What Happened to the Last Divergent Movie? A Hollywood Cautionary Tale

The cast and crew of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune have been open about the fact that this single movie isn’t meant to be a whole adaptation of Frank Herbert’s original novel. In fact, this project is part of a larger two-part adaptation of this text, with the second part’s existence contingent on the box office of the first Dune. It’s a bold plan that recognizes Dune is such a massive piece of source material that it could never properly fit into a single motion picture. Still, while it’s the right move for adaptation purposes, it’s certainly a risky move to split one book across multiple movies that haven’t been filmed simultaneously. It has obviously worked well with Dune, with the second movie's cast lined up and a synopsis of the plot recently released.