Alec Newman (Paul Atreides)

Scottish native Alec Newman brings to the stage a wealth of experience from his training in the British theater. Newman's feature film debut, Greenwich Mean Time, was directed by John Strickland. He also has starred in various BBC television and Irish television productions, including Silent Witness and Dangerfield. Born in Glasgow and raised primarily in London, Newman studied acting at the National Youth Theater and has traveled across Ireland and England for such productions as Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the MacOwan Theater in London, and Plenty, where he starred opposite Cate Blanchett. Newman also starred in a Paul McCartney video, "Beautiful Night."

Said Newman of Dune: "When I first went through the script, and then more, strongly when I read the book as well, I realized that it's really a very human story, it has all the elements of the human world, as it's about this boy and this family and this amazing environment which is really exciting visually as well as anything else."

"It's about religion; it's about politics; it's about social order," Newman said. "There's a discussion, a big debate really, in it about morality ...and in John Harrison's script as well," Newman said. "Although it's set at 10,191, you're really dealing with something that to me might as well be set in the past. ...It's funny, it does have a kind of historical feel, it's like human beings have been here before and will be in this situation again."