Unearthed: Ridley Scott's Abandoned Dune Screenplay
"Crafting a poor adaptation of Dune would come all too easily..." –Ridley Scott, South Bend Tribune, 1979
This week celebrates the 40th anniversary of David Lynch's Dune. Initially a $40 million flop at the box office, it has built a devoted fanbase over the past four decades since its December 14, 1984 debut, standing in sharp visual opposition to Denis Villeneuve's ambitious two-part take on Frank Herbert's acclaimed novel. The eccentric Lynch was publicly tapped to helm Dune for powerhouse producer Dino De Laurentiis in May 1981, right after Blade Runner and Gladiator director Ridley Scott exited the endeavor.
Scant information has emerged about the adaptation Scott devoted seven or eight months to crafting for De Laurentiis before Lynch stepped in... until today. Through the work of T.D. Nguyen, a 133-page October 1980 draft of Scott's discarded Dune project, penned by Rudy Wurlitzer (Two-Lane Blacktop, Walker), surfaced from the Coleman Luck collection at Wheaton College and reached this writer.
When Scott joined soon after the triumph of 1979's Alien, Dune creator Frank Herbert had already delivered a sprawling two-part screenplay that clung tightly to the source yet proved deeply unfilmable, as Wired and Inverse detailed earlier. Scott reviewed that draft and pinpointed roughly seven scenes worth salvaging, but ultimately (after Harlan Ellison declined the role) enlisted Wurlitzer for a complete overhaul starting from scratch in London, while early pre-production kicked off at Pinewood Studios. Much like Herbert's and later Villeneuve's approaches, it was designed as the opening chapter of a pair.
Scant information has emerged about the Dune adaptation Ridley Scott labored over for months before David Lynch took over... until today."The Dune project ranked among my toughest challenges," Wurlitzer shared with Prevue Magazine in 1984. "Breaking it into a solid framework demanded more effort than scripting the final version. We stayed true to the book's essence, yet refined it further. We infused a fresh perspective."
"We produced a script, and it's damn solid," Scott remarked to Total Film in 2021.
Ridley Scott's Dune unraveled for various reasons, from the grief over his brother Frank's passing, to his aversion to filming in Mexico (as De Laurentiis insisted), a budget soaring past $50 million, and Filmways' Blade Runner appearing more promising for the rising director. Yet a pivotal factor came from Universal Pictures executive Thom Mount in this writer's book A Masterpiece in Disarray – David Lynch's Dune: "Rudy’s script draft failed to spark universal acclaim."
Did Wurlitzer's take falter as a filmable rendition of Herbert's expansive tale? Or was it simply too grim, fierce, and politically charged for mainstream success? Dive into our in-depth breakdown with insights from specialists and form your own view.
Rudy Wurlitzer (now 87) was approached for this piece but could not join. Ridley Scott was also reached out to but chose to stay silent.
A Fiercer Vision of Paul
The October 1980 Dune draft opens with a surreal dream sequence of scorching sands where pale drifts morph into ruthless forces scorching and ravaging galaxies. It foreshadows Paul's ominous destiny from the outset. Ridley Scott's frames often layer visual depth like a towering confection, and lines such as "birds and insects spiral into frantic chaos" carry the dynamic force only a visionary like him could summon. That intensity pulses across every page.
As Scott explained to Total Film: "We delivered a strong interpretation of Dune, since in those early days, I'd collaborate intensely with the writer. I'd always weave the film's aesthetic into their words."
This vista, climaxing in a desert plunging into shadow, unfolds in the dreams of Paul Atreides, who stirs as storm rains lash the panes of Castle Caladan. Yet Paul isn't a dashing Timothée Chalamet type... he's a 7-year-old with flowing blond locks, facing the Reverend Mother's trial of "the box." His chant of the Litany Against Fear intercuts with Jessica's own murmur (hinting at their mental bond). Like Lynch's film, we glimpse a charred hand, skin peeling from bone... but it's mere illusion.
Surviving this ordeal of resolve, young Paul ventures to another wing of the castle, commanding a guard with The Voice to yield a blade, then nearly slays a dozing Duncan Idaho to probe if "a genuine fighter ever truly rests." This Paul embodies a raw, untamed purity.
"Rudy Wurlitzer’s Paul emerges far bolder," notes Stephen Scarlata, producer behind the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary. "He seizes control outright. We catch a glimpse of his evolution from 7 to 21, where rigorous drills push him beyond Duncan Idaho. I lean toward Lynch’s Paul, though. The uncertainty of whether he could best Gurney, only to fall short, builds suspense. That fragility heightens our worry for him, particularly as he and Jessica flee."
