20 Movies That Weren't Worth The Wait
9. Dune (1984)
By the early 1970s, Hollywood was busy attempting to turn Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel Dune into a film, with the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott trying and failing to make it happen.
In 1981, however, producer Dino De Laurentiis hired David Lynch of all filmmakers to adapt Dune, and in 1984 the film was finally released, just shy of 20 years after the novel's initial publication.
Though Lynch's film has its defenders, and it's certainly a curious slice of sci-fi, it was also an unmistakable disappointment considering both the depth of Herbert's visionary novel and Lynch's stature as a director.
It was a sure misstep to try and truncate Herbert's novel into a mere 137-minute movie, resulting in a breathless pace which Lynch blamed on executive interference.
It only took almost another 40 years for Hollywood to get it right, though, when Denis Villeneuve delivered a thrilling two-part blockbuster adaptation in 2021 and 2024.
Now that was worth the wait.