Legendary ’80s Sci-Fi Movie Hits Tubi — Here’s Why Its Iconic Director Hated It

At this point, Dune is a household name thanks to the wildly successful film trilogy from director Denis Villeneuve that stars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.

But it’s not the first time the first Dune novel has been adapted for the big screen by a major director—in fact, an earlier adaptation is now available to watch for free on the ad-supported service Tubi.

David Lynch, the king of surrealism, was hired to adapt the 1965 novel by Brian Herbert for the screen.

It seems like it should’ve been a match made in heaven. Big names like Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Max von Sydow, and Sting appear in the film, too, so on paper it seems like it could’ve been a smash hit.

Unfortunately, the film was poorly received and underperformed at the box office.

The reason? Studio heads at Universal wanted the over four-hours-long original cut trimmed to two hours, so several scenes crucial to the development of Paul Atreides and the inhabitants of Arrakis were cut down or removed entirely.

The result? A movie that barely resembles Dune at all.

Lynch famously hated what the studio did to his version of Dune, telling NPR in 2024 that “I died a death” when the film ended up looking nothing like what he wanted. After the studio’s meddling, he resolved to never do another film where he didn’t have control over the final cut.

“There’s no way. Why would anyone work for three years on something that wasn’t yours? Why? Why do that? Why?,” he told NPR. “It was all my fault for not knowing to put [final cut privileges] in the contract.”

He so disliked the final product that in the television versions of the film, Lynch removed his name entirely and replaced it with ‘Alan Smithee’—a pseudonym directors use when they wish to disown or disavow a film.

While his Dune isn’t nearly as complete or as book-accurate as the later film adaptations, it’s still quite fun to watch if only for the visual of Patrick Stewart holding a pug as he charges into battle. The 1984 adaptation of Dune is streaming now on Tubi.