Then came David Lynch's 'Dune' in 1984, the movie that everyone is comparing this new one too. However, 'Blade Runner' wasn't the box office blockbuster the studio's hoped for in 1982, so that was the end of that. Ridley Scott considered having a go in the very early 80s and even got as far as preliminary artwork by HR Giger. There is an incredible documentary called ' Jodorowsky's Dune' available to watch on Amazon Prime that tells the whole story.

However, despite some concerns over Jodorowsky's ambitious ideas, after two and a half years in development, the project ultimately stalled for financial reasons. Pink Floyd and French progressive rock band Magma were set to provide the music artists HR Giger, Chris Foss and Jean Giraud had been approached to provide set and character design and an impressive cast was to include Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine and Mick Jagger.

In December 1974, a French consortium purchased the movie rights with the intention of having Alejandro Jodorowsky in the director's chair. Much like ' Foundation' currently airing on Apple TV+, 'Dune' was considered by many to be unfilmable, or at the very least, extremely difficult. What follows is a multilayered story with interacting elements of politics, religion, ecology, technology and human emotion, as an intergalactic game of chess unfolds in a struggle for survival, the control of Arrakis and the spice. Consequently, this seemingly worthless world is actually the most important planet in the universe. However, it is the only source of a spice called Melange, which along with offering many health benefits and enhancing cognitive abilities, it is essential for folding space, the only method that exists of crossing vast interstellar distances. (Image credit: Warner Bros)Īrrakis is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland. The production and vehicle design is influenced much more from the source novel, than Lynch's 1984 version.

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