Dune is a fantastic story and something I have wanted to see on the big screen for a long time. There have been versions before, but I was looking forward to seeing it be remade.
But after delays seemingly pushed Peter Berg to abandon the project, Pierre Morel stepped up to the job and all seemed fine. But now as the film rights draw close to a deadline, Morel has stepped down as director and will remain an Executive Producer credit.
Taken director Pierre Morel has resigned from the directing duties on Paramount’s $100 million+ adaptation of Frank Herbert’s popular sci-fi novel Dune, which Deadline are reporting has until the Spring to begin filming or it’ll be canned for good.
The original director to take on this latest attempt at the classic sci-fi novel, left the project over delays and signed up for Battleship – ironically another franchise that was at risk of losing its film rights if it didn’t meet a deadline. Now Morel has walked.
One of the biggest problems this production will face. Considering they have until this coming Spring to get riding this sandworm, they will have to find a director who is willing to work with the existing script. This limits the field somewhat, and while there are tons of directors who would be willing to take the job, the studio has to pick someone who might do the film and existing script justice.
Not as easy as it sounds.
The 1933 Hugo Award winning novel is a massive undertaking that has met with many roadblocks, and while steep criticism faced previous incarnations of the film and tv miniseries, this time is not looking much brighter.
Will they push to make a Dune movie or let the rights lapse and let the creative process start all over again?
