MONDO EXTRAS

TWoP: Finally, I have to ask about one of my favorite sci-fi books, Frank Herbert's Dune. Are you still attached to direct a new feature film based on it?

PB: Yes, we're gonna have a script in at the end of this month. Josh Zetumer's writing the script -- I just had dinner with him last night. I fully intend to do it. It's another example of where I'm aware that there's -- I don't think rabid is a strong enough word -- fanbase for the film, and I understand that some people support me directing it and some don't. All I can tell you is that I was as much a fan of the book as anyone, and I'm really looking forward to getting that script in.

TWoP: At this early stage, do you have any thoughts on how your take will differ from the David Lynch, Alan Smithee and Sci Fi Channel versions?

PB: I think starting with tone. To me, the book had a tone that was, for lack of a better word, more muscular. It was a little dirtier, it was scarier, it was rougher, it was more intense, and I think that Lynch's film and the Sci Fi miniseries took a tack that was different. It wasn't any of those things as I remember the book being. There were so many different aspects of Herbert and his personality.... I will focus on -- again, for lack of a better word -- a rougher, more muscular version of Herbert's work. A more muscular interpretation.

TWoP: And I wonder if your version would be more naturalistic, more character-based, than the space operas that those other folks tried to make.

PB: I think so, but that doesn't mean that it will be smaller. You know, there's a scope to Dune, and certainly a Shakespearian quality to that family, that I don't pretend to ignore.