No Porgs, Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks. Fun’s over, folks.
Sicario and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has a few harsh words for Star Wars fans as he readies his next film.
The French-Canadian director is set to helm an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, Dune, but if you’re expecting another Star Wars epic, he wants you to think again.
Addressing the inevitable comparisons between the two films, Villeneuve said:
“Most of the main ideas of Star Wars are coming from Dune. The ambition is to do the Star Wars movie I never saw. In a way, it’s Star Wars for adults. We’ll see.”
Throwing in a sly dig over the fact that George Lucas is said to have ripped off Dune extensively, Villeneuve also poked fun at the fact that the Star Wars franchise is still classed as a series for children.
“The idea is to start from the very first book”, he added. “I could be involved with one or two movies”, but since cinematic adaptations of Dune have been so mixed, he held off on confirming this. “Right now, I might in three weeks or two months learn that nobody agrees on a screenplay, it will be with someone else. It can happen. And when the movie will be made? It’s all theory right now.”
A number of other directors have attempted to adapt Dune, with each failing in one way or another. The most famous version is Twin Peaks director David Lynch’s 1984 attempt, which was seen as such an outright failure that he himself disowned it.
He cast Sting…
Yes, Sting from The Police.
Let that one sink in.
The other attempt was done by an experimental Chilean director called Alejandro Jodorowsky. He is said to have written a script for the book, which was “the size of a phone book”, while the film was predicted to run for 14 hours. Suffice to say, it failed spectacularly, but some of the artwork created by artist, H.R. Giger ended up being used in Ridley Scott’s Alien films.
Suffice to say, Villeneuve, who has found much success in sci-fi with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, just needs to keep a slightly cooler head and he’ll be fine.
Sure, he might have pissed off a few Star Wars fans, but what’s the worst they can do? Edit all the women out of his films?
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