Little shame have the executives from The Asylum, making their own low-budget and straight-to-video versions of the blockbusters of the season. Mockbusters they call them, a very fitting label I must say. This time they have chosen the science-fiction epic of the year as the source for their film, using the popularity of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) as a reason to bring out Planet Dune (2021).
The movie centers on a crew on a mission to rescue a marooned base on a desert planet that turns deadly when the crew finds themselves hunted and attacked by the planet’s apex predators: giant sandworms. And, honestly, after watching the trailer it kinda looks more like an adaptation of Tremors (1990) than from Frank Herbert’s novel.
As a matter of fact, this title differs from other The Asylum products due to the quality of the visual effects. Perhaps it is because the movie is directed by two visual effects technicians, The Asylum regular digital compositor Tammy Klein (San Andreas Quake (2015), Avengers Grimm (2015), 3-Headed Shark Attack (2015), Nazi Overlord (2018), Zoombies 2 (2019), and some Sharknado franchise entries), and veteran visual effects artist and lately also a The Asylum regular crew Glenn Campbell (Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), TRON (1982), Lifeforce (1985), Spaceballs (1987), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), some The X-Files (1993–2018) episodes, and ironically the winner of Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for the Children of Dune (2003) TV mini-series. Another regular in The Asylum, writer Joe Roche, is the author of the screenplay together with comedian Lauren Pritchard, a common cast in MADtv.
The cast for Planet Dune (2021) is formed by Cherish Holland, Anna Telfer, Emily Killian, Manny Zaldivar, Clark Moore, Sienna Farall, Ramiro Leal, and Mo Smead, with co-director Tammy Klein as A.I., and the special participation of Sean Young, who already played the role of Chani in David Lynch’s Dune (1984).
Planet Dune (2021) is scheduled for a release on October 29, 2021, in the usual The Asylum distribution platforms. Watch here its official trailer.
