Brian Herbert—who took over the “Dune” novels after Frank Herbert’s death—says Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part One” and “Dune: Part Two” are the best film interpretation of his father’s original novel. Herbert says the care shown in the two movies, combined, ma
The room was private, but the message wasn’t subtle. Brian Herbert left a screening of “Dune: Part Two” ready to place Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation at the very top of “Dune” movie attempts.
In a 2024 Facebook post, Herbert praised Villeneuve’s duology as the best film interpretation of his father’s original novel. “It is gratifying to see my father’s story told with such great care,” he wrote. Then he went further: “When the new movie is combined with ‘Dune: Part One’ it is by far the best film interpretation of Frank Herbert’s classic novel ‘DUNE’ that has ever been done.”.
For fans, the timing lands like a verdict. “Dune” was long treated as a problem—an “unfilmable” sci-fi epic no filmmaker could wrangle into a cohesive movie. The skepticism didn’t start with Villeneuve, either. Frank Herbert’s “Dune” dates back to 1965. and its dense universe and lore have challenged nearly every adaptation that came after.
Villeneuve’s first two films—“Dune: Part One. ” released in 2021. and “Dune: Part Two. ” released in 2024—arrived after decades of imperfect attempts. The previous major screen take came from David Lynch, whose 1984 “Dune” was widely described as maligned. Frank Herbert. who died in 1986—two years after Lynch’s film—never got a modern audience-facing duology to judge in the way fans now can.
What is known is how Frank Herbert felt about Lynch’s version. The elder author actually liked Lynch’s take on “Dune. ” and he praised Lynch for preserving what Herbert called the most crucial aspect of the original story. That context makes Brian Herbert’s praise feel like more than fandom—it reads like a family line being carried forward.
The duology Herbert is endorsing also didn’t come out of a vacuum. Before Villeneuve began. Brian Herbert and other “Dune” writers had to help manage the scope of a world that spans roughly 15. 000 years of history across dozens of novels. Frank Herbert authored six of those books himself. After his death, Brian Herbert partnered with author Kevin J. Anderson to produce an additional 20 books, including multiple short stories and novellas. There’s even a book of “Dune”-inspired poems by Frank Herbert.
At this stage, Brian Herbert and Anderson are responsible for the bulk of stories set within the “Dune”-verse—one reason his opinion on screen adaptation carries weight for readers who track canon as closely as characters track omens.
Herbert’s involvement goes beyond endorsement, too. He provided input on the “Dune” scripts and was involved from the outset. advising producers Mary Parent and Cale Boyer to keep “the demands of discriminating ‘Dune’ fans” in mind when searching for a director. Once a director was found. Brian Herbert began communicating with screenwriter Eric Roth about the creative vision for “Dune: Part One. ” staying involved as the final screenplay came together.
It’s a rare position—close enough to shape the early decisions, and close enough to know what readers fear they’ll lose. Herbert’s praise suggests he thinks Villeneuve and Roth respected the core of the novel while also handling the translation problem in a way that moviegoers can actually follow.
Herbert also highlights the practical balancing act of adaptation itself: the first two films are described as faithful to the “Dune” book while taking a few well-executed liberties and trimming down the mythology to make the story more accessible.
That sets up the next question for the franchise: can Villeneuve repeat the same care under the pressures of later material?. The upcoming “Dune: Part Three” is set to adapt Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel “Dune Messiah. ” a book originally conceived as a retort to readers who saw “Dune” protagonist Paul Atreides as a hero.
Now, Herbert’s role returns in another form. With Brian Herbert producing, the hope among fans is that the threequel will stay just as faithful to the vision he believes made the original story work—only this time, with the story already transformed once by film.
Brian Herbert Denis Villeneuve Dune Part One Dune Part Two Dune Messiah Frank Herbert Timothée Chalamet Mary Parent Cale Boyer Eric Roth Kevin J. Anderson David Lynch