This Paul embodies a raw, untamed purity.Now 21, Paul stands as a supreme blade expert, "striking, magnetic, noble." Duncan (filling in for the omitted Gurney) has grown stockier with silver hair and whiskers, echoing Jason Momoa's wry charm...
DUNCAN
It is a teacher's duty to have his
pupil someday surpass him.
(smiling)
But, don't think you can relax. This
is just one level you have reached.
There are other, more perilous,
methods to master. But, not now.
Now we are going to get properly
drunk.
The Emperor's Enduring Reign
We shift to a stone garden beyond the castle, where Jessica crosses a span in daylight. This sparks a vital shift, as described by screenwriter Ian Fried, known for Legendary's Spectral and a shelved update of The Island of Dr. Moreau.
"I adore the instant when Jessica gazes across the fortress at the groundskeeper shaping pale stones into designs," Fried shared with IGN. "Then rain suddenly falls, and the keeper drops to his knees, bows low, lifts his face skyward and declares, 'the Emperor is dead.' It sends shivers through me. Still, that's nowhere in the novel. With Dune's wealth of elements, inserting fresh ones might not align with what audiences craved then or seek now. That stood out as a captivating script choice—the Emperor's passing ignites the entire chain."
Truly, we journey to "the Emperor's Inner Kingdom" (not named Kaitain), nestled amid "a ring of Snow Peaks encircling a Mandala, or Mystic Circle, which encases three nested square barriers—at the core, a radiant glow of Golden Light." Leaders from the Twenty-Four Major Houses convene to grieve the Emperor as vibrant pulses dance overhead above his pyre, poised to ferry his Sacred Essence. Mysticism deepens as the departed ruler channels through an ancient Seer with empty eye hollows, granting Duke Leto Atreides the world of Dune/Arrakis to ward off encroaching cosmic shadows.
Those shadows manifest through Leto's kin, Baron Harkonnen, who (via Feyd-Rautha) proposes a meeting to divide Arrakis' spice operations and avert strife. The Duke declines. One exchange stands out for mirroring a iconic line from Dune '84 by the Baron: "He who controls the spice controls the universe"...
BARON
(to DR. YUEH)
Understand the position well
before you leave. Who controls
Dune controls the Spice, and
who controls the Spice controls
the Universe. Without me, your
Duke controls nothing.
"I've long attributed that powerful phrase to Lynch," Mark Bennett of DuneInfo told us. "As this stemmed from a De Laurentiis venture, did Lynch review it and adopt the line, or craft it anew?"
Journey Through the Stars
Another parallel to Lynch's film arises in the Atreides departure from Caladan via Guild Heighliner: We witness a Navigator. The spice-altered being—not unveiled in the books until Dune Messiah—appears as "an stretched FORM, faintly human with webbed toes and vast webbed palms, drifting in a clear shell like pliable hide; a creature adrift in an alien ocean with eyes of Pure Blue." The Navigator swallows a capsule, slips into trance, and charts the Heighliner's path through extended melodic tones to "Engineers," evoking Scott's 2012 Prometheus.
Fried adds, "Showing the Navigator thrilled me. Though I admire Denis Villeneuve's films, I regret missing his vision of it. A chance overlooked."
The Navigator swallows a capsule, slips into trance, and charts the Heighliner's path through extended melodic tones to "Engineers."The clan reaches Arrakis. Portrayals of the Atreides' Arakeen stronghold—with shadowy halls and grand hearths—recall the mood of Scott's 1985 Legend. The setting leans heavily medieval, stressing blades, lordly traditions, and loyalty. Figures resembling Bosch wield sickles to harvest dew in palace grounds. This feudal flair fits, as Scott was then shaping a mythic, dragon-laden Dark Ages tale for Paramount, dubbed "Tristan," "The Sword," or "The Knight."
At a climate outpost, Liet Kynes presents his daughter Chani to the Duke and Paul. Displays of dissected local fauna underscore ecology, with Kynes noting how spice extraction "devastates all and restores none." The Duke inquires about restoring harmony. Chani joins their Ornithopter excursion across the wastes, exchanging sparse glances with her father. Their soar amid a colossal factory vessel's smoky stacks mirrors the infernal urban vistas of Blade Runner. As a worm assaults the craft, Kynes and Chani opt to trek the sands alone, freeing spots for the final factory hands on the Duke's vessel.
