Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel Dune is notoriously difficult to adapt for the big screen, so it’s no surprise that Denis Villeneuve has been taking his time to perfect every detail in his upcoming adaptation.

In particular, Villeneuve has recently told Empire about labouring over the film’s giant sandworms, which populate the dangerous mining planet Arrakis, where Timothée Chalamet – playing the lead role of young nobleman Paul Atreides – will presumably have to battle them.

“We talked about every little detail that would make such a beast possible, from the texture of the skin, to the way the mouth opens, to the system to eat its food in the sand,” says Villeneuve, as reported by Indiewire. 

“It was a year of work to design and to find the perfect shape that looked prehistoric enough.”

Even if this does seem like a long time to focus on one specific creature, it’s also probably a pretty good idea to give the design a lot of attention. The sandworms’ appearance in David Lynch’s infamous adaptation of Dune from 1984 is often considered one of the film’s major flaws, not helped by some, erm, questionable effects.

Lynch now apparently has “zero interest” in Villeneuve’s version, due to the fact his own production was such “a heartache” and – as Lynch himself dubs it – “a total failure”. After all of Villeneuve’s hard work, let’s hope the new sandworms get a slightly better reception (even if Lynch won’t get to see them for himself).