10 Upcoming Movies That Have Already Been Saved From Sucking
4. Dune
The Original Pitch
A new film version of Dune first gained traction in 2008, when it was revealed that Paramount had tasked Peter Berg with bringing the novel to life. When he dropped out, the studio offered the job to Pierre Morel, who accepted, but it wasn't to last: the whole thing was canned in 2011, and Legendary acquired the rights in 2016.
A version of Dune with either of those directors attached sounded... iffy, to say the least. Berg's movies range from decent (Deepwater Horizon) to atrocious (Battleship), and he tends to occupy this quite middling ground as an action filmmaker. Morel directed Taken - which was great - but followed it up with From Paris With Love and The Gunman, which were both poor.
How It's Been Saved
In the last few years, Dune's prospects have started to look up in a big, big way. For starters, the project has landed one of today's finest living filmmakers in Denis Villeneuve (who is also a big fan of the property), a guy who, apparently, only knows how to churn out gold: Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario and Enemy are among the best films of the decade, and Villeneuve hasn't yet given us a single reason to doubt his abilities behind the camera.
The cast for this thing is also crazy good. Timothée Chalamet, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac - and more - have all leapt onboard, and if this many A-listers are willing to work on something as fantastical and weird as Dune, there must be something special here.
But at the end of the day, it's all about Villeneuve. His steady, cerebral hand will no doubt lead to another beautiful, thought-provoking sci-fi experience that demands to be watched again and again - because that's just what he does.