As the film starts, but before the beginning credits, actress Virginia Madsen appears onscreen in the role of “Princess Irulan,” explaining the significance of “the spice” on planet Arrakis.
       While the 3 Nov 1971 DV announced that producer Roger Corman’s New World Pictures had purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert’s best-selling 1965 novel, Dune, and principal photography was scheduled to begin summer 1972 in Czechoslovakia, a 11 Sep 1972 HR news item reported that the property had been acquired by producer Arthur P. Jacobs for his company, APJAC International Productions, and filming was set to begin early 1974. On 6 Sep 1972, Var reported that Herbert, who had been hired as a technical advisor on the film, recently scouted locations in Pakistani cities Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, as well as negotiated with government officials to spend $1 million of the $3 million budget in Pakistan. A 7 Dec 1972 HR news item announced that Rospo Pallenberg, who was previously known for his work as a New York City skyscraper architect, was hired to adapt Herbert’s novel. According to Var, Susan Hampshire, John Neville and Patrick McGoohan were already cast in the picture and Haskell Wexler (misspelled “Harold Wexler”) was expected to direct, with production starting Mar 1973. The 21 Apr 1973 NYT stated that Jacobs planned to start development when he finished shooting the musical version of Huckleberry Finn (1974, see entry); however, Jacobs died 27 Jun 1973 while that film was still in production.
       On 23 Apr 1975, Var reported that Dune was scheduled to begin production mid-Mar 1975 in Hollywood, CA, with Chilean-French filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky directing. Although the film had only secured French financing at the time, (with Michel Seydoux’s company, Camera One), Var reported that the picture would ultimately be a “French-Italian-Mexican coproduction” because most of the filming was planned for Mexico. Douglas Trumbull was hired to create the special effects for the film, which was budgeted at $4 million. A 16 Mar 1983 Var article stated that Jodorowsky’s son, Brontis Jodorowsky, was cast in the lead role of “Paul Atreides,” and actors Laurent Terzieff, Andréa Ferréol and Orson Welles had been contracted to perform. Additionally, Salvador Dali, Charlotte Rampling, Mick Jagger, Alain Delon, Pierre Clémenti and Gloria Swanson were set to play smaller roles.
       The project remained in limbo until early 1979, when Dino De Laurentiis purchased the film rights to Dune and announced that he would produce the picture with his company, Famous Films Productions, N.V., according to a 29 Jan 1979 HR brief. Famous Films is not credited in the film. Herbert was adapting the screenplay, and the budget was expected to exceed $32 million. A DV news item on the same day noted that production was scheduled to begin in 1979 after De Laurentiis completed Flash Gordon (1980, see entry). On 11 Dec 1979, HR announced that Ridley Scott was hired to direct the picture, which De Laurentiis predicted would be “the most expensive film of all time.” Noting that Jodorowsky’s version of Dune “collapsed in preproduction,” HR stated that Swiss production designer H. R. Giger was contracted by De Laurentiis to remain with the project. A Feb 1981 edition of New West reported that James Clay Parks was hired to replace Herbert as the film’s screenwriter and the project was acquired by Universal Pictures. However, an executive at Universal told New West that the budget was not feasible, despite De Laurentiis’ “enormous” investment, and the film’s future was uncertain.
       According to a 21 May 1981 DV news item, writer Rudy Wurlitzer had delivered a first draft of the script to Ridley Scott in 1981 and filming was set to start that year, but Scott was unable to remain with the project when Blade Runner’s (1982, see entry) financier, Filmways, faced a financial crisis and the production was rescheduled to a time that conflicted with Dune. A Nov 1984 edition of Omni also noted that Scott wrote a treatment of the novel which displeased Herbert because it accentuated an incestuous relationship between the character Paul Atreides and his mother, “Lady Jessica.”
