Or turns: This is billed as Part One, with Part Two yet to be filmed. (If anything, climate change makes that vision that much more powerful.) It’s also thanks to “Dune” having previously been made into a 1984 movie - directed by David Lynch, no less, and a famous failure - and a 2000 cable miniseries. That’s thanks in part to how compelling Herbert’s vision of an entirely arid planet is for an ecologically conscious age. The book has become that much a part of the culture. Spice has psychotropic qualities, which makes it of interest not just in outer space.Įven if you haven’t read “Dune, and the book has sold 20 million copies since first being published, in 1965, “Fremen” and “sandworms” and “Arrakis” and “spice” might sound vaguely familiar. Spice is so valuable because interplanetary navigators need it to pilot their spacecraft. It’s “by far the most valuable substance in the universe,” a character in the movie says. Except that you do, because sandworms produce a substance known as spice. The creatures can grow up to 1,300 feet in length, and you don’t want to be nearby when they’re around.
The planet’s inhabitants, the Fremen, worship them. Sandworms live beneath the desert surface of the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune.
