One of the biggest events in the recent history of sci-fi cinema is filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's ambitious upcoming movie Dune, based on the iconic novel by Frank Herbert of the same name. For the longest time, Dune was considered to be an unfilmable piece of literature that was simply too dense and complex to be adapted as a film. But in an essay for Variety, Villeneuve seemed confident in his chances of success, going so far as to declare his new movie the best he has ever made.

"'Dune' is by far the best movie I've ever made. My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big-screen experience. Our movie's image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters."

Coming from Denis Villeneuve, the director of Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, that is an impressive claim to make. Villeneuve has long named Dune as his passion project, the one movie that he has been waiting his whole life to make, and it seems the filmmaker left no stone unturned in making sure his Dune is the definitive cinematic adaptation of Herbert's novel. Villeneuve's sentiment was recently echoed by Frank Herbert's son Brian, who spoke in glowing terms about his visit to Villeneuve's Dune film set.

"I was very impressed by the trailer, and I was thrilled to actually be on the movie set in Budapest last year, where my wife and I watched the filming of several scenes. This is a really big movie, a major project that will forever be considered THE definitive film adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic novel. Fans are going to love this movie. Denis Villeneuve is the perfect director to do Dune."

Unfortunately, Villeneuve's ambitions to create an entire franchise out of Dune have hit a roadblock due to WarnerMedia's decision to release the movie on HBO Max at the same time as in theaters. This decision means Dune will almost certainly underperform at the box-office, and Villeneuve is afraid he will never be given a chance to make a sequel.

"Streaming can produce great content, but not movies of Dune's scope and scale. Warner Bros.' decision means Dune won't have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. Warner Bros. might just have killed the "Dune" franchise."

Directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script he co-wrote with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts, Dune features an ensemble lead cast of Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Dr. Liet Kynes, Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Dave Bautista Glossu Rabban, David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Stephen Henderson as Thufir Hawat and Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck. The film arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1, 2021. This news comes from Variety.