Denis Villeneuve wants to remake 'Dune'.

Denis Villeneuve

Denis Villeneuve

The 'Sicario' director has turned his attention to the sci-fi genre and recently premiere his alien landing movie 'Arrival' at the Venice Film Festival and he is also helming the 'Blade Runner' sequel.

Villeneuve is a fan of David Lynch's epic 1984 movie, which was adapted from Frank Herbert's book of the same name, and admits his ambition is to bring the story of the battle for the planet Arrakis back to the big screen, even though securing the rights will be a tough challenge.

Speaking to Variety, he said: "I had been wanting to do sci-fi for a very long time; '2001: A Space Odyssey' is a movie that really impressed me as a teenager and also 'Blade Runner'. 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' is also one of my favourites.

"I'm always looking for sci-fi material, and it's difficult to find original and strong material that's not just about weaponry. A long-standing 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."

'Dune' received negative reviews upon its release but as the decades have past the film - which starred Kyle MacLachlan, Sir Patrick Stewart, Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino and Brad Dourif among others - has become a cult classic of the genre.

Villeneuve, 48, is also working on his own original sci-fi stories but is remaining tight-lipped on the projects at the moment.

He added: "I would love to write something myself. I have two (sci-fi) projects right now that are in very (early) stages. It's too early to talk about them."

Villeneuve is currently shooting the 'Blade Runner' sequel which sees Harrison Ford return as Rick Deckard and a stellar cast which includes Jared Leto, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks and Dave Bautista.

Sir Ridley Scott - who helmed the original 1982 movie - is producing and it is scheduled for an October 2017 release.

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