The first Dune bombed, but it’s still better than Timothée Chalamet’s version

Over time, Dune’s reputation evolved from dud to cultish camp classic and even, among some fans, to flawed masterpiece. But a successful adaptation of the monolithic Frank Herbert sci-fi novel it was based on — a book that had already spent over a decade in development by directors as varied as David Lean, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Ridley Scott, by the time Lynch got his hands on it — remained a white whale for the filmmaking community. When Denis Villeneuve released the first part of his acclaimed adaptation in 2021, everyone breathed a sigh of relief; now we could all pretend that Lynch’s one artistic failure never happened.