This weaves with Shadout Mapes, the household aide—who oddly bears three breasts, predating Total Recall—bestowing a crysknife on Lady Jessica. Jessica then overhears parched locals pleading for water beyond her window.
Arakeen's avenues appear as grim slums teeming with destitute vendors, rundown transports, clans scrambling for shade from scorching rays, and heaps of bones lining paths. Social divides shine through a desperate crowd lunging at spilled water from a trader, voiced in ways absent from prior films. This drew from Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 The Battle of Algiers.
A fresh sequence (likely added for thrills) shows Paul and Duncan trailing a Harkonnen operative through urban lanes to a bazaar, sparking a raw '80s tavern clash. Duncan hefts an axe like Conan. Paul dispatches a foe with a precise throat strike.
DUNCAN picks up the axe.
DUNCAN
(looking at it)
Nasty little instrument.
Not very well balanced, but it will
have to do.
With a short snap to his wrist he
throws it at BURLY MAN coming
towards him holding a long iron
bar. The axe strikes him in the
chest, splitting him in two.
"It evokes a saloon scrap from a Burt Reynolds or Walter Hill flick," Scarlata observes. "The brawl jars because it renders Paul overly unbeatable early on. His arc thrives on progression—mastering survival, adjustment, command. If he's dispatching threats with ease, the stakes for his safety—and evolution—fade."
This melee introduces the unyielding Fremen chief Stilgar, cloaked in a robe and marked by "gestures devoid of concession." Paul and Duncan track Stilgar to a contraband hub, where Fremen encircle the sole Harkonnen... whom Stilgar beheads.
Cut to Bene Gesserit Jessica hovering like an early-1900s illusionist in contemplation. She and the Duke resolve to conceive that evening, her words to him stark: "When you release your seed it will be like sacred oil poured into an altar fire."
Baron of the Barren Lands
Upon intercepting a coded signal from a flickering bug, Dr. Yueh exchanges a poignant exchange laced with hidden sorrow with Paul before dispatching him for an evening of liberty in the streets. This leads Paul to shadow a street urchin into a Fremen Spice Lounge for forbidden indulgence, drawing in azure spice mist. Inhaling Spice unlocks visions—namely, his yet-to-be-born sister Alia whispering "Maud'Dib." He wanders to an odd basin holding a crimson orb and a minuscule worm akin to a serpent, guarded by an Elder Hag. Paul twists his fingers into ancient signs to entrance the infant worm, grasping it before releasing it into a seashell. Intense.
After dosing and dispatching Thufir during a board game (echoing Blade Runner tones), the betrayer Yueh disables the defenses, permitting five compact Harkonnen Elite Assassins to infiltrate the fortress. Following a nightmarish glimpse of the blazing castle, Paul returns from the underbelly to his chambers, ambushed by a Hunter-Seeker—here a winged beast with a viper's maw, not the book's hovering needle.
"The Hunter-Seeker moment captivates me," Scarlata reflects on this addition. "Shifting to an organic form echoes Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unproduced Dune shortly before, where it's a airborne critter rigged with a charge... Paul calms his pulse, neutralizes it, and hurls the explosive outside. Both toy with a beastly angle."
Duke Leto severs heads from multiple Assassins with his weapon before Yueh fells him with a projectile. Duncan rushes to shield his stricken lord from the final foe, only to suffer a fatal wound from Yueh, whom he bisects. Indeed, Yueh acts solely to secure an antidote after his own poisoning by the Baron—no heroic bid to assassinate via "the tooth" or safeguard Paul and Jessica. Jessica instead plants the toxic vapor in the faltering Duke's jaws before parting. Duncan repels Sardaukar hordes, perishing to enable Paul and Jessica's ornithopter getaway. A Harkonnen vehicle crushes 20 fallen Atreides corpses. The carnage is vivid and firmly mature-rated.
Debate in the Vast Sands
Paul and Jessica's dash into remote dunes ramps up fiercely. Paul's aerial twists distort their features under acceleration. After shearing a wing, they plummet as gale sands flood the interior, abrading the hull swiftly. Enduring the tempest in a Stilltent, they don Stillsuits (with explicit cowls, mouth guards, and nasal plugs) and traverse the barrens seeking Fremen. Echoing Villeneuve's scene, Paul confronts a colossal sandworm directly, undaunted.
