I was a fan first of Dune and then of the original Star Wars. I got the first book of Dune in 1973, convincing my mother to drive all the way across town to get a copy from the only bookstore that carried it at the time.

When Star Wars came out, I saw it the very first day. I dragged my family to a theater across town again, waited for the theater to open and we watched it with a very sparse audience. It was showing at only one indoor theater in San Antonio the first weekend.

Keep in mind scifi was not a huge audience back then. The movie actually took off the second day or even second weekend after release.

My family only went along because I very rarely made extreme demands on anything but when I did, what I chose became a huge thing later.

Before this article, aside from being on desert planets, I really never even considered a correlation between them. Even now, I immediately discard the concept.

Star Wars is a guilty pleasure. It's bubble gum pop in movie form. I admit it is artistically and technically marvelous but makes no attempt to reach the mental and spiritual depths which Dune portrays.

Dune is a full orchestral symphonic masterpiece. Reading the books is a mind-expanding experience in itself.

Dune can never be made successfully into a movie. The depth of the concepts does not translate to film or video. The attempt would require many hours and the general movie audience would be lost very quickly, demanding more action, less dialogue, less thinking.

Yes, Dune could be made into something visually stunning. But what would be portrayed would not really be Dune.

And that's just the first book. Then there are 6 more books by Frank Herbert in the original series and others compiled by his son after Frank Herbert's death.