Science Fiction World

It looks like Paramount's new Dune movie adaptation could be in trouble. According to Deadline, Paramount is having difficulties kick starting the production and the rights holders "won't grant another option extension". Paramount has been given until May 2011 to set a start date and be "absolutely confident" in the project, or they'll lose the option to make it at all.

While director Pierre Morel (most famous for Taken) was expected to direct, apparently he has now moved to an executive producer position. Peter Berg had also previously been named as director and worked on the script before going on to direct Battleship.

Deadline reports that "producers Kevin Misher and Richard P. Rubinstein are going out to directors today to create a new movie out of the 1965 book." The studio "forfeit[s] the six figures it has paid in option costs and risk development costs" if they fail to make it happen. Apparently one of the problems they're having is that "from a feature standpoint, the book is indelibly linked to a 1984 David Lynch-directed flop, and there is that lingering memory of a giant desert worm and the rocker Sting."

"We don't want to extend an option and watch the studio take seven years," Rubinstein says. "This is on a short tether. It's a major book franchise; you can't walk into a store and not see a shelf full of Dune books."

Rubinstein and his company New Amsterdam are the middlemen between the studio and the rights holders, the Herbert estate and ABC.

Fear not though, even if Paramount fails to make the new Dune move happen, Rubinstein said he and the estate will be okay as they now have a very strong script already written. Which I guess means they'll just find another studio to finance the project. Looks like whatever happens we'll be hearing something about the new Dune movie before May 2011. We'll keep you informed.