"He planned to cast , Orson Welles as the Baron, who would be nearly immobile at 300 pounds, and Salvador Dali as Emperor Shaddam IV, who would be insane and living on a planet made of gold"....

he said of the book, "I did not want to respect the novel, I wanted to recreate it. For me Dune did not belong to Herbert as Don Quixote did not belong to Cervantes, nor Edipo with Esquilo

Are we agree ? I am not surprised that with saying like this he did not find investors..

Like the costumes ( and some of the characters), the whole project may have been larger than life.
I agree that with his attitude and these costumes, some should have parted with a quid or two.
I wonder how many marvels such as this may have been, are lost unless lucky enough to have Matt Damon or someone else dust off a manuscript.

Leto reminded me of the Thundercats....hoooooo! LOL