One element absent from this draft featured in earlier ones... forbidden bonds, notably between Paul and Jessica, yielding Alia.One element absent from this draft featured in earlier ones... forbidden bonds, notably between Paul and Jessica, yielding Alia. This bold change outraged Herbert and De Laurentiis, who ordered its excision.
"He aimed for a tale of taboo desires!" Herbert vented to The Sacramento Bee in 1982. "Picture the backlash among Dune devotees."
Wurlitzer affirmed for Prevue: "In a prior draft, I wove intimate encounters between Paul and Jessica. Their unspoken Oedipal pull felt potent, so I amplified it. Placed mid-story as a bold transgression, it might elevate Paul's heroism by shattering taboos."
Though no such liaison appears here, Paul and Jessica do tumble intertwined down a dune, scattering gear.
They eventually shelter in a primordial cavern framed by a massive worm skeleton's jaws. Amid the relic, encircled by arid fauna, they await daybreak. At first light, Fremen nomads arrive on a colossal Sandsled, commanded by Stilgar. Warrior Jamis provokes Paul to lethal combat, which he embraces instantly. Jessica (not Chani) advises on defense, then offers the crysknife from Shadout Mapes, stunning the Fremen. She has proclaimed her son the Lisan al-gaib, a planted Bene Gesserit myth Paul must embody.
The clash proves savage and quick, shifting into the worm husk where Paul finishes Jamis. Fremen claim relics from the defeated, declaring they were "a friend of Jamis," prompting Paul to realize "killing demands a price." He weeps for his rival, astonishing the Fremen. These echoes mirror Lynch's filmed but cut Jamis duel in Dune.
Under stars, the Fremen gather for a Spice ritual, circulating the vessel like a communal rite. Jessica abstains, but Paul partakes. An elder dubs him Maud'Dib. He and his mother consult Kynes, skeptical of the Lisan al-gaib lore yet willing to leverage it for accelerating Arrakis' renewal via hidden aquifers.
Paul discovers Jamis' widow—earned through victory—is Chani (not Harah from the novel or Lynch). After fleeting mourning, Chani embraces her loss and Paul as spouse, plus Jessica as kin. Paul proffers Jamis' fluids to Chani, who declines, so he commits them to the collective reservoir... "for the group."
A sequence akin to Waterworld unfolds as Fremen haul goods to a Sundancer (a vast three-hulled craft with vivid canvases) to navigate salt expanses. Kynes pilots it to rally Fremen sietches under the Lisan al-gaib banner. He urges Chani to prioritize planetary renewal and remain near Paul, "conceal any doubts." Chani affirms her faith but harbors unease toward Jessica (and her dynamic with Paul). This parallels Dune: Part Two closely. Yet Chani's resolve seems overridden by an authoritative Paul, who asserts...
PAUL
I ask for acceptance without
reservation, even for that which
you cannot understand.
CHANI
As we share the same purpose, I
withhold nothing from you.
"A genuine guide isn't purely virtuous," Wurlitzer noted in 1984. "Often ruthless and resolute, ready to sacrifice for goals. Not fully scheming, but with edges that render him perilous, abrupt. Even saviors cleared temples of traders."
"Paul feels almost blank here," Fried comments. "An ideal savior, hard to connect with. This version leaves unclear if Paul's even central."
The narrative peaks at a Water of Life rite overseen by a apparent female Oracle (with a mute, shaven aide whose mouth is sealed). The Oracle disrobes to display three breasts and male anatomy, performing a sensual rite as the aide convulses. A 10-foot sandworm bursts forth, coiling around her (recalling Zhora in Blade Runner), exhaling haze. The aide steers the serpent-like worm to a trough, where it perishes, tinting the liquid sapphire... the Water of Death. Jessica recognizes the peril to herself and her fetus, then consumes the Water of Life. Her and the Reverend Mother's essences blend into deep indigo, the Mother's skeletal glow revealing life force streaming into Jessica. It's Dune infused with shamanic journeys.
It puzzles that they hint at the Sandworm mount yet stop shy of depicting it in this version.Enduring the trial, Jessica declares herself the fresh Reverend Mother. The Fremen fully embrace Paul as savior. As he summons Chani, Jessica deems her unnecessary, but Paul insists. The trio faces the Fremen as an emerging dynasty. Paul and Stilgar's exchange nods to a trial Paul must conquer for tribal proof. The draft concludes with a stern Jessica, draped in ebony, striking a thumper to summon a titanic sandworm, which Paul presumably mounts. It puzzles that they hint at the mount yet stop shy of depicting it, given Herbert's 1980 Vancouver Sun wish for Paul riding the worm as the film's core.
