A half-written script for David Lynch’s Dune sequel has been found, teasing what could have been had the director’s plans for a trilogy come to fruition.
Max Evry, the author of ‘A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune. An Oral History,’ unearthed the script in July of last year while working on his book, finding it in Frank Herbert’s (the author of Dune and its five sequels) archives at California State University, Fullerton.
In an article for WIRED, Evry spoke highly of the Lynch’s script, saying: “He also cracked a way to tell the complex story of Herbert’s 1969 novel Dune Messiah, easily the least cinematic book in the series.”
“It may ring of sacrilege to some, but Lynch’s Dune II would have bested Herbert’s book — and been one hell of a movie,” he added.
Evry noted various intriguing details about the script, including how it opened with a new set of scenes that don’t feature in Herbert’s novel, picking up in the aftermath of the Harkonnen’s attack on Arrakeen that saw Duncan Idaho (Richard Jordan) killed in action.
Lynch’s Messiah would have also revealed that Leonardo Cimino’s mysterious doctor from the first film was actually a major figure from Herbert’s novels: Scytale, a “face-dancer” of the sinister genetically enhanced beings known as the Bene Tleilax.
Following the assault on Arrakeen, Scytale takes Idaho’s body and attempts to resurrect him as the clone “Ghola” Hayt. This surreal sequence would have served as the film’s opening.
Evry reveals a lot more in the WIRED article, including how Lynch would have set the stage for Paul Atreides’s (played by Kyle MacLachlan in the 1984 film) ascension to power as the ruler of Arrakis.
In a statement through his assistant, Lynch said that he “sort of remembers writing something but doesn’t recall ever finishing it.” However, since the director views his Dune movie as a “failure in his eyes and not a particular time he likes to think or talk about,” he declined to comment further on the unearthed script.
Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve’s revamped version of the franchise is set to continue with Dune: Part Two, starring Timothèe Chalamet and Zendaya, when it arrives in cinemas on March 15.
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