Corona | Coming Attractions

The film rights to Dune are no longer held by Paramount Pictures. After four years of developing the project, and at different times attaching directors Peter Berg and Pierre Morel to the project, the studio decided not to renew the rights. They have now reverted back to Richard P. Rubenstein and his New Amsterdam production company.

"I'm going to look at my options, and whether I wind up taking the script we developed in turnaround, or start over, I'm not sure yet," said Rubenstein to Deadline, referring to the draft that screenwriter Chase Palmer and Morel worked on. Rubenstein says that this latest version of the script could be made for $100 million dollars and collapsed Frank Herbert's story down to "feature length" size.

"Sure, it’s frustrating, how long this has taken, but most of what I’ve done that worked out well over the years, like the miniseries The Stand, took a long time," Rubinstein added. "Since I know what I want, eventually, I’ll find someone who’ll agree with me. What I like is that talent has interesting things to say on how they would approach it."