Denis Villeneuve is currently out and about production wise, he went out of his usual reserve to adress silly stuff like Blade Runner 2019
alleged mysoginy and
dealing with on set producers because as Royal said he's gonna have a hard time getting his Dune movie made without a tight exec producer leash.
"Dune" on the other hand is a cursed word in Hollywood. David Lynch's movie is a typical
development hell as even Lynch tried to label the film as "directed by Alan Smithee" after leaving the set and fighting with executive producers. The production was chaotic at best with poor judgement, erratic production (the DeLaurentis picked Lynch for Dune after Elephant Man) and delusions of grandeur complex, with at some point about 2000 crew members working in Mexico for a 175 pages, 4 hours script. Also let us not forget both Jacobs, Ridley Scott and Jodorowsky tried to bring Dune to movies.
While Villeneuve was on a roll (Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario) and while his trend will take a hit regarding 2049 box office, let's not forget there's already some producers working around the capeshit formula to make a living whenever the vibe will dry, and sci-fi (whenever original, franchise or reboot) could get its market. Of course not a "let's make an auteur film with a blockbuster production" movie, but I think there's a wiggle room where both creative and production meet their ends. I'm optimistic for Villeneuve's Dune, maybe I got my spark too brightened with his latest films, maybe he's just another Nolan peaking at some point and doing less after, who knows. It's dune, whenever there's spice, there's hope right ?