"The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence."

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual."

- Words of Muad'dib by Princess Irulan.

Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

I've been amused to have people ask me what I thought of Dune: Part Two as compared to the first film. In my mind, they're actually just one movie, released over time but based on a single story - if the two films were spliced together without credits, you wouldn't even notice the break. I suppose I could make a case for the second film being more of a war movie than the first one, in keeping with director Denis Villeneuve's comments about Part Two, but that follows the structure of the original novel as well.

The bottom line is that the majority of Part Two would make no sense if you hadn't seen Dune*, so let's just consider them to be a single piece of art.

The next topic is generally the possibility of a sequel, and based on the success of Part Two so far, it's more that likely that a third film is happening.  

However, as a long standing fan, I'm aware that the potential for sequels is greater than people think:  after all, there are 27 - yes, 27 - Dune books in existence**.

But let's take a look at what that number encompasses.

Frank Herbert wrote six books in the series before his death in 1986: Dune (1965);  Dune Messiah (1969); Children of Dune (1976); God Emperor of Dune (1981); Heretics of Dune (1984); and ending with Chapterhouse: Dune in 1985.

Thirteen years later, his son Brian took up the gauntlet, and in collaboration with fellow author Kevin J. Anderson, added an additional 21 books to the series, for the most part as trilogy novels: Prelude to Dune, Legends of Dune, Heroes of Dune, Great Schools of Dune, and The Caladan Trilogy, along with with four one-off novels and a pair of short story collections. 

Unfortunately, although the Herbert/Anderson collaborations have sold well, they have not necessarily been up to the standard of his father's work - no offense intended, Frank Herbert's style is distinctive and very much his own. 

However, you can't ignore that those books exist, and as such, if the market were to continue to demand Dune films, it would be possible, if perhaps misguided, to adapt all of them. After all, Denis Villeneuve is only 56, if he made a concerted effort he could probably get through all 27 before he hits 100, a fate which might well be worse than death from his perspective - the poor man might want to have a life of his own for the next 44 years.

- Sid

* Coincidentally, my sister-in-law Stefanie has had exactly that experience. She didn't see the first film, but a friend had an extra ticket to Part Two and convinced her to go. I gather that she did some research and managed to keep up, but it must have been a struggle.

** There's a colouring book as well, but I think we can safely leave that off the list.