We’ve only just started 2018 (although it feels like we’re 246 months into it) and yet 2019 is already looking up for quality movies. The last three films director Denis Villeneuve has given us – Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 – are arguably the best movies in their respective years of release, add to that the source material of Frank Herbert’s influential 1965 sci-fi novel and screenwriter Eric Roth…and we’re more than likely looking at another cinematic sci-fi masterpiece.

Not much is known about what kind of approach Villeneuve will take, although it seems he will be looking to draw inspiration more from the original novel than the spectaculalry under-rated 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch.

Lynch’s reimagining of elements like the stillsuits, Giedi Prime and House Atreides tech was post-modern, industrial and almost steampunk in places. In short, it was ahead of its time.

In an interview with Fandom, Villeneuve may have just given the film a description that makes his interpretation sound really rather exciting:

“Most of the main ideas of Star Wars are coming from Dune so it’s going to be a challenge to [tackle] this. The ambition is to do the Star Wars movie I never saw. In a way, it’s Star Wars for adults. We’ll see.”

Villeneuve is correct in saying that much of the inspiration for Star Wars came from Dune. George Lucas was a massive fan of the book and has openly admitted to taking inspiration from some elements of the world crafted by Herbert and fusing them into his idea for a space western. Along with Star Trek (1966), The Dambusters (1955) and of course The Hidden Fortress (1958).

Considering that Star Wars has always been a family friendly franchise – although the new releases have probably changed that – it would be amazing to see something as rich as Star Wars from a world-building perspective, plus a story with more depth to it.

It could be argued that Dune has more in common with Lord of the Rings, from the perspective of narrative and lore depth, so we’ll just have to see. Plus the fact that the cerebral Blade Runner 2049 failed to rake in $millions from the morons masses, it will be interesting to see just how “adult” Villeneuve goes with this. He may be forced to keep its appeal broad enough to make it more appealing commercially.

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