Quentin Tarantino Officially Refuses to Watch Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Because of This Movie on HBO Max

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Published Nov 1, 2026, 4:00 AM EST

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

With the third and final installment of Denis Villeneuve’s widely acclaimed Dune franchise lined up for release in December, it’s a great time not only to revisit the first two movies, but also the infamous 1984 adaptation directed by David Lynch. The movies are based on the influential Dune series of books by Frank Herbert, which predates George Lucas’ original Star Wars movie. Lynch’s movie was released around two decades after the first novel’s publication, but it emerged as a major box-office bomb and received poor reviews. Over the years, the film has accumulated a massive cult following, drawing support from not only the fans of the source novel, but also from admirers of Lynch’s inimitable filmmaking.

Starring Kyle MacLachlan as the character played by Timothée Chalamet in Villeneuve’s trilogy, the movie also featured Patrick Stewart, Virginia Madsen, Sting, and others. Produced on a reported budget of more than $40 million, the movie grossed roughly $30 million in North America. Lynch was famously furious over the final cut, and made attempts to remove his name from the project. It now holds a 36% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “This truncated adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterwork is too dry to work as grand entertainment, but David Lynch's flair for the surreal gives Dune some spice.”

Here's What Quentin Tarantino Said About the Sci-Fi Film

Complaining about Hollywood’s reliance on franchises and pre-existing intellectual property, Quentin Tarantino said on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast that he has no interest in watching Villeneuve’s Dune movies because he has already watched Lynch’s film. “I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically,” he said. Following the success of Dune and Dune: Part Two, which grossed a combined total of more than $1 billion worldwide, Dune: Part Three is expected to break franchise records when it debuts theatrically this December, in a hotly anticipated clash with Avengers: Doomsday. Meanwhile, you can check out Lynch’s Dune on HBO Max starting November 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.