After four years of struggling with the worm, Paramount’s rights to option the novel “Dune” have run out. Seasoned producer Richard P. Rubinstein, who owns the rights to the novel, stated that he could not reach an agreement with Paramount and he would now be deciding whether to move forward with the project or not.

Since it was optioned by Paramount four years ago, some interesting names have been attached to the project including Peter Berg and Taken director Pierre Morel – who supposedly came into a production meeting clutching his personal, weathered copy of “Dune.” Morel and collaborator Chase Palmer penned a compact script that “cut the mammoth subject matter down to a compelling story that could be told at feature length.” I call bullshit.

Before David Lynch’s 1984 Dune adaptation, several directors tried to bring Frank Herbert’s tremendous feat of sci-fi literature to the big screen. Throughout the ’70s visionaries like Ridley Scott, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and producer Arthur P. Jacobs all tried to get their own adaptations off the desert floor to no avail. Jodorowsky’s (Holy Mountain) ambitious ideas for Dune involved Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, H.R. Giger, and Pink Floyd. Slow down, you kook. Lynch himself once stated that to in order to attempt a film version of Dune “You’ve got to be either stupid or crazy…”

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