Dune author Frank Herbert’s son offers glowing verdict on new movie sequel

The son of Dune author Frank Herbert has given his verdict on the new film adaptation Dune: Part Two.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film is the second half of a a two-part adaptation of Herbert’s original Dune novel.

Reviews for Part Two were published earlier this week, with the film earning a positively glowing 97 per cent positive score on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Agreeing with the consensus was Brian Herbert, the elder son of the original Dune author. After Herbert’s death in 1986, Brian began publishing additional sequels and prequels to the franchise, written alongside Kevin J Anderson and utilising his late father’s notes.

On Saturday (24 February), Brian shared his thoughts on the new sequel, writing on X/Twitter: “I saw Dune: Part Two at a private studio screening, and it is gratifying to see my father’s story told with such great care.

“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.”

Part One was released in 2021, and was a box office hit despite being impacted by the Covid pandemic. The new sequel is out on 1 March, having been delayed for several months due to the actors and writers strikes.

The Dune novels have been adapted several times before for film and TV, including an infamous 1984 adaptation by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan.

Dune: Part Two features an all-star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, and Christopher Walken.

In a five-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “There are moments in Dune: Part Two that feel so audacious, they play out as if they were already etched onto the cinematic canon. A lone figure stands astride a mountainous worm as it pummels through the sand like Moses parting the Red Sea. A man is trapped by a psychic seduction, its effects splintering across the screen in what could only be described as an indoor thunderstorm. Gladiatorial combat takes place on a planet with an environment so inhospitable, its colours so drained, that it looks almost like a photographic negative.

“Dune: Part Two, like its predecessor, is a work of total sensory and imaginative immersion. As precious as the spice of Arrakis itself, it’s the ultimate payoff to 2021’s great gamble, when filmmaker Denis Villeneuve chose to adapt half of Frank Herbert’s foundational sci-fi novel, with no guarantee a sequel would ever be made.”

Dune: Part Two is released in cinemas in the UK on 1 March.