The good people over at The Movie Blog have announced yet another remaking of Frank Herbert's groundbreaking Sci-Fi Novel Dune. This will be the third (or fourth if you count the Extended Edition of the first) rendition of the story of Paul Atraities and the planet Arakkis. The first version was filmed in the 80s by director David Lynch, which was kind of weird and disjointed (the extended edition which Lynch disowned, did a better version of understanding the material, but still felt a little off). The Sci-Fi Channel did their own version of Dune much more recently and used somewhat better visual effects in some places, but felt like a studio back lot the rest of the time.

This time, Dune will be directed by Peter Berg, who has made the amazing Friday Night Lights and more recently The Kingdom, which was pretty good if self-defeating. There is no word as to who will pen the screenplay or what the estimated running time might be. The reason running time is important, as anyone who read the novel knows, is because Dune is all about details. Like Lord of the Rings, Dune actually starts in the middle of the events, so people need to know what has happened before the first scene to understand what's going on. As David Lynch refused to understand, you can't just fake understanding the material and expect the audience to "get it".

I am a firm believer that Dune, written nearly 40 years ago, is probably the most important work of science fiction of modern times. If you replace "spice" with "oil" and "Arakkis" for the Middle East, you would almost believe that Herbert is prophesizing events to come. And yet, as important as I think Dune is in modern literature, is there any need for another rendition of this story? Yes, Pride and Prejudice has been made a billion times, the most recent being the best in my opinion. And I might feel the same way about this newest version of Dune. But is it just me or this yet another symptom of Remake Fever?

All the same, I will be following the production of this version and will post any new interesting developments, such as casting decisions and locations (hopefully not the same sandboxes used in the TV version).