How many Dune movies are there?

Dune has always been one of those recurring franchises that seduces a director every 30 or 40 years, who goes crazy trying to turn Frank Herbert’s novels into reality. In addition, its pages have become a source of inspiration that allows each new person in charge to imagine the world of Arrakis in a thousand different ways. Which leads to mammoth projects that sometimes don’t end too well.

How many Dune movies are there?

How many Dune movies are there

Although we are going to list them, it must be said that if, thanks to Denis Villeneuve, you have become a fan of Dune and want to consume everything that has been produced in recent years, you should know that the saga has also flirted with television, through two miniseries that you don’t know the same and that had the misfortune of arriving in the days before streaming platforms. What does that mean? First, they did not have much financial support, the technical means are not what they are today and, as if the above were not enough, there were times when the format and the idea of its creators were not respected to adapt them to the television grids already the technology of the time, when enjoying a 16:9 Smart TV was not the most common. On the contrary, the 4:3 tube TVs ruled over the rest.

This is the case of Dune La Leyenda , a miniseries released in 2000, and Hijos de Dune , three years later in a format of three episodes lasting five hours which, when it reached the Spanish grill, became two of three hours. Take a look if you want to how those adaptations were.

In any case, the most relevant recognition that Dune has received has almost always been through its films, which, in this case, we do not have many. See what they are…

Dunes (1984)

We can say that it was the first time that someone hit the nail on the head when adapting the Dune novels to the cinema format. At hand David Lynch, which is saying a lot, as well as a cast that for the time was surprisingly large and well-known. If even the great Sting appeared playing one of the key roles in history. In its day it was misunderstood and the public did not support it, but over the years it has been earning a place within that strange list of films that end up being cult.

Dune Part I (2021)

What to say about this film by Denis Villeneuve and that, like the one from 1984, also divided the public between those who hate it and those who love it. On this occasion, thanks to everything that can be created with computers and VFX, the world of Arrakis comes to life like few others in a story that is divided into three films that will be released in the coming years. So we are immersed, until further notice, in dunemania while the Canadian director’s plan is completed.

Wait, one last Dune missing?

Missing from this list is an adaptation of Dune that would have been the first of all because there was a director (Chilean to be exact) who insisted on bringing it to the big screen but, in the end, it was impossible. It is commonly known as Jorodowsky’s Dune and, apart from being a really personal and strange vision for the late 60s and early 70s, it was going to have names that will surprise you: HR Giger, Dan O’Bannon , Pink Floyd or Dalí himself.

As the film was never made, we leave you right here above the documentary that was released in 2013 and that narrates Alejandro Jorodowsky’s plans to turn the Dune novels into reality. What would have come out of here?