The cast includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.

It was well received by critics and audiences with praise for Villeneuve's direction, screenplay, the performances of the cast, production values, costumes, Hans Zimmer's musical score, visual effects, cinematography, and retaining core elements from the source material.

In the distant future, Duke Leto Atreides is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to replace Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as the fiefholder of Arrakis, a harsh desert planet and the sole source of "spice", a valuable psychotropic substance that imparts heightened vitality and awareness.

As part of a centuries-long breeding program, they instructed her to bear a daughter whose son would become the Kwisatz Haderach—a Bene Gesserit and messianic superbeing with the clairvoyance necessary to guide humanity to a better future.

Jessica disobeyed and bore a son, Paul, who is trained by Leto's aides, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, and the Mentat Thufir Hawat, and she teaches him Bene Gesserit disciplines.

The Reverend Mother and Imperial Truthsayer Gaius Helen Mohiam subjects Paul to a deadly gom jabbar test to assess his humanity and impulse control, which he passes.

Frank Herbert's Dune, a live-action miniseries produced by Rubinstein and directed by John Harrison, aired on the Sci Fi Channel in 2000; it was a ratings hit and was generally better received than Lynch's film.

[22][23] Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve expressed interest in the project in September 2016, saying that "a longstanding dream of mine is to adapt Dune, but it's a long process to get the rights, and I don't think I will succeed".

[31] Other previous collaborators were slated to work on Dune but dropped out before production began, including visual effects supervisor John Nelson[32] and cinematographer Roger Deakins, who was replaced in December 2018 with Greig Fraser.

[70] In the next month, Javier Bardem,[71] Josh Brolin,[72] Jason Momoa,[73] and David Dastmalchian were cast as Stilgar, Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho, and Piter de Vries, respectively.

[56] Dastmalchian's casting was similar to Brolin and Momoa's, as he received a call while he was in his Los Angeles home, and accepted the role without reading the script due to his confidence in Villeneuve.

Props were created by set decorator Richard Roberts, including custom-made furniture, lighting, textiles produced in Denmark, and other items designed to look antique.

[84] The design for Arrakeen was influenced by the book's description of Arrakis's climate, with Vermette calling it "the biggest residency ever built by humankind" and "a response as a colonial entity that took over the planet for the exploitation of ... spice".

The circular dome was 20 feet high, with the spokes being created by a special kind of cloth fabric, giving the illusion of shadows and providing proper lighting for the act.

Additionally, she took inspiration from Giotto, Francisco Goya, Caravaggio, and British art historian John Berger, while emulating styles from the fashion of Balenciaga, the Bedouin, and Tuareg people.

[86] The Bene Gesserit sorceresses' costumes were based on tarot cards and chess pieces, while the Harkonnen armor was designed to resemble a bug's shell, using medieval drawings of "insects, spiders, ants, praying mantises and lizards" as reference.

[89] Lady Jessica's dresses in the first half of the film were inspired by the works of Cristóbal Balenciaga, while the turmeric-toned gown she wears while landing on Arrakis was influenced by Middle Eastern clothing and paintings of women in North Africa.

[108] Chalamet learned the sandwalking technique, designed by choreographer Benjamin Millepied, prior to filming Arrakis scenes in order to convey Paul's natural adeptness at it and "responsibility to show Jessica in that moment".

[106][107] The team initially considered using rigged explosives to capture the motion of the sandworms breaking the surface in the desert, but rejected the idea as this was impractical to perform in the Middle East.

[126][127] Zack Sharf of IndieWire gave the trailer a positive review, and wrote "It's full of eye-popping set design", in addition to stating, "The two [Denis Villeneuve and Greig Fraser] have brought a tangibility to Frank Herbert's world that should make Dune a visceral experience for moviegoers.

[134] Anthony Breznican from Vanity Fair also gave the trailer a positive review and stated, "It will seem more mysterious to those unfamiliar with the story, but like Chani does herself in those dream missives to Paul, it hints at big, impressive things to come".

[146] Over a month prior to its North American release, the film began its theatrical roll-out in most international markets, beginning on September 15 with France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Belgium.

[3] Deadline Hollywood reported that a total box office gross of $300 million, the combined cost of production and marketing, "will make many happy from an image-standpoint, even if breakeven is far north of that".

The website's consensus reads: "Dune occasionally struggles with its unwieldy source material, but those issues are largely overshadowed by the scope and ambition of this visually thrilling adaptation.

[210] Brooks agreed with the sentiment that it was a high-quality blockbuster film and found it "the missing link bridging the multiplex and the arthouse", citing the worldbuilding, ensemble cast, and set pieces as positive elements.

[211] In a positive yet more critical review, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times felt the film used thematic elements from the novel well, and also lauded the production values albeit labelling the visual aesthetic as monochromatic.

Gleiberman felt the film's spectacles, including the sandworm and ornithopter sequences, disengage him from the story, saying "as the movie begins to run out of tricks, it turns woozy and amorphous".

[217] Roxana Hadadi's review in Vulture critiqued the way the film flattened the cultural and religious complexities of the book and opted for a more generic portrayal of people of color without specific representation from Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) actors.

[241] Ion Indolean looked at how Villeneuve cinematographically expresses the story of Paul using elements of the space opera genre and follows in the steps of director Ridley Scott in Blade Runner (1982) and Alien (1979).

[242] Villeneuve intended to make a two-part adaptation of the novel, and by November 2019, Jon Spaihts left his position as showrunner on Dune: Prophecy to focus on writing the sequel film.