Dune II (cancelled film)

This article refers to elements from the film Dune (1984)

Dune II
Lynch's Script, found by Max Evry
Directed by	David Lynch
Written by	David Lynch
Produced by	Dino De Laurentiis
Series
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Next →	Dune III

"Dune Messiah is a very short book, and a lot of people don't like it. But, in there are some really nifty ideas. I'm real excited about that, and I think it could make a really good film. It starts twelve years later and this creates a whole new set of problems. It's a kind of thing unto itself. The whole place where the characters live is now different. It's the same location, but everything has changed. And it should have a different mood. . . It should be twelve, strange years later."

―David Lynch

Dune II is a cancelled film scripted by David Lynch and produced by Raffaella and Dino De Laurentiis, based upon Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah. Lynch intended to shoot the next two films (Dune 3 presumably based on Children of Dune) back to back, reusing some props from the first film. The script was 56 pages long and unfinished, likely scrapped due to the box office and critical failure of the first film.

Production details

David Lynch was far more comfortable adapting Dune Messiah, what he called a ‘tighter, better story’. He wrote a 56 page script, covering from the beginning to Scytale’s message to Paul.

Plot details

After the death of Duncan Idaho, the Baron’s Doctor emerges, revealed to be Scytale, a face dancer, taking Idaho's body and dissapearing, leaving the Baron Harkonnen furious. Over twelve years, Scytale works tirelessly to revive Idaho as the Ghola Hayt on Tleilax, a “a dark metal world with canals of steaming chemicals and acids… lined with dead pink small test tube animals” run by sadists. Scytale and his friends perform a strange ritual, a ‘Boogie tune’, in which the morph into many different psychedelic shapes. Scytale morphs into Duncan and talks to Hayt in the axolotl tank, conditioning him. Hayt repeats 'I love my Duke' and declares his loyalty to House Atreides repeatedly, and Scytale mimics and mocks him. Scytale pushes a face dancer for laughing too hard, who turns into a woman, shrieks and floats out of the room. After successfully bringing Hayt to life, Scytale receives an assignment from Abulurd Harkonnen II, the half brother of the deceased Baron Harkonnen: to steal a Sandworm from Paul Atreides. Scytale boards a Heighliner to plot Paul’s downfall with Irulan Corrino, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam and Edric.

Irulan returns to Arrakis, a planet transformed with plants adorning buildings and a giant golden palace in Arrakeen. Paul has built the largest room in the universe beneath the palace to contain a sandworm. An anonymous Fremen warrior challenges Paul to a duel. Chani duels on Paul’s behalf and swiftly dispatches the warrior with two kicks and a Crysknife to the neck, telling Paul “If I kill them … the word spreads that even the concubine of Paul kills the strongest of the challengers.” At night Paul has a dream of a vast ocean of blood, symbolising the effects of the Jihad. An invisible consciousness calls out to Paul before transforming into a a ‘massive black vibrating soft cube of screams.’ Chani wakes Paul and urges him to let Irulan bear his heir, as Chani seems to be infertile due to Irulan’s contraceptive, whilst Paul wishes to remain loyal to Chani

Scytale arrives at Arrakis and dispatches Farok with a poisoned dart before kidnapping the daughter of Otheym, Lichna. Paul holds a council meeting on this issue, with his sister Alia present. A Guild Navigator arrives at Arrakis and gifts Hayt to Paul. Stilgar urges Paul not to accept it, seeing it as an abomination of the man he once knew. Paul accepts. The Reverend Mother is removed from the Heighliner and locked up under the watchful eye of Stilgar. Irulan and Mohiam communicate using sign language, Mohiam urging Irulan to assassinate Chani if she becomes pregnant and encourage an incestuous relationship between Paul and Alia. Paul walks in on Alia, training naked. Irulan awkwardly tells Paul of the supposed sexual tension they posses. When Irulan discovers they may actually have an attraction to each other, she breaks down and tells them of the Guild’s plot against Paul.

Alia, with Hayt, discovers the body of Lichna, head smashed in and hands missing. Hayt notes “Someone didn't want her recognized”. At dinner, Alia informs Paul of her findings and advises Paul to get rid of Hayt: Alia has secretly developed feelings for him. Chani reveals to Alia her pregnancy. Chani and Bannerjee clear Lichna (Scytale in disguise) to deliver a message to Paul, advising him to visit Farok and learn of a secret Fremen conspiracy against Muad’Dib. Paul sees through Scytale’s disguise but accepts regardless.

Intended cast

Confirmed

• Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Usul Muad'Dib Atreides. Kyle MacLachlan signed on for both sequels.
• Leonardo Cimino as Scytale. The baron’s doctor from the first film would’ve been revealed to be Scytale. Unknown whether Cimino would play Scytale in the first flashback scene or throughout the film.
• Richard Jordan as Duncan Idaho. Jordan agreed to a smaller role in Dune due to the promise of a more prominent role in the future adaptations of Messiah and Children

Would presumably reprise role

• Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan.
• Siân Phillips as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam.
• Sean Young as Chani
• Honorato Magaloni as Otheym
• Everett McGill as Stilgar

Potential Cast

• Jennifer Jason Leigh as Alia Atreides. Jason Leigh auditioned for the previous film. Lynch told the casting director to remember her when it came to casting a grown up Alia. Alia was to be “sexy, 17 and wears a very beautiful version of the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother robes.”

Herbert's notes

Herbert was generally fond of the script, more wanting to reword and change small things.

• R is repeated multiple times throughout the script, possibly a symbol for 'Rewrite
• Herbert wanted Scytale to be a Tleilaxu Master as he was in Herbert's latest novel Heretics of Dune
• After the strange scene where Scytale pushes a Face dancer who morphs into a naked woman, Frank writes "Something already gone wrong"
• Frank writes “Metaphors: Sand from Paul's boot (hourglass).”, presumably an idea for another one of Paul's haunting dreams.

Design

Props, models and costumes would have been reused from the first film, placed in storage by Dino De Laurentiis. Barry Nolan, VFX artist, mocked up a black eye effect to show to Lynch, intended for Paul’s yet to be scripted encounter with the Stone Burner.

Legacy

Messiah was later adapted as an episode of Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. Denis Villeneuve intends to adapt Dune Messiah.