Why Kevin Costner’s Dune Audition Didn’t Work Out

By now, everybody knows there are a lot of things wrong with “Dune” 1984. The film has lived in a special kind of infamy since David Lynch and Universal Pictures unleashed it upon the world, when the $40 million sci-fi epic bombed at the box office and courted nothing but critical scorn. Still, there are those who argue that “Dune” is much better than its reputation suggests, and Denis Villeneuve’s recent big-screen treatment of Frank Herbert’s novel has given rise to plenty of “Dune” 1984 revisionism.

One of the most interesting things about Lynch’s ill-fated film, however, isn’t necessarily how critics and audiences overlooked its many charms back in 1984, but how many what-ifs surrounded the project. The amount of directors in line to shoot this movie was, for example, frankly dizzying, with everyone from Ridley Scott to David Lean circling the project. Then, once Lynch was finally confirmed as director, he spent six months working on a script alongside co-writers Eric Bergren and Christopher De Vore, only to abandon much of what the trio created to rewrite the film a full five times.

What would “Dune” be like had Ridley Scott been at the helm? How much less “Lynchian” would it be had its director preserved Bergen and De Vore’s contributions? Perhaps even more intriguing is the question of how the film would have fared had Lynch cast some of the many actors who were, at one time, considered for the movie and have since become major stars — including a young Kevin Costner, who would likely have had a much different career had he been cast in the lead role.

There are several tantalizing what-ifs when it comes to the casting of “Dune” 1984. For example, David Lynch denied Glenn Close a part in “Dune,” handing the role of Lady Jessica to Francesca Annis (who did a standout job). Early on, Lynch was also set on casting Val Kilmer as Paul Atreides before Kyle MacLachlan auditioned and impressed the director so much he immediately cast him in the lead role instead.

Before MacLachlan was cast, Kilmer wasn’t the only choice for Paul that Lynch had in mind. In Max Evry’s book “A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune – An Oral History” (via Mashable), the cast and crew recall what was an exhaustive casting process that saw multiple actors considered for the lead. Production office assistant Craig Campobasso revealed that, alongside Michael Biehn, Lewis Smith, and Kilmer, a young Kevin Costner screen-tested for the part of Paul Atreides. According to the assistant, however, several of these actors, Costner included, just couldn’t quite do the part justice.

“Michael Biehn did not live up to it,” said Campobasso, “Kevin Costner did not. It’s not that they’re bad actors; they just didn’t fit the criteria for Paul-Muad’Dib because you’re looking for this inner strength.” He called out Costner in particular: “Kevin Costner wasn’t known at that time, and I do remember him being nervous because I helped him get into the costume of Paul-Muad’Dib and I could feel his sense of nerves about it.”

Though Kyle MacLachlan landed the lead role in David Lynch’s “Dune,” it turned out to be a double-edged sword. After the film bombed and was derided by critics, the actor found himself somewhat of a pariah in Hollywood, telling the Los Angeles Times he felt his career was “like a ship, you could feel it going down.” MacLachlan had to wait for Lynch to rescue him from post-“Dune” obscurity by casting him in “Blue Velvet.” In that sense, both Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer probably lucked out in this particular instance, as there’s no guarantee Lynch would have done the same for them.

In Costner’s case, he would give what turned out to be his breakout performance just one year after “Dune” debuted, playing a cowboy named Jake in 1985’s “Silverado” — the film that began Costner’s life-long love affair with westerns and part of the reason he keeps making them today. He then followed that up with his first starring role in 1987’s “The Untouchables,” simultaneously securing his standing as one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars in the process. That’s probably a lot more than he could have hoped for had he fronted Lynch’s ill-fated sci-fi spectacle — though there’s a chance Costner wouldn’t have struggled in the same way MacLachlan did. Heck, he might have even been brought something unique to “Dune” that would have tempered the critical response. But considering the enormity of the disaster of that movie, probably not. Solana Token Creator