According to Variety, Forrest Gump writer Eric Roth has signed on to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake, lending the project the distinct air of Oscar prestige. Roth is also the writer behind The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Munich, and this Dune adaptation will be his first sci-fi project since The Postman in 1997 (if that even counts). Basically, Roth signing on to Dune is like jumping right into hard mode on a brand new video game. He might do just fine, but there’s very little indication that he even knows how to play.
This Dune movie will naturally be based on Frank Herbert’s original novel, which is one of the most famously dense and complex sci-fi sagas ever. There have been multiple attempts to adapt it in the past, including Syfy’s TV miniseries in 2000 and David Lynch’s film in 1984.