With Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation coming next year, Ace Hardcover is looking to celebrate Frank Herbert’s book with a newly remastered $40 hardcover edition.
The new edition of Dune, originally published in 1965, has its eyes set on an October 1st release and will include an updated introduction by Herbert’s son Brian Herbert, who carries on with the preservation and expansion of the Dune-verse after his father’s death in 1986. The book will also contain stained edges, illustrated end papers, and a world map of Arrakis.
The story follows Paul Atreides, the son of a duke who oversees the desert planet of Arrakis. This planet contains a rare drug known as “The Spice” that offers its users an extended lifespan and enhanced mental abilities. The tale is tightly packaged with betrayals, political intrigue, and environmental metaphors that seem prophetic in nature. It’s considered the best work of science fiction in the history of the genre.
Given the price tag, this hardcover version of the book stands to become the definitive edition of Herbert’s classic. What we don’t have yet is a definitive version of a Dune movie.
David Lynch tackled the license in 1984 with Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, Everett McGill, and Virginia Madsen in leading roles. While some of the book’s highly-praised world-building mechanics carry over to the movie, Lynch’s efforts fell victim to behind-the-scenes tensions, which included not giving Lynch final cut privileges.
SYFY produced its own Dune adaptation in the form of a 3-part event series, which was released in December 2000. This version has its fans, largely because it’s considered quite faithful to the source material. William Hurt, Giancarlo Giannini, and Julie Cox led the cast.
More than a decade later, the Dune-verse got a big shake up with a documentary called Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013), which is considered by many as the definitive account of what could have become the best interpretation of the book. It’s part tribute, part dissection of what a missed opportunity looks like.
Villeneuve’s movie has a lot to live up to now thanks to what was revealed in Jodorowsky’s Dune, and comparisons between the two should surprise no one as movie goers take to social media to see whether the latest attempt comes close to what Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted to achieve with his movie. It’s a tough thing to pull off, being compared to a groundbreaking movie that was never made.
Mark those calendars for October 1 and make sure to give the new Dune hardcover a look. It’s safe to say it will look great in your bookshelf.
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune would have been nothing like the Dune we cherish in book form. “Missed opportunity”, no not really, more like dodged a bullet.
I consider the orange and gold hardcover that was available at Barnes & Noble a few years back to be the definitive version. It has just about every feature and supplement you could ask for and has a much cooler cover than the one pictured here. It’s probably hard to find now, so this’ll have to do for those just now jumping on the bandwagon.
Jodorowsky isn´t Argentinian, he is Chilean
I love Dune, but it’s not “considered the best work of science fiction in the history of the genre.” Get real.
“which is considered by many as the definitive account of what could have become the best interpretation of the book” Given the creative liberties taken, I don’t think anybody thought that, including Jodorowsky.
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