       David Lynch was announced as the film’s director in the 21 May 1981 DV. The production was budgeted for $30 million and principal photography was scheduled to begin spring 1982, in Europe and North Africa. As stated in a 23 Sep 1983 DV article, De Laurentiis’ daughter and the film’s producer, Raffaella De Laurentiis, convinced her father to hire Lynch, whose 1980 release, The Elephant Man, (see entry) had recently been nominated for eight Academy Awards. In addition to his role as director, Lynch was contracted to “collaborate” with Wurlitzer on the script, but their work was put on hold during the 1981 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. While Lynch is the only screenwriter credited onscreen, a 16 Mar 1983 Var article added Christopher DeVore and Eric Bergren as writers on the film’s earlier drafts. DV stated that it took Lynch eighteen months and seven drafts to complete the final script.
       According to Var, Lynch’s production of Dune was scheduled to begin production 30 Mar 1983 at Mexico City’s Churubusco Studios with a budget of $40 million. A 24 May 1983 HR news item confirmed that production was underway at Churubusco’s eight soundstages. Noting that the cast included 500 Mexican extras, HR named four Mexican actors who are not credited onscreen: Humberto Elizondo, Raymundo Capetillo, Gustavo Ganem and Ricardo Carrion.
       On 20 Jul 1983, Var reported that crewmembers had threatened a strike, demanding an eighty-percent pay raise. Another Var news item published the same day noted that Universal was unwilling to publicize the film’s budget but admitted that it was “the most expensive picture” it had ever “been associated with.” A 1 Aug 1983 DV brief stated that 300 workers recently spent two months clearing a three-mile portion of desert in the Samalayuca Dune Fields in Chihuahua, Mexico.
       The production ultimately included fifty-three speaking roles, 20,000 extras and 900 crew members, according to a 4 Sep 1983 LAHExam article. The four planets portrayed in the film required the construction of approximately seventy sets, and filming at Churubusco was fraught with mishaps, including regular power outages and the consistent ill health of cast and crew, but the filmmakers remained in Mexico because of currency exchange rates for the U.S. dollar and because no other studio was available for a year-long rental, according to LAHExam. While the budget remained a matter of speculation, Lynch reported that he was not concerned about the mounting costs and twenty-nine-year-old Raffaella De Laurentiis noted that the filmmakers were saving millions of dollars by working in Mexico. LAHExam stated that a large portion of the budget was assigned to the film’s special effects, including the $2 million for the “sandworms,” which were designed by Carlo Rambaldi, the creator of “E.T.” in Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, see entry). A 17 Dec 1983 Screen International article noted that the production constructed the largest blue screen to that time, measuring thirty-five feet high and 108 feet wide, as well as a 100 x 300-foot reservoir. The parking lot of Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium was used as a location for the film’s “landing field.”
       The film marked actor Kyle MacLachlan’s debut in a theatrically-released feature film. He was twenty-four years old at the time of production. Various contemporary sources, including Screen International, noted that Aldo Ray was cast in the film as “Gurney Halleck,” but he was replaced by Patrick Stewart. Silvana Mangano, the wife of Dino De Laurentiis and mother of Raffaella, performed in the role of “Reverend Mother Ramallo” after a twelve-year absence from the screen.
       A 23 Sep 1983 DV article announced that filming had ended after twenty-three weeks; however, the production was finished six months ahead of schedule, according to a 12 Apr 1984 HR news item. With principal photography complete, the budget was officially reported at $40 million, but insiders told DV that the cost might have reached $60 million. Although post-production was scheduled to continue for four weeks in Mexico City and Los Angeles, CA, and completion was planned for the end of Oct 1983, the 17 Dec 1983 Screen International stated that the special effects were still being added in Mexico. At the time, Dune sets at Churubusco Studios were reportedly being re-used for Conan the Destroyer (1984, see entry), which was also produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis. On 25 Jan 1984, Lynch told HR that postproduction was scheduled to end early Feb 1984 in Mexico, and another eight weeks were planned for Los Angeles.
