Having said that, I’m a young DUNE fan but my admiration for it didn’t start with the books. I first saw the miniseries and was immediately drawn to the story. For me, I felt the mystique and intrigue behind the characters and the “plots within plots.” I saw the coolness factor with the Bene Gesserit… almost a mysteriously manipulative sect of Jedi (and they were all females… extra cool).

My point is that the miniseries, regardless of how much of the depth of the story was left out/changed… still managed to spark my interest and allow me to understand even a fraction of the “spirit” of the books. This in turn made discovering the books that much of a greater experience. So I think that with careful planning and storytelling… a big screen, big budget version of the first (or first two) books would make great strides in introducing new generations to Frank Herbert’s unrivaled stories. Sure, minor changes might need to be made to compensate today’s mostly a.d.d. target demographic… but for the few that become instantaneously hooked by the soul of the story, they’ll go on to discover the books like the rest of us.

I had read Dune and all of its sequels up to the release of David Lynch’s Dune, and I was disappointed in his film. I think the film tried to cover too much of the book, and lacked the character development to make me empathize with Paul.

I saw the first Dune television mini-series, and was struck by how “similar” it was to David Lynch’s film. But even with the extended time available for the mini-series, I still didn’t connect to the characters the same way I did when I read the book.

For some reason, I think that the most successful films adapted from books have been “unfaithful” adaptations. But how many films have been shot using the exact dialog from a book, and with the same settings? How did filmmakers decide this was unrealistic? Based on how long the running time of a film would be?

I suppose with everyone having his or her own opinion of what a good film is, any debate on the subject of turning books into film would be academic.

BTW, I don’t understand how “unlimited budget and full casting control” can be regarded as a template for making a good movie.

The Miniseries were better adaptation of tbe book, but the customs and settings were poor… cheesy in my opinion.

Should there be another Dune movie… Well… frankly…I would like so…. CHAPTERHOUSE WILL BE A GREAT START!

On a side note, it would be interesting to see what Hollywood does with the novels’ portrayal of a fundamentalist nomadic warrior culture (who’s religion is essentially a transliteration of Islam), and their struggle to secure for themselves the rights to the vast natural wealth locked away in their ancestral lands in the face of opressive military control by a foreign Imperial power……..

Honestly, in the wake of film like the Lord of the Rings series, the King Kong remake, and Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, I really think that this is the perfect time to do a new Dune movie. Get a worthy director, one or two big name actors, a decent budget, and (as I mentioned above) some good sci-fi artists on this thing and I don’t see how it couldn’t at least do well as a big holiday movie.