SPICE WORLD
ORIGINAL DUNE MINISERIES DIRECTOR JOHN HARRISON LOOKS BACK ON THE SCI FI CHANNEL’S BIGGEST EVER DRAMA
AT ITS CORE, DUNE IS A Shakespearian parable that explores the destructive power that erupts from the clash of different economic, religious and political forces. Successfully realising the rich cinematic prospects of Herbert’s sacred text has, until now, always been difficult. An initiative of biblical proportions, it was temporarily romanced by such big-screen visionaries as David Lean, Ridley Scott and Alejandro Jodorowsky, before David Lynch lent a large dose of surrealism to the visually spectacular yet famously ill-fated 1984 feature, which the filmmaker subsequently disowned because he wasn’t given final cut.
Then came the TV adaptation, first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel (as Syfy was known then) back in 2000. John Harrison – previously George Romero’s first AD on Creepshow and Day Of The Dead, and a director for shows like Tales From The Darkside and Earth 2 – was the writer/director behind this award-winning three-part mini-series.
“I always thought television was the best medium to attack Dune,” he tells SFX in a 2017 interview. “As much as I like elements of David Lynch’s film, he had to condense the story in such a way to get it into his two-and-a-half hour/three-hour versions. Since I also wrote the screenplay, I was well aware of the challenges to even get it down into my three two-hour movies.
“I tried to be as faithful as I could but obviously there were [adjustments] that had to be made; characters and storylines that had to be combined, telescoping of time… nevertheless, I had the time to explore a lot of things that David Lynch didn’t.”
A PAIN IN THE ARRAKIS
One of the significant flaws of the 1984 feature was a hasty “two years later” wrap-up montage, which condensed several instrumental events of Herbert’s first book. This included the introduction of the native Fremen people who rebel against the outsiders who exploit Arrakis; the gradual development of lead character Paul Atreides (Kyle Maclachlan) into a messiah-like figure, and the regrettably forced romantic relationship between our hero and Fremen wife Chani, (Sean Young). Harrison, on the other hand, was able to dedicate several hours for this relationship to blossom organically.
“I don’t mean this as a negative for David Lynch, because he’s a brilliant artist, but I think he was more interested in the visual artifice of the Dune world as opposed to the narrative of the Dune world. He also had Dino De