Director of the Dune That Never Was Reacts to New Trailer

Frank Herbert’s landmark science fiction novel Dune has been adapted for the screen a few times over the past forty years – notably David Lynch’s 1984 film and the 2000 miniseries on Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel). Now Blade Runner 2049’s Denis Villeneuve is bringing his version to the screen in 2020, starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, and Oscar Isaac.Before Lynch’s version, however, there was a famously failed attempt to bring Dune to the theaters. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky was in pre-production for years on the film, during the ’70s, in an endeavor (complete with a script for a 14-hour movie) that would later become the topic of a documentary called Jodorowsky’s Dune.

Jodorowsky recently watched the trailer for Villeneuve’s Dune and…well, he had some thoughts.

“I wish his Dune would be a great success, because Denis Villeneuve is a nice director, about whom I have been told a lot,” Jodorowsky said to France’s Le Point [translation from CinemaBlend]. “I saw the trailer. It’s very well done. We see that this is industrial cinema, that there is a lot of money, and that it has cost a lot of money. But if it was very expensive, it must pay off in proportion. And this is the problem: there are no surprises. The form is identical to what is done everywhere, the lighting, the acting, everything is predictable.”

“Industrial [Hollywood] cinema is incompatible with auteur cinema,” he continued. “For the first, money comes before the work. For the second, it is the reverse. And this, whatever the quality of a director, whether it is my friend Nicolas Winding Refn or Denis Villeneuve. Industrial cinema promotes entertainment, it is a show that is not intended to change humanity or society.”

You can check out the cast of Dune — including Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin — discussing their characters and the themes of the new film here. Also, here’s Dune director Denis Villeneuve explaining the meaning and themes of his sci-fi epic, as well as him talking about how he designed the iconic sandworms that roam Arrakis’ deserts.

If you’re interested in Jodorowsky’s Dune, check out the trailer for the doc below…

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.