Dune: The TV series

[Joe Washington]

Would you be interested in Frank Herbert's Dune series being done as a TV show in the vein of Game of Thrones?

The show would be six seasons long with each season covering a different book in the series from Dune to Chapterhouse Dune. Each season would be 8-10 episodes long.

Do you think such a show can work? Who can you see playing the characters?

 

[Admiral_Young]

As much as I love the novels and the mini-series...I don't think it is possible to do a television series adaption. It would be just too expensive. At the time SyFy did the mini-series with John Harrison, it was the most expensive thing they had done, and I believe budget concerns are what cancelled an attempt at "God Emperor of Dune".

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

It would be just too expensive.

It could be done with a Game of Thrones level budget, and I'd love to see Dune as a big budget HBO show. The $20 million budget for the Sci-Fi mini was very expensive by their standards, but HBO has significantly more spending power.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ If you could do it with a scaled down budget and still have it be as faithful to the novels as "Game of Thrones" seems to be, then by all means. I just don't think that would be the case with something as vast and detailed as the Dune Universe. I think though to have that work, you'd need someone as passionate about it as John Harrison was.

 

[Pingfah]

Yes, and I think Dune is one of the few sci-fi epics with sufficient potential for success to make the budget worthwhile as well.

Done right it could be huge, the movie flopped because it was rubbish, not because people don't want to see Dune on the screen.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It would be just too expensive.

It could be done with a Game of Thrones level budget, and I'd love to see Dune as a big budget HBO show. The $20 million budget for the Sci-Fi mini was very expensive by their standards, but HBO has significantly more spending power.

I think they spent $10 million on hats alone.

 

[Harvey]

The first three books, I think, could make a very interesting television series. But God Emperor is so introspective, I'm not sure it would work. I haven't read the fifth or sixth book, although I've had them on the shelf for over a decade. Don't they take place long after God Emperor, though? (Which, itself, takes place long after the original trilogy).

 

[Hound of UIster]

If they only started with the Butlerian Jihad trilogy.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

^ If you could do it with a scaled down budget and still have it be as faithful to the novels as "Game of Thrones" seems to be, then by all means. I just don't think that would be the case with something as vast and detailed as the Dune Universe.

Actually, I think Dune would be somewhat easier to adapt than Game of Thrones.

 

[Jolaris]

If they only started with the Butlerian Jihad trilogy.

Nah, that was called Battlestar Galactica. One petulent robot is enough, at least Number One had a good excuse. Omni and Erasmus... *shudders*

 

[Reverend]

The first three books, I think, could make a very interesting television series. But God Emperor is so introspective, I'm not sure it would work. I haven't read the fifth or sixth book, although I've had them on the shelf for over a decade. Don't they take place long after God Emperor, though? (Which, itself, takes place long after the original trilogy).

The way to do it would be to jump from the end of CoD straight into HoD and fold the broad strokes of GEoD into the narrative as backstory. Something along the lines of the "one year later" thing in BSG, where the cliffhanger and hook for the new season is finding out what the hell just happened.

A bit trickier considering you're skipping over several millennia, including Leto's entire rule, the scattering and everything in-between *and* just about every character will be long dead. Fortunately you'd have the Duncan Gholas to provide something of a bridge.

 

[Hound of UIster]

If they only started with the Butlerian Jihad trilogy.

Nah, that was called Battlestar Galactica. One petulent robot is enough, at least Number One had a good excuse. Omni and Erasmus... *shudders*

To better showcase the superiority of Frank Herbert's writing over his wastrel son and his enablers, people have to see both to better realize how terrible one is.

 

[BigJake]

The Butlerian Jihad trilogy? No... no.

Part of the brilliance of the original Dune novel is that what we see happening "in frame" is just a central slice of the truly massive conflict between the Harkonnens (and their Imperial allies) and the Atreides. A lot of important things happen "off stage" (like the Atreides' raid on Geidi Prime, or the bulk of Muad'Dib's guerilla campaign against Beast Rabban), and a television series would be a great opportunity to tease some of that out... but it would be immensely hard to do well, because you'd need people doing it who could match the quality and the unique tone of Herbert.

 

[Isolinear]

If they only started with the Butlerian Jihad trilogy.

Nah, that was called Battlestar Galactica. One petulent robot is enough, at least Number One had a good excuse. Omni and Erasmus... *shudders*

To better showcase the superiority of Frank Herbert's writing over his wastrel son and his enablers, people have to see both to better realize how terrible one is.

You mean you didn't like the mechs with brainjars or Paul Atreides running away from home to join the circus?

 

[Jolaris]

Nah, that was called Battlestar Galactica. One petulent robot is enough, at least Number One had a good excuse. Omni and Erasmus... *shudders*

To better showcase the superiority of Frank Herbert's writing over his wastrel son and his enablers, people have to see both to better realize how terrible one is.

You mean you didn't like the mechs with brainjars or Paul Atreides running away from home to join the circus?

To be honest though, if the show was about Abulurd "I refuse to wipe out all life on a planet and everbody hates me for the next 10 millenia" Harkonnen getting revenge on the universe I probably would watch it, he was one of very few good things...

 

[The Wormhole]

I remember a few years back someone suggested this very idea, a Dune TV series which each season devoted to a particular book. I dismissed the idea out of hand saying there's no way a network would agree to a minimum six season deal for such a show. Of course, now we have Game of Thrones doing such a thing, so I guess it is a practical idea after all.

On the one hand, the Dune novels are so complex that even the six hour miniseries which many consider the definitive adaptations of the novels have had to "trim the fat" so to speak. A season of ten episodes might actually be enough to properly service the novels. Although it would be quite the challenge, budget wise, though probably not more so than Game of Thrones. Although I don't watch Game of Thrones or read those books, I see them basically having the same challenges of creating a completely new world. The difference is instead of some sort of the pseudo-medieval GoT has going on, Dune also has a futuristic flair to its trappings, but that shouldn't be too much more difficult to pull off.

Sure, a Dune TV show could have potential, is probably the best way to try an adaptation. I really doubt another movie is going to happen and SyFy would probably only bother these days if it included giant shark hybrids (Sharktopus vs Dune Worm?). While there is certainly precedent for TV shows based on novel series now, I'll be surprised if it happens. Let's face it, you want Dune at its best, the novels are it.

 

[JD]

I think there is potential for a great TV series based on Dune. It would have to have a really good showrunner who has a good understanding of the books, and a big budget, but if it got those things there is potential for greatness there.

 

[HIjol]

...count me in for the first three books...and with the appropriate budget...and with me on the writing staff...

...serious question: anyone ever hear tell of a 9 hour De Laurentiis version running around out there, somewhere?...

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

...serious question: anyone ever hear tell of a 9 hour De Laurentiis version running around out there, somewhere?...

No. The rough cut without completed effects was initially about four hour long. Lynch intended to cut that down to three hours, but was forced to cut it down much further. There's a 190-minute version that was cut together for television without Lynch's participation or approval. That's the longest version of the film available. There's also a three-hour fan edit.

 

[malfourmed]

David Lean directed a movie version of the book that will never be bettered back in 1962.