Inside the design of David Lynch’s ‘Dune’

The reception for David Lynch’s theatrical take on Dune was mixed, to stay the least. But for all of its narrative issues, it certainly was a lovely film to look at. Writing on io9, former concept artist Ron Miller provides some insight into how the world of Arrakis was created. Miller — whose job included crafting large-scale paintings to represent scenes from the film — touches on “the immense effort that went into quality and attention to every detail” in the movie. “Nothing was stinted when it came to either of those,” he explains. He also takes a moment to mention the oft-derided final product, a film he says was destroyed when studio executives cut too much important material. “The problem was that what they ordered cut was narrative and character development,” he explains. “What was left was action — all too often disjointed — and no rationale for why it was all taking place.”