Making a Dune movie is a herculean task. The narrative takes place largely within the minds of the book's central cast, and the action that occurs in the corporeal realm is glacial. At the same time, Dune is replete with so many beautifully detailed passages about imaginative concepts that it's practically begging for an infinite number of live-action adaptations. At present, the auteur genius Denis Villeneuve is the steward of Dune's present and future in live-action. However, in the 80s, David Lynch was the man responsible for bringing Arrakis and the Kwisatz Haderach to life.
Lynch's struggles with the studio during the production of his version of Dune have been well documented and have caused the director to look back at the project with a certain level of bitterness. According to Comicbook.com, not only does Lynch want to move on from his time on Arrakis, but he has no intention of watching Denis Villeneuve's spin on Frank Herbet's classic novel.
While speaking with French outlet Cahiers du Cinéma, per Far Out, on the topic of Villeneuve's Dune, Lynch replied, "I will never watch it, and I don't even want you to tell me about it, ever."
Lynch previously recalled how he has at least somewhat considered what it would be like to get the chance to restore his original vision of the film, while also admitting how unlikely that scenario is.
"Dune –– people have said, 'Don't you want to go back and fiddle with Dune?' And I was so depressed and sickened by it, you know?" Lynch shared with The A.V. Club in 2022. "I want to say, I loved everybody that I worked with; they were so fantastic. I loved all the actors; I loved the crew; I loved working in Mexico; I loved everything except that I didn't have final cut. And I even loved Dino [De Laurentiis], who wouldn't give me what I wanted. And Raffaella, the producer, who was his daughter — I loved her. But the thing was a horrible sadness and failure to me, and if I could go back in I've thought, well, maybe I would on that one go back in."
