After helming last year’s surprise revenge hit TAKEN, Pierre Morel has become a hot commodity in Hollywood. Not only does he have a new flick coming out next week (FROM PARIS WITH LOVE), we know the dude has been charged with the task of bringing Frank Herbert’s sprawling space epic DUNE back to the big screen (a role he assumed after Peter Berg left the project to direct BATTLESHIP). Well dig this, it looks like Morel is scrapping Berg’s script (which he co-wrote with Josh Zetumer) and is completely starting from scratch.
During a recent catch-up with IGN, Morel had this to say about the much heralded sci-fi project:
“We’re starting from scratch. Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we’re starting over again. I don’t think we’re going to keep any elements of the Peter Berg script. It was good, actually. It was interesting. It was just not our vision. I can’t tell you right now, it’s going to be official next week. The deals are not done!”
Morel goes on to affirm that he and his yet to be known screenwriters will start developing a new version of the story, and will start inking the script in early February. “Dune is such a huge, huge project… It’s big, it’s challenging, it’s long-term — we’re only starting. We have to rewrite the script, we have to develop a whole universe. It’s going to be a long thing, so who knows.”
About the prospect of filling some mighty large shoes (worn by Mr. Lynch), Morel muses:
“It’s tricky. Everybody refers to both the book and to David Lynch’s film, which was in a way a monument to the ’80s. It became a huge event. It didn’t do well theatrically, I think, but in a way it kind of marked and printed an image on Dune. Everybody now who reads Dune reads it with David Lynch’s images in mind. So we have to get away from that. It’s not a remake of David Lynch’s movies. We’re doing a re-reading, a brand new approach on the book, a very true approach to the book, the original material. So we will have to deal with trying to erase the image that David Lynch did so we can propose our image.”
And you know these days we can’t get a big-budget sci-fi outing without the possibility of shooting it in 3D. When quizzed about the current technical craze, Morel added this:
“I don’t know,” he laughs. “It’s so early in the project that we haven’t had that conversation yet. I’d love it to be 3D, of course. It’s the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D. Will they do it in 3D? I’d push for that, but I don’t know. As a viewer, I just been watching Avatar with my kids twice in the theater already and had a blast. It’s an amazing experience.”
I’ve gotta admit, I’m already starting to tire of this 3D onslaught. However, if there ever was a story suitable to such a visual format, I think most would agree DUNE is definitely among the best.
Thoughts on all this jazz?
Polish hottie Kasia Smutniak, star of FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (gotta love a girl with the word smut in her name!)