I know a lot of true fans hated the Lynch film. I became a fan because of the film. I figure if you’re going to do a memorable villain, make him as outrageous as you can. McMillan’s Baron was deranged and scary. The later miniseries remake with some corpulent English actor was so bland as to be utterly forgettable.
Is that the character Jodorowsky was going to have Orson Welles play in the original mid-70s (pre-Star Wars) adaptation of Dune?
It almost went into production, financing fell apart, and people from the production team went on to make Alien, Blade Runner, and other movies.
Pink Floyd was to provide the soundtrack (and they’d scored numerous films), cast was to include David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dali. Maybe even Groucho Marx.
A lot of artistic license was used in the Dune movie, which is their right I suppose as long as the original author doesn’t disagree. The Baron in the movie was an evil sadistic psychopath while in the book he was more calculating and complex, but still evil. I actually liked the series better for its accuracy, although it did get a little boring near the end. But as I said, I read the Dune books but didn’t find them all that compelling.