SCIFI.COM Exclusive Interview with John Harrison

June 14, 2001

In his first interview since completing the script for Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, Frank Herbert's Dune writer-director John Harrison revealed that the new miniseries will be adapted from both Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, the second and third books in Frank Herbert's best-selling series.

"We are adapting the next two books in the series, Children of Dune and Dune Messiah," Harrison said. "The reason that I chose to do that, as opposed to just doing one book or the other, was because I felt that the two of them together really created a conclusion to the story of House Atreides that we began in the first miniseries. Whereas the first miniseries was really about the rise of Paul Atreides, the next miniseries is going to be about the fall of House Atreides."

Harrison said the two books together tell a story of political intrigue and corruption on the planet Arrakis after Paul Atreides defeats House Harkonnen and Emperor Shaddam IV.

"It's a wonderfully complex and interesting story, in some ways a little darker than the first one," Harrison said. "Whereas the first one had a kind of triumphant quality to it, this second one is a little darker. I guess you can compare it to the difference in tone between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back."

The new miniseries will also feature more of the beautiful Princess Irulan, who Harrison brought to the forefront of the action in his adaptation of Dune.

"That's why I did it — because Irulan is a much bigger player in Messiah and Children of Dune, in the books," Harrison said of his decision to expand Irulan's role in Frank Herbert's Dune. "I think the choice that I made to enlarge her role in the first one will allow everyone to understand her and appreciate her better now in this next one."

As with his first Dune miniseries, Harrison said Children of Dune will be faithful to Herbert's books, although he said that changes are inevitable in any adaptation.

"I'm taking close to 700 pages of text and turning it into a six-hour miniseries," Harrison explained. "So, yes, there will be a certain streamlining of the narrative. I will focus quite a bit on the revolution, and the corruption of the revolution, and the conspiracies to bring it down. So I think that anybody who knows the books will certainly see adaptations, but it will certainly be the stories that Frank created in both books."

Children of Dune also will feature the same epic quality of the first miniseries, and Harrison said he has already talked with the original team about coming back to work on the sequel.

"I want to continue the style of what we did," Harrison said. "I personally like the operatic, theatrical style that we created, and I hope to continue that. The team is coalescing again, and I hope that we'll be able to pull it off with the same guys."

SCI FI hopes to begin pre-production on Children of Dune this summer.