'Dune' TV Series Will Be Helmed By 'Dune' Movie Director Denis Villeneuve
Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment are going all-in on Dune. Not only are they releasing a huge, star-studded movie adaptation from director Denis Villeneuve, they're also moving forward with a Dune TV series for their upcoming streaming service. Titled Dune: The Sisterhood, the show will be set in the same universe as the film, and focus on a mysterious order of women. And for the sake of synergy, Villeneuve is also set to direct the pilot.
The general public hasn't seen a single frame of Denis Villeneuve's big Dune adaptation, but the folks at Warners and Legendary are clearly feeling very confident in how things will turn out. THR reports that WarnerMedia has just given straight-to-series order for Dune: The Sisterhood, a TV series set in the same world as the upcoming film. The series "explores the future through the eyes of a mysterious order of women: the Bene Gesserit. Given abilities by their mastery of the body and the mind, the Bene Gesserit expertly weave through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium, pursuing plans of their own that will ultimately lead them to the enigmatic planet Arrakis — known to its inhabitants as Dune."
"The Bene Gesserit have always been fascinating to me. Focusing a series around that powerful order of women seemed not only relevant and inspiring but a dynamic setting for the television series," Villeneuve said. Jon Spaihts will write the Sisterhood series along with Villeneuve.
Legendary apparently has a whole slew of ideas for their Dune world, including video games, comic books, and digital content. All of this might seem a bit premature – what if the general public ends up hating the Dune movie? For now, though, it looks like it's full steam ahead.
Other studios have flirted with the concept of producing both a film and TV adaptation of a property at the same time. Sony was hoping to do the same thing for their Dark Tower adaptation, but blew it. And Warner Bros. floated a similar idea with another Stephen King property – The Stand, originally planning to create a miniseries that would lead into an eventual film adaptation. That also never came to pass, and now The Stand is being turned into a CBS All Access series instead.
The Dune movie is currently filming, with a killer cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Stephen Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem. The film is set to hit theaters November 20, 2020.