Legendary Entertainment, known famously for producing dozens of highly acclaimed films from the Dark Knight Trilogy to Pacific Rim to Warcraft, has recently acquired the rights to Frank Herbert’s 1965 cult classic science fiction novel Dun.

The rights agreement negotiated by Mike Ross and Jen Grazier will allow Legendary Entertainment to develop and produce possible film and television projects for a worldwide audience. According to Variety, Legendary Entertainment has announced that any projects relating to the newly acquired Dune franchise would be produced by Thomas Tull, Mary Parent and Cale Boyter, with Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert serving as executive producers. Past attempts to monetize the Dune franchise through film have so far bee unsuccessful, including the 1984 adaptation directed by David Lynch which starred actor Kyle MacLachlan. Even though the film was a flop, it did seem to gain a cult status in later years gleaming quite the unexpected following from fans of science fiction.

Set in the distant future, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, whose family accepts control of the desert planet Arrakis. As the only producer of a highly valuable resource, control of Arrakis is highly contested among the noble families. After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship to nature as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s control of Arrakis.

The novel Dune, as popular as it was, at the time was looked upon as a tremendous challenge to film given the inherent otherworldly nature of it’s setting. Given the lack of technology to recreate such an out of this world experience on screen, many directors and producers have displayed interest over the years but none took it so far as to commit to such a daunting project. Ridley Scott, the producer and director of the ever popular sci-fi horror film  Alien, even displayed interest at one point.

Now that technology allows film producers to reach beyond our own reality and create transcendent masterpieces we shall see if Legendary Entertainment has what it takes to get this franchise out of the sci-fi attic as it were and bring into a glorious reappearance on the big screen. We here at DFTG are looking forward to seeing what lies in store for this marvelous sci-fi classic. If you like this article check out some more news from the director that brought us the Warcraft Movie!