Inside the folder lay the stuff of fans’ dreams, never made public until now: 56 pages dated “January 2nd-through-9th, 1984”, matching Lynch’s “half a script” statement. Complete with penned annotations by Herbert, the Dune II script shows Lynch was still enthusiastic about the material, lending new significance to minor details in the ‘84 film. 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 due to its emphasis on palace intrigue over action, along with the inner turmoil of a reluctant dictator (Paul Atreides) in place of a traditional hero’s journey. 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.
Scytale’s 12-year odyssey reanimating “dead Duncan Idaho” into the ghola named Hayt on the nightmarish Bene Tleilax world (mentioned by Paul in Dune) constitutes the entire opening 10 minutes of the script. Lynch calls the planet Tleilax
Max Evrya dark metal world with canals of steaming chemicals and acids. Those canals, Lynch writes, are lined withdead pink small test tube animals. Initiating Dune II with a focus on Scytale foregrounds him to primary antagonist, unlike Herbert’s book where myriad conspirators work against Paul.
I’m deeply skeptical of people claiming that a particular movie adaptation would best the original work – especially an adaption from which we only have an unfinished script and nothing else. The passages describing Lynch’s vision for the Tleilaxu are surreal, but for me they are quite removed from Herbert’s admittedly scarce description. My impression of the Bene Tleilax in the books is that they are disciplined and immensely secretive – very much opposed to the gaudy style of the Harkonnens. Their main area of expertise is genetic engineering – so flesh alterations: yes; machinery: not so much; even flesh alterations would be uncommon, as the Tleilax always strive to not draw unwanted attention to themselves and their agents.
In his novel, Herbert demonstrated unrest among the Fremen through conversation; in his script, Lynch laid out opposition to Paul’s rule via a more cinematic form: a knife fight. An anonymous Fremen warrior challenges Paul to a duel, but Paul’s partner Chani (who would have been played, like she was in Lynch’s first film, by Sean Young) says he has to kill her first before getting a stab at Paul. Chani makes short work of this warrior, putting him on the ground with two kicks and a knife to the neck:
If I kill them … the word spreads that even the concubine of Paul kills the strongest of the challengers.This scene is also a showcase for Young’s Chani as a fierce combatant. Despite being a trained dancer and athlete, Young had no real fight choreography in Dune.
I never had major fights in that show, Young confirmed to me during interviews for my book.
One thing this partial Lynch script nails though is the Paul-Chani dynamic from the quotes above. A stark contrast to the trailers for Dune: Part Two, where Zendaya appears to challenge the prophecy and thus Paul’s claim as Mahdi of the Fremen. I honestly can’t tell where Villeneuve is going with this one, as it seems a huge departure from the books that could cause further ramifications later – all stemming from his intention of giving Chani more screen time in the second movie.
Personally, I felt increasingly put off by each new trailer and reveal, to the point that I’m not sure I want to watch Part Two – certainly not when it comes out in cinemas. Recent rumors that there would be no time jump between movies seem to indicate that Villeneuve stripped out the character of Alia or drastically reduced her role to a couple of visions and a ‘voice from the womb’, which sounds awful and an utterly unnecessary deviation from the book. I suspect that, despite my low expectations of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation, there is still ample room for disappointment…
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