See Dune Movie From Peter Berg That Nearly Happened Almost 20 Years Ago
Did you know there was an attempt to make a different Dune film adaptation in 2007 that would have had Peter Berg in the director’s chair? What’s more, after Peter Berg stepped away from the project, Pierre Morel was tasked with helming the movie, and Chase Palmer was then challenged with writing a script before Paramount called it quits and moved on to other projects.
Though the film never materialized because Paramount Pictures’ rights expired after four years of development, Dune News Net recently broke down the timeline of events that started with a script treatment written by John Zetumer. Both Zetumer’s outline and Palmer’s script can be downloaded in PDF form if you want to see for yourself.
Timeline Of Paramount’s Attempt To Make A Dune Movie
- The story starts in August 2007, when Byron Merrit, the grandson of Dune author Frank Herbert, alluded to the fact that there was a Dune movie in the works on the Dune Novels Forum. At the time, Merrit didn’t know much about the project aside from the fact that the studio wanted to take a shot at making a movie and that they were shopping for directors. Shortly thereafter, Peter Berg was announced as the man who would be helming the project.
- Fast forward to June 2008, and it was announced that Josh Zetumer was involved, and just a month later, a 13-page script treatment materialized. This version of Dune would have taken a handful of creative liberties in order to grapple with the dense source material that Frank Herbert wrote in 1965. One of the more notable deviations would involve combining Duncan and Gurney’s characters from the novel into a single composite character.
In Peter Berg’s own words, this version of Dune could would have been an intense action film that dealt with Paul Atreides’ revenge arc.
- But in 2009, Berg and his production company stepped away from the project, and he went on to work on 2012’s Battleship. It would be another year before Paramount decided that Pierre Morel would be the right guy to sit in the director’s chair. Chase Palmer was hired by the studio to write the screenplay, and he ended up producing a 120-page script that was primarily an action-adventure story.
Much like David Lynchs’ Dune adaptation, Palmer’s version would have compressed much of the story in to montage sequences to keep the story moving at an engaging pace that would satisfy both long-time fans of the Dune novels, as well as newcomers who haven’t read the books.
- Unfortunately, during these phases of development, the Dune movie was ultimately scrapped after Morel also exited the director’s chair in 2010 but remained attached to the project as an executive producer. With no director, Paramount Pictures decided that it was best not to continue pursuing Dune because their rights to the property were set to expire in 2011. Paramount decided not to spend the money on extending the rights because Dune was still very much in the development phases and, by their estimations, would have taken years to be fully realized.
The Dune Movie We Finally Got
Though we weep when we think about what could have been, Dune fans would simply just have to wait a little bit longer. In 2016, Legendary Pictures secured the Dune movie and television rights; Denis Villeneuve started talking with the studio and ultimately signed on to write and direct the project in 2017.
Villeneuve’s version is considered by many to be one of the best sci-fi films of the 21st century.
Dune saw its premiere on October 22 2021, and performed so well at the box office that a sequel was green-lit shortly after. Dune: Part Two is slated for a March 1, 2024 release at the time of this writing.
