Now this shall be a hotly debated remake. Variety has just announced that Peter Berg will be directing the latest version of Dune for Paramount (as previously rumored). It will be produced by Kevin Misher, who has spent the last year trying obtain rights from Frank Herbert's estate.

Dune has been made twice already -- most famously by David Lynch, less so by the Sci-Fi Channel. This time, they are looking for writers who can adapt the definitive version for movie audiences. However, just a glance through any "geek" forum shows fans are already worried that the studio's belief that "its theme of finite ecological resources [is] particularly timely" is already missing the point.

The Lynch version is a film that people either love or despise. Most critics despised it upon release, but it has a fairly large fan following. (I know one guy who considers loving it a dating criteria.) Well, except me -- it's been so long since I have seen it that I fall into neither camp, especially since I watched it at 2am through very bleary eyes. I must remedy that so I can discuss this properly. So I'm not entirely convinced a remake is a bad idea -- after Lord of the Rings, no book is considered impossible, and it would please many Herbert fans to see a more loyal adaptation. Then again, there are so many sci-fi books I would love to see tackled that I'm disappointed to see them simply pick up Dune again. Perhaps it is the beginning of a trend.

No, Tom Cruise won't be starring in the new version of Frank Herbert's Dune, but it sure does look like Peter Berg is going to be one busy director over the next few years. According to an informative report over at the MTV Movies Blog, we now know that Berg's next projects are:

1. A spy thriller with Tom Cruise that has a "great" script (aka Edwin A. Salt, which we reported on the other day).

2. A "big, big, big" big-screen rendition of Dune, which was made into a feature film by David Lynch back in 1984, as well as a collection of well-received cable mini-series.

When asked about "remaking" a film made by the illustrious David Lynch, the director was more than diplomatic: "Berg said that while he's "a big fan of Lynch," he believes "that interpretation has left the door wide open for a remake."

So that's good news for Berg, obviously. Tom Cruise and a massive sci-fi epic back-to-back. Not too shabby for the kid who once starred in Wes Craven's goofy Shocker. And while Berg's resumé as a character actor might be a little choppy, there's little denying that he's a solid director: His films include Very Bad Things, The Rundown, Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom. That's what we call 4-for-4. Well, I do.

Many of us get tense over that nasty, 6-letter word -- sequel. Usually, they come many years after the original, trying to put a new spin on things that sometimes works, but often doesn't. And then there's Dune -- the project that seems to pop up every decade. In the seventies, there was almost an immense, star-studded feature teaming epic names like Dali and Giger. David Lynch then took a stab at it in the eighties, which he regrets. Finally, there was the miniseries, which came out just after the '90s.

Now there's been a lot of rumors of yet another attempt. Frank Herbert's grandson had posted about the possibility to a Dune forum -- saying someone at a studio really wants to do that, a director sort of someone. AICN has now gotten word from one of their sources about the potential project, who says that the studio is Paramount, and the guy in question is none other than Peter Berg. Yes, the guy who just brought us The Kingdom.

Personally, I'm both intrigued and a little apprehensive. The actor/writer/director/producer has proven his worth on a number of projects, but there's real life, and then there's Dune. It just makes me want to ask a lot of questions. Can Berg handle sci-fi? Heck, can anyone handle the world of Dune? Do we need a new Dune? Is it time to stop trying? Why do they keep trying? Have people been ingesting too much spice?