Director Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to strong opinions, and in a recent interview, he revealed that he hadn’t seen either of Denis Villeneueve’s Dune films, and has no plans or desire to.
In a new interview with acclaimed author and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis for his The Bret Easton Ellis podcast (via World of Reel), Tarantino revealed that he isn’t a fan of Hollywood’s desire of remaking stories, and pointing to things like Dune, Shogun, and Ripley as prime examples.
What did Quentin Tarantino say about the state of remakes in Hollywood?
“I saw [David Lynch’s] Dune a couple of times,” said Tarantino. “I don’t need to see that story again. I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘Spice’ so dramatically.
When it comes to other projects, Tarantino would rather creatives work on new stories, instead of going to retell the same stories over and over throughout the years. When it comes to the Ripley series, he specifically wonders why the same singular story is being told, and also noted that for something like Shogun, he’d already seen the story, and has no need to see it again.
“It’s one after another of this remake, and that remake. People ask ‘have you seen Dune? Have you seen Ripley? Have you seen Shogun?’ And I’m like ‘no, no, no, no.’ There’s six or seven Ripley books, if you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already? I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.
“I saw Shōgun in the ‘80s. I watched all 13 hours. I’m good. I don’t need to see that story again, I don’t care how they do it. I don’t care if they take me and put me in ancient Japan in a time machine. I don’t care, I’ve seen the story.”
(Source: The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, World of Reel)