Meanwhile his son Paul is having visions of Fremen girl Chani ( Zendaya) - and there are signs he could be a prophesised Chosen One as foretold by the Bene Gesserit, an order of mystic women (of which Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson), is one). But since the brutal House Harkonnen has successfully overseen the Arrakis operation for 80 years, Duke Leto senses his house’s appointment there is likely a trap. Duke Leto Atreides ( Oscar Isaac) is tasked by the Emperor to take over the rule of desert planet Arrakis (aka Dune), home of the most valuable substance in the galaxy, Spice. Chiefly, the story concerns House Atreides - one of several dynastic factions co-existing under a grand empire known as the Imperium.

Though there’s plenty to establish, Villeneuve - who also co-writes along with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth - makes surprisingly light work of it all.

Across a two-and-a-half-hour runtime, Villeneuve luxuriates in establishing Herbert’s vision of a stark galactic empire in which simmering political tensions threaten to boil over, mystical theologies intersect with powerful institutions and industrial interests, and humanity is humbled by the vast power of nature. It’s a bold gambit - especially since the implied ‘Part Two’ is yet to shoot, and its existence is seemingly predicated on the financial success of this first instalment - but going by everything achieved here, it’s a narratively vital decision. Villeneuve’s approach is to split the story in half - Dune is actually, by its own title card’s admission, Dune: Part One. Notably, many of its images and ideas have instead disseminated into everything from Star Wars to Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. A lot has been written of the complexity of Dune - a 1965 book whose near-impenetrability on the page is legendary, with a story so expansive and mythology so sprawling that even talented filmmakers like Alejandro Jodorowsky (whose version never came to fruition) and David Lynch (who disowned his own 1984 take) stumbled in their attempts to capture it.

Dune remake