Who Controls the Spice? Pierre Morel

The last update we got on Dune was the departure of Peter Berg (currently prepping Battleship for Universal and possibly helming a Hancock sequel over at Sony afterwards). Reports said Paramount was looking at District 9’s Neil Blomkamp and The Descent’s Neill Marshall to take over the property. Granted that was three months ago and another name has now come out of left field to sit in the director’s chair.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Pierre Morel (behind last January’s surprise smash Taken) has been given the gig. His hiring merely solves half the problem. The studio still needs another screenwriter on board and, yes they’re searching. The priority for this latest version is to remain faithful to the original 1965 Frank Herbert novel.

Color me surprised Paramount has a fire under their ass to get Dune on the big screen. It seemed like nothing more than talk, frankly. Plus to properly adapt the Herbert book will take a lot of money and I’m still questioning whether any studio is willing to do that.

Most Dune fans will be happy to know this probably means we won't see Robert Pattinson as Paul Atreides.