmakers wanted to make sure they
cast the perfect performers to portray the potentially lucrative franchise's
already well-known characters. Glenn Close turned down the role of Jessica,
believing that the character was a "cliche" of a helpless woman. Aldo Ray was actually cast
as Gurney Halleck and reported to the set, but was soon dismissed and replaced by
Patrick Stewart. Kenneth Branagh auditioned for the lead role of Paul Atreides, but
lost out to newcomer Kyle MacLachlan. Branagh's future partner, Helena Bonham Carter,
was also nearly a part of the "Dune" cast. She'd landed the role of Princess Irulan, but
due to a scheduling conflict on "A Room with a View," she had to quit the sci-fi epic, leaving
the door open for Virginia Madsen to take over. Although "Dune" is set among sophisticated
planets in the distant future, the entertainment options of its residents have
a distinctively ancient and rustic sensibility. Gurney Halleck is a major figure in the
life of Paul Atreides, a warrior, teacher, and ally who loved to perform old, minstrel-style
ballads to entertain guests and associates, all while accompanying himself on a long,
nine-stringed instrument called the baliset. Something of a cross between a guitar and
a zither, it provided enough music to help Halleck emphasize his proverbs,
scripture readings, and lyrics. In the 1984 film version of "Dune," Patrick
Stewart plays Halleck — and the baliset. It was mentioned by name in Frank Herbert's
original "Dune" novel, but filmmakers took a real (although obscure) Earth instrument and painted
it gold. The baliset is actually a Chapman Stick, a fretboard-based, elaborately strung,
strummable wooden instrument invented by musician Emmett Chapman. In 1985,
Chapman released "Parallel Galaxy," an album of Chapman Stick compositions,
which includes "Backyard," heard in the Alan Smithee cut of the "Dune" movie — with
Stewart miming playing to Chapman's recording. At the time that "Dune" was
filmed in the early 1980s, Sean Young was one of the biggest new stars in
Hollywood thanks to prominent roles in the hit comedy "Stripes" and the sci-fi classic "Blade
Runner." She signed on to play Chani Kynes, the enchanting Fremen in "Dune" — but
she nearly missed out on the role. According to "The Making of Dune," Young's
agency set up a meeting in New York City with director David Lynch and producer Raffaella
De Laurentiis, but then forgot to tell Young about it. On the day it was scheduled,
she hopped a flight to California to go meet about another film. Meanwhile, Lynch and
De Laurentiis missed their flight to the west coast because they'd been waiting around
for no-show Young. The actor, director, and producer all wound up on the same plane, and
De Laurentiis asked a flight attendant if Young, whom she'd never met or seen, was an actor. The
worker reportedly said, "She is. Her name is Sean Young." De Laurentiis confronted Young,
telling her that the agency said she refused the audition, which simply wasn't true. The
trio cleared the air over drinks. He recalled, "I sit with her and David and
we all start drinking champagne. By the time we arrived in
L.A., we were roaring drunk." Young got the part, of course. For the role of House Atreides
patriarch Duke Leto Atreides, "Dune" writer-director David Lynch cast German
actor Jürgen Prochnow , the breakout star of the 1981 World War II submarine thriller
"Das Boot." According to "The Making of Dune," the last scene Prochnow had to film was a
drug-induced nightmare sequence in which he lays unconscious on a stretcher while the wicked
Baron Harkonnen, played by Kenneth McMillan, crudely shoves his fingers into a facial
wound, expelling spooky green gas. To bring this concept to life, the "Dune"
special effects team created a fake cheek out of rubber and makeup, stuck it
to Prochnow's face, and attached a tube that ran behind the actor's ear
and onto the stretcher. Off-camera, a tech would pump green smoke into the device
that would plume out when McMillan prodded it. The crew tested the effect on a dummy and Prochnow
before cameras rolled. When it came time to film, McMillan did what he was supposed to do, sticking
his fingers into the wound, and the smoke came out. Something had gone wrong, however, because
Prochnow ran off the set, clutching his face. An investigation revealed that the device had
malfunctioned. It hadn't been properly sealed, and hot smoke from a test had built up inside
the fake cheek before McMillan tore it open, resulting in near-molten goo
spilling onto Prochnow's face. He suffered first and second
degree burns in the accident. David Lynch's "Dune" was obviously