"That's the novel's soul," Herbert stressed. "The worm embodies the beast lurking beneath, in minds, everywhere. I demand that on screen."
Final Thoughts
Frank Herbert's core message in his Dune saga warned that "saviors spell ruin for humanity." The pitfalls of idolizing magnetic figures evaded Lynch but drove Denis Villeneuve's duo, set to extend into his forthcoming Dune Messiah film, as Villeneuve affirmed to this writer in March. While Wurlitzer's October 1980 draft seems partial or halved, it casts Paul in harsher shadow. Less a hesitant noble thrust into tyranny, more a assured youth embracing rule over all. Allies like Chani and Kynes propel his rise for their eco-aims.
Though this draft veers boldly from Herbert, recall it arose at the birth of contemporary sci-fi cinema, sparked by Star Wars and Scott's Alien. Creators may have pushed boundaries with a subversive, adult-oriented epic tackling habitat ruin and resource plunder for profit (spice). Zack Snyder met akin resistance adapting Alan Moore's Watchmen, subverting hero myths ripe in '80s comics but budding in 2009 films.
As Scott told the Tribune in 1979, "Sci-fi lingered underground for ages, yet novels boast huge loyal crowds. Dune moved 10 million units."
The script boldly forges key ties visually, not remotely. Lynch omits Kynes with Chani, delays her Paul encounter to midway. Duke and Baron clash only at close, Paul and Feyd solely in finale. All fixed. Rather than the Emperor's scheme dooming the Duke, his death breeds turmoil. Logical, given the Emperor's marginal role (note Christopher Walken's faint turn in Dune: Part Two). Swaps like omitting Gurney and Rabban for deeper Kynes hold firm.
Notably, Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren's early Lynch draft ended on a suspense note with Paul and Jessica escaping a torched Arakeen while vowing retribution. Wurlitzer's closes post-Water of Life as Paul and Jessica integrate with the tribe, pre-novel's two-year leap. Villeneuve bridged by concluding his opener with the Paul/Jamis contest.
The studio's lukewarm response to Wurlitzer's draft surprises little, given its stark, grown-up edge, rendering Lynch's as approachable as a family adventure by contrast.
"It wouldn't thrill Dune enthusiasts," asserts Mark Bennett, DuneInfo curator for almost 30 years. "Excessive strays from the text and overmuch 'mysticism,' which Herbert shunned. Like the Lynch Messiah draft, sans the latter portion, outcomes remain unclear. Part 2 likely involved partisan strikes on Harkonnens, Paul-Feyd showdown, then Paul ascends... Who governed the cosmos post-Emperor?"
What endures from Rudy Wurlitzer and Ridley Scott's Dune? H.R. Giger crafted a profoundly evocative sandworm (true to form) plus Harkonnen decor of "pure bone assemblages I've gathered." Those seats, surface, and reflector now grace the Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. Apocalypse Now lenser Vittorio Storaro was slated to shoot, later realizing it on the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel's Frank Herbert's Dune. Scott and De Laurentiis united for 2001's Hannibal, grossing $350 million globally. Beyond script echoes in Blade Runner, striking parallels surface in Scott's latest Gladiator II, such as...
A royal council who ultimately betrays his king/kings.The very strong mother/son bond, with the mother using her power to aid her son’s fate.A royal heir thought dead who changes his name and proves himself in mortal combat in order to win over an oppressed people.Lots and lots of beheadings.H.R. Giger also designed some Harkonnen furniture that was "made entirely from skeletons I have collected."Wurlitzer's effort—deemed by Scott himself a "solid essence of Frank Herbert"—stands as perhaps the sole big-screen rendition balancing the novel's environmental, governance, and mystical threads evenly. Lynch prioritized the ethereal; Villeneuve stressed leader pitfalls.
"This draft tackles Dune's environmental side like no other," Ian Fried wraps. "It weaves into the narrative organically, without force. It stems directly from humanity's toll on the world, the fallout from spice pursuits. Clearer drives propel a broader cast here."
Maybe in future years, a fresh talent could reimagine Dune emphasizing its green roots. As Herbert's work nears 60, motifs of planetary harm, authoritarian risks, and calls to rouse remain timeless—and likely will for another 60.
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