After four years of wandering around Planet Development, occasionally tossing a director or writer into the sands to see if they can attract and master the worm of filmmaking, Paramount has finally decided to call it quits, lift off in their ships and hand the keys to Dune back to rights holder Richard P Rubinstein.
The studio had the rights to Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel series for all that time and has tried more than once to put a film together, hoping to craft something audiences like more than David Lynch's 1984 effort. Peter Berg was one of the bigger names to take on the task, and actually managed to crank out a couple of drafts that Rubinstein and the studio liked. But he ended up ditching the sand for the sea and the chance to do Battleship instead.
Then came Taken director Pierre Morel, who worked on new versions of the screenplay with Chase Palmer, and while they also managed to cram a lot of Herbert’s complicated storytelling into one script, they ultimately didn’t go forward, with Morel taking the job developing the Sam Raimi-produced Earth Defence Force.
“I’m going to look at my options, and whether I wind up taking the script we developed in turnaround, or start over, I’m not sure yet,” Rubinstein tells Deadline. “Sure, it’s frustrating, how long this has taken, but most of what I’ve done that worked out well over the years, like the miniseries The Stand, took a long time. Since I know what I want, eventually, I’ll find someone who’ll agree with me. What I like is that talent has interesting things to say on how they would approach it.” Rubinstein had been producing with Kevin Misher, but everything’s up in the air at the moment.
While Rubinstein apparently might give Morel and Palmer the first crack at any new version, this throws the challenge open to anyone who can find enough cash down the back of the sofa and present him with a compelling vision. Always wanted to make your own version of Dune in an old fish tank with sock puppet sandworms? You know whom to call…
