‘Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Says He Was ‘Destabilized’ by David Lynch’s 1984 Version: ‘Things Were Missing’

“There were some choices that were made that was very far away from my sensibility,” the filmmaker says of the divisive adaptation

Denis Villeneuve and David Lynch
"Dune" directors Denis Villeneuve and David Lynch (Credit: Getty Images)

Denis Villeneuve knew two things when he was 13: He wanted to be a filmmaker, and he wanted to adapt Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic “Dune.” So he was especially excited in 1984 when David Lynch’s adaptation starring Kyle MacLachlan hit theaters. But while he was “very mesmerized and impressed” by the “Mulholland Drive” auteur’s vision, he remembers feeling a little let down.

“I was destabilized by some of his choices,” the filmmaker said in a Thursday interview with NPR’s “Fresh Air,” later adding, “I didn’t feel that he captured some of the essence of specifically the Fremen culture — I felt that there were some things that were missing.”

Benjamin Lindsay

Benjamin is Deputy Managing Editor at TheWrap. He covers and assigns breaking news as it relates to entertainment, media and politics. With 10 years of experience covering film, television and theatre professionally, Benjamin was most recently Managing Editor at Backstage, a company for which he held various roles across its performing arts and awards departments…

Comments

2 responses to “‘Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Says He Was ‘Destabilized’ by David Lynch’s 1984 Version: ‘Things Were Missing’”

  1. William Edelman Avatar
    William Edelman

    Frank Ebert? Autocorrect is a pain in the butt, so human editing is vital to preventing idiotic mistakes, even typos, because some typos are egregious errors. This error — committed and then duplicated — is just disappointingly wrong, as it switches out a novelist’s name for a critic’s name. No one can successfully edit his/her own copy, so, for the love of Dune Messiah, HIRE SOMEBODY.

    Reply
  2. Chris Wetzel Avatar
    Chris Wetzel

    Where have the editors gone?!?!? Of all things a writer should hold sacred, it is the name of another writer. On the eve of the release of a major motion picture based on an iconic science fiction novel, it would seem that the writer of this article would not misspell Frank *Herbert*’s name wrong twice in the same article.

    Reply

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