Berg divorced from Dune

He who controls the Spice, controls the universe! – – – and that use to be Peter Berg.

The filmmaker has exited the much ballyhooed big-screen redo of Frank Herbert’s “Dune”.

Pajiba first reported the news stating that the “Friday Night Lights” helmer had “completely dropped the project a few weeks ago — his Film 44 production company backed out, and now Paramount is scrambling to find a new director” and CHUD has confirmed their report.

According to the former, “District 9” helmer Neill Blomkamp and “Doomsday” director Neil Marshall have both been approached about taking over. Of the two, Blomkamp is the more favoured, because he’s actually had a major hit – unlike Marshall whose back-catalogue consists manly of popular fiscally-friendly indy flicks that find an audience on DVD, but not so much theatrically.

But “Dune” is such a large-scale project that’s going to take more than a few months to put together, and someone captaining it that’s not only abundant with imagination but patience, and more to the point, it’s a risky endeavor. I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes the way of an unhealthy model and collapses.

Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary fiefdoms are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the Imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and the scion of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the “spice” melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex and multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the Empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its “spice”.

The book was previously transferred to the big screen, albeit successfully, in a 1984 film from director David Lynch (who opted to direct it, instead of Lucasfilm’s “Return of the Jedi”). Upon its release, director Lynch distanced himself from the project, stating that pressure from both producers and financiers restrained his artistic control and denied him final cut. Fans of the ”Dune” series are polarized by the movie, although the film has become a cult favorite, and at least three different versions have been released worldwide.

In his review of “Dune” (1984), critic Roger Ebert gave Dune one star out of four and wrote “This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time.”

Two mini-series, also based on Herbet’s “Dune”, were broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel in the early noughties. ”Frank Herbert’s Dune” (2000) won two Emmy Awards in 2001 for Cinematography and Visual effects in a miniseries/movie, as well as being nominated for a third Emmy for Sound editing. Unlike the Lynch version, critics actually liked this one.