Why didn’t Kevin Costner’s Dune test work?

By now, everyone knows There are a lot of things wrong with Dune 1984. The film has lived in a special kind of infamy ever since David Lynch and Universal Pictures unleashed it upon the world, when the $40 million sci-fi epic bombed at the box office and received nothing but critical scorn. However, there are still those who dispute this “Dune” is much better than its reputation suggestsDenis Villeneuve’s recent big-screen treatment of Frank Herbert’s novel brought much of the revisionism of 1984’s Dune.

However, one of the most interesting things about Lynch’s ill-fated film is not necessarily how critics and audiences overlooked its many charms in 1984, but how many questions surrounded the project. For example, the number of directors waiting to shoot this film was astonishing, with everyone from Ridley Scott to David Lean circling the project. Then, once Lynch was finally confirmed as director, he spent six months working on the script alongside co-writers Eric Berggren and Christopher DeVore, but abandoned much of what the trio had created to rewrite the film five full times.

What would Dune be like if Ridley Scott was at the helm? How “Lynchian” would he have been if his manager had retained Bergen and De Vore’s contributions? Perhaps more interesting is the question of how successful the film would have been had Lynch cast some of the many actors who were, at one point, considered for the film and have since become major stars — including a young Kevin Costner, who likely would have had a career Completely different if he had been cast in the lead role.

There are many puzzling questions when it comes to casting for Dune 1984. For example, David Lynch banned Glenn Close from participating in the movie “Dune” The role of Lady Jessica was handed over to Francesca Annis (who did an outstanding job). early, Lynch was also set to cast Val Kilmer in the role of Paul Atreides Before Kyle MacLachlan auditioned and impressed the director so much, he immediately cast him in the lead role instead.

Before McLachlan was chosen, Kilmer was not the only option Lynch had in mind for Ball. In Max Avery’s book “A Masterpiece in Chaos: David Lynch’s Dune – An Oral History” (via Mashable), the cast and crew recall what an extensive casting process was like that saw several actors selected for the lead. Production office assistant Craig Campobasso revealed that alongside Michael Biehn, Louis Smith and Kilmer, a young Kevin Costner screen-tested for the part of Paul Atreides. However, according to the assistant, many of these actors, including Costner, could not do the role justice.

“Michael Biehn didn’t live up to that, and Kevin Costner didn’t do that,” Campobasso said. “It’s not that they’re bad actors; they just didn’t fit Paul Maad Depp’s standards because you’re looking for that.” Inner strength.” Speaking of Costner in particular, he said, “Kevin Costner was not well known at the time, and I remember he was nervous because I helped him dress up as Paul Moaz Deeb, and I felt his nervousness about that. “

Although Kyle MacLachlan got the lead role in David Lynch’s “Dune”, it turned out to be a double-edged sword. After the film failed and was ridiculed by critics, the actor found himself somewhat of an outcast in Hollywood, he said Los Angeles Times He felt that his career was “like a ship, you can feel it sinking.” MacLachlan had to wait for Lynch to rescue him from post-“Dune” obscurity by casting him in “Blue Velvet.” In that sense, both Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer were probably lucky in this particular case, as there’s no guarantee that Lynch would have done the same for them.

In Costner’s case, he gave what turned out to be a breakout performance just a year after his “Dune” debut, playing a cowboy named Jake in the 1985 film “Silverado,” a film that began in 1985. Costner’s long love affair with westerns is part of the reason he continues to make them today. He then followed that up with his first starring role in 1987’s The Untouchables, simultaneously securing his status as one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars in the process. This is probably a lot more than he could have hoped for had he faced Lynch’s ill-fated sci-fi spectacle – although there’s a possibility that Costner might not have struggled in the same way that MacLachlan did. Heck, maybe something unique was offered to “Dune” that would have dampened the critical response. But given the enormity of that movie’s disaster, maybe not.