Cinematical is reporting on a rumor that Peter Berg has left the Paramount production of Frank Herbert's Dune. There have been no official reports of this, and (as Cinematical says) if Berg has dropped out, it is probably due to a scheduling conflict.

The search for a new director will be difficult. According to a source:

The search, however, has run into two issues: 1) they're looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don't want anything resembling the crap effects of the '84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a preexisting passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project.

Neill Blomkamp's (District 9) name has been brought up as a potential replacement for Berg, as well as Neil Marshall, but this seems like a wrong move. The problem with previous versions of Dune is that they viewed the novel as sci-fi, and the productions reflected that. Dune is not, in any way, a work of science fiction. The science behind everything is tied to the spice; nothing would work without the mystical melange. As such, Dune is a work of fantasy, much in the same way Star Wars is fantasy. To approach it as sci-fi is to build on the wrong foundation.

This doesn't mean either of these guys couldn't make a good Dune film, look at what Peter Jackson had done before Lord of the Rings, but it does point to the fact that the production company may be looking at the entire project from the wrong angle. (This article at Film School Rejects shows the same problem.)

For my money, in order to make a great Dune film, you would need three things. First, someone who has a passion for the source material. There are a lot of people who dislike Dune, or who just plain "don't get it" and that's fine, but the director needs to be someone who loves Dune. Second, it has to be someone who has a history of films with great characters. Dune is, at the base, a character story. This is what Berg brought to the table and what someone like Joss Whedon could as well. Finally, it would be nice for the director to have some experience in epic films. Dune would be an epic of epics.

Following that list, I would love to see Guillermo del Toro, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, Anthony Minghella, or Terrence Malick (I just blew my own mind) direct the film. Neill Blomkamp would be good, especially if Peter Jackson produces, but District 9 didn't blow me away in terms of the secondary characters. My fear is that he would screw up Thufir Hawat or Duke Leto or Liet-Kynes and then the story would be lost.

Of course, any way I look at this, I'm going to be disappointed in a Dune film because it will never match what's going on in my head when I read the books.