John Harrison can't remember the first time he read Dune.

"I was probably on acid somewhere in college," he laughed.

But seriously, Frank Herbert's SF classic was one of the "seminal books that turned [Harrison] on" when he was growing up.

"I was a junior or senior in high school, and it was one of those revelations where someone realizes there's a world out there that wasn't there before," Harrison told SPACE.com.

"The first book remained in my imagination. It was sci-fi, but I was never into the really hard tech sci-fi. It's not about space travel or technology. I loved the sociological and political content. It's essentially a story of the human condition."

"They are a heroic people," he said. "I was determined to get across their cultural life in the movie. I chose to show how they live, eat, bathe, and their poetry, their music, their philosophy."

Harrison has the luxury to explore minute details in the six-hour, three-night miniseries. Each two-hour segment covers one of the novel's three subdivisions: Dune, Muad'Dib and The Prophet.

The SCI FI Channel will show the film in a 16x9 widescreen ratio, which Harrison said will be standard for the coming wave of high-definition televisions.

So we know Harrison digs the Fremen. But what about the rest of the story?

Hollywood has already disappointed fans with David Lynch's underrated but bizarre 1984 film. What should they expect this time?

"The Lynch movie is his vision, his interpretation," said Harrison, adding that he and his cast and crew ignored the Lynch film throughout production. "I follow the book pretty closely. My narrative is more straightforward."

How closely does he follow it? Significant subplots omitted from the Lynch film to be found in Harrison's include the tension between Paul and Stilgar and the entire wrinkle that the Bene Gesserit manufactured the Fremen prophecy about Muad'Dib. European viewers will see the sietch orgy complete with nudity. Americans will have to make do with an orgy with certain body parts blurred.

Your favorite character names will sound different, too. Harrison and his cast followed Herbert's own pronunciation guide, so Duke LEE-tow is now Duke LEH-tow and Baron Har-KOHN-en is now Baron HAR-kuh-nen.

That's impressive, but why do we need another version of Dune?

"What Herbert wrote is more appropriate to the world we live in than in the '60s," Harrison said. "It's a wonderful opportunity for us in the miniseries because now we have a world closer to the world he describes. You could replace the feudal with the corporate."

Many have argued that Herbert was writing -- at least in part -- about contemporary politics in the Near East, especially the rise of OPEC and radical Islam. Did Harrison take that into account? Harrison said no, his version of Dune is not a commentary on Islamic fundamentalism.

"It's more a commentary on that part of human nature that needs something bigger and hyperbolized to give you meaning," he said.

Speaking of big and hyperbolic motion, what about those worms? Special FX company Area 51 handled the illustrious sandworms of Arrakis which will be computer-generated. Harrison said that the scene where we first see a worm is one of the best in the film.

"I think it's going to leap off the screen at people," he said, adding that he almost cut another of his favorite scenes, where Paul tells Jessica that they share blood with the Harkonnens.

Harrison said the scene came at the end of a tough day and he initially thought, "ah, just cut it," before his actors suggested they read through it. They did, and blew Harrison away.

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"It turned out to be so powerful," he said. "I thank God for the actors and [Vittorio Storaro] my cinematographer. The scene brings into focus all the emotional issues of the story, and they pulled it off. I take no credit."

Although Harrison said directing usually made him miss the fun stuff happening around him, he does have some nutty memories from the shoot, most involving communication difficulties among the international cast and crew.

Harrison mentioned one day when they were shooting the scene where Paul drowns a worm to make himself a serving of Water of Life to drink. A question about the people surrounding Paul sparked some shenanigans.

"Theodor Pistek, my costume designer came to me and asked what the monkeys in the scene should be wearing," Harrison said. "We got nowhere talking for awhile before the translator came over and said, 'No, it's the monks.' "