Jodorowsky's Dune Uncovered

Scene 20-22 : Leto in the Senate

In the script, the film, after the prologue, begins with Leto driving a vehicle containing dead Spice smugglers, into the Senate where Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck and Thufir Hawat (spelled Hawatt in the script, presskit and storyboards) dump the bodies before the Minor and Major Houses, and uncover the other cargo of the vehicle - a pile of blue Spice.

Leto announces that he has discovered that one of the Major Houses is smuggling spice, and promises to find which House is guilty. Leto then distributes the Spice among the Minor Houses - making him popular among them, but creating anger among the Major Houses. Count Fenring advises the Emperor that Leto could unite the Minor Houses and be a threat.

This is very similar to the Moebius storyboards, but certain aspects are different in the script. For example instead of Leto's vehicle being a futuristic cycle designed by Chris Foss it is instead a wagon drawn by 6 horses!

A this point the script diverges from the storyboards. The boards seem to have Leto meeting the Emperor straight away, but in the next part we shall look at what happens in the script - Leto fulfilling his promise to investigate the Spice smuggling!

Continue to Part 4: Leto Investigates the Smuggling