supposed to be a franchise-starter, a new blockbuster series to rival other sci-fi
brands like "Star Wars" and "Star Trek." Its success was so assured that before
the film's theatrical release in 1984, star Kyle MacLachlan signed a contract to
appear in four more films in the "Dune" cinematic universe. Virginia Madsen, who landed
the small role of Princess Irulan told "The Kevin Pollak Chat Show" that she'd signed a deal to
reprise the role in two more films. She recalled, "They thought they were gonna make 'Star Wars'
for grown-ups. And it didn't work out that way." When "Dune" was greeted with critical shrugs and
less-than-huge numbers at the box office — a $30 million total run, against a $40 million budget
— plans for more movies were canceled. "Dune" screenwriter-director David Lynch was already
deep into the screenplay for the next movie in the series, based on Frank Herbert's "Dune
Messiah," which was subsequently abandoned. "Muad'dib had become the hand of God
fulfilling the fremen's prophecy." Rather than seek out an orchestral composer to
create and conduct the score for the original "Dune" film from 1984, filmmakers used rock band
Toto to source the movie's spooky, futuristic, synth-based music. The group, consisting of
successful Los Angeles session musicians, was just coming off a career peak, winning
the Album of the Year Grammy Award in 1983 for "Toto IV," which included the
smash hits "Rosanna" and "Africa." The band was at a crossroads when it
came time to record the "Dune" music, with singer Bobby Kimball having just departed and
the group deciding to score David Lynch's sci-fi adaptation instead of another gig it had been
offered: recording the soundtrack to "Footloose." Nevertheless, the album flopped. Released
back-to-back with Toto's fifth studio album "Isolation," the "Dune" soundtrack
tanked almost as hard as the movie did, peaking at #168 on the Billboard album chart
and soon falling out of print for decades. According to Vintage Guitar, members of
the group saw the film at its premiere and called it a "turkey" and privately
took to referring to the movie as "Doom." Regardless of the film's lackluster performance,
the "Dune" franchise continued to gather more fans with each passing year.
The franchise itself also grew, with a well-received miniseries airing on The
Sci-Fi Channel in 2003, and Herbert's son Brian Herbert writing more bestselling "Dune" sequel and
prequel novels with Kevin J. Anderson. By 2008, Hollywood once again saw "Dune" as a hot
property with a lot of commercial potential. Paramount announced plans for a new version
of the first novel, and hired Peter Berg, the director of "Hancock" and "Battleship" to direct.
A year later, Berg dropped out and Pierre Morel, of "Taken" fame replaced him, but the studio
called the whole thing off in March 2011. Once again, "Dune" refused to die: In 2016,
Legendary Entertainment restarted the project again. Denis Villeneuve, the Oscar-nominated
director of "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049," signed on to direct a new adaptation of
Frank Herbert's original novel from 1965. With a budget reportedly around $200 million, it ranks among the most expensive undertakings in
Hollywood history — and that's just the beginning, as the project was planned from the
start to be split into two movies. Madsen claimed that filmmakers had attempted
to make "'Star Wars' for grown-ups." That's the exact same approach that writer-director Denis
Villeneuve took when he set out to bring "Dune" to the screen again, more than three decades after
that ill-fated attempt. Villeneuve told Fandom, "The ambition is to do the 'Star Wars' movie I
never saw. In a way, it's 'Star Wars' for adults." Ironically, 'Star Wars' began as a riff on
"Dune." George Lucas's first drafts of the script that would become 1977's "Star Wars:
A New Hope" contained fighting bloodlines and a princess who guarded not the plans for a
Death Star, but something called "aura spice." The cinematographer on his new
"Dune" films? Grieg Fraser, who had the same job on the "Star Wars"
spinoff "Rogue One," a film Villeneuve enjoyed. "Dune" is a passion project for the director, who
told press that in adapting the work correctly, he dealt, quote, "with the pressure
of the dreams" he had as a teenager, picturing the world of "Dune" in his head
as he read Frank Herbert's novel. Still, when Warner Bros. wanted him to direct, he agreed
to do so if two conditions were met: "Dune" had to be split into two films, and the crew would
film the Arrakis scenes in a real desert. Check out one of our newest
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