       According to Screen International, Lynch contracted with De Laurentiis to direct “at least two, and possibly three” additional films adapted from Herbert’s six-novel Dune series, but his next project with De Laurentiis was set to be a production of Lynch’s original screenplay, Ronnie Rocket; however, the film did not materialize. A 22 Mar 1984 LAHExam news item announced that De Laurentiis had “green light(ed)” two Dune sequels to be directed by Lynch and produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis. Most of the original cast, with the exception of Max von Sydow, was expected to return to their roles and Lynch had “virtually completed” screenplay drafts for Dune II and Dune III. As of Feb 2013, the sequels had not been produced.
       The picture’s two-year marketing campaign marked one of the largest promotional drives in film history, according to a 19 Nov 1984 DV article. Twenty-five department stores nationwide carried Dune merchandise; some featured window displays and sponsored travelling fashion shows. Television and radio stations collaborated with department stores to advertise a contest for tickets to the 3 Dec 1984 premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Bookstore chains featured Herbert’s novel, sponsored a contest to dine with the author in Los Angeles, and sold cassette tapes of an interview with Herbert and Lynch. The Dino De Laurentiis Corporation licensed at least thirty lines of product tie-ins, according to a 21 Dec 1984 NYT article, including books, a soundtrack album, posters, pillowcases and numerous toys.
       As noted in the 10 Dec 1984 DV, the film’s simultaneous opening in U.S. and foreign markets on 14 Dec 1984 was unusual at the time. Additionally, the picture marked the first release in a “worldwide coding experiment” sponsored by Universal and Paramount Pictures that aimed to combat piracy; each of Dune’s 1,700 prints were branded with an identification code that would enable the film to be traced in pirated videocassettes. Although Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, see entry) was technically the first film to be coded, the system was only used with domestic prints and there were problems in the Indiana Jones release that were corrected for Dune.
       According to a 5 Nov 1984 article in Forbes, the production, marketing and release of Dune was unprecedented; the film would need to gross at least $200 million to break even. Comparing De Laurentiis to Walt Disney, Forbes stated that the picture represented a new “globalization” in filmmaking that stemmed from communication developments in computer technology. The producer was reportedly building an industry around the anticipated success of the Dune franchise, signing actors to long-term contracts, building sound stages in Wilmington, N.C., and making plans to release ten new films in eighteen months.
       Although Dune received lukewarm reviews, it initially fared well at the box-office, grossing $6 million domestically its opening weekend, according to the 21 Dec 1984 NYT. A 12 Feb 1985 HR news item noted that the film opened successfully in the international market, earning nearly $9 million in the first month of its release. However, the picture failed to maintain its audience and various contemporary sources, including the 18 Dec 1984 LAT, reported rumors that Dune was “a disaster.” According to a 23 Jan 1985 Var article, the lack of interest in the film at the box-office was not reflected at bookstores; Herbert’s Dune topped the NYT best-seller list for weeks after the picture was released.
       As stated in the 26 May 1988 DV, the film was edited for television to “make sense to the average viewer.” Many scenes were cut to reduce the running time, but original footage that was previously edited from the 1984 release was added back into picture. A voice-over narration written by Francesca Turner was also inserted. Lynch refused to have his name associated with the edited version; when Dune aired on television, the director was listed as “Alan Smithee” and the screenplay was credited to “Judas Booth.”
       A new version of Dune, based on Herbert’s novel, not Lynch’s screenplay, aired on television as a three-part miniseries in 2000.
       Lynch’s Dune was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Sound.

      Before the picture begins, the following statement appears onscreen: “This film is dedicated to Federico De Laurentiis.” Federico De Laurentiis, the only son of presenter Dino De Laurentiis and brother to producer Raffaella De Laurentiis, was killed 17 Jul 1981 in a plane accident. The end credits include the following written statement: “Filmed on location in Mexico, and at the Estudios Churubusco Azteca S.A., Mexico City, with the production crew of ‘La Seccion de Tecnicos y Manuales del S.T.P.C.R.M.’” The following acknowledgement also appears onscreen: “Gurney’s Baliset is Based on 'The Stick'® Created by Emmett Chapman.