I'm with you on the "some novels just don't translate into a film..." and with DUNE, I'd point to one simple pillar of the story that doesn't work. The worms. In a world where the design of "the creature" is vital to BO success, there's just no where to go...

This makes me wonder; how much money is spent in development? How long does the development process take, or how much time are studios willing to spend on the development process?

@Michael: It varies from project to project. On average, it has taken between 2-5 years from point of sale to movie premiere. That's the old paradigm. In the new approach where studios are much more cost conscious, I'm not sure.

There is a phenomenon in Hollywood known as getting a project "pregnant." Basically at some point, a studio will have spent so much money in development and pre-production costs -- in other words, they're very 'pregnant' on that project -- it makes more sense to just go ahead and make the movie than to eat the development costs. But again, that could be changing as well.

The story demands that it's a miniseries.

I don't understand why any studio would entertain making Dune a film again. The closest anyone was to getting it right was John Harrison who did the miniseries for SciFi. And that had some problems -- notably the budget. But it's far more faithful (and enjoyable) than Lynch's film.

HBO and others have shown a willingness to put up serious cash for miniseries. Maybe none of them feel this nearly 50 year old novel has the market pull to make it pay off...