As the topic suggests. If there was a Dark Sun movie, and yes some people will think it’s just like Dune; would you go see it?
Tentatively, yes.
I think a better place to look instead of Dune would be John Carter of Mars; Athas already has a lot in common with it.
The OP’s point might have been that Dune is an extremely recent movie; John Carter of Mars isn’t really in the public’s recent memory.
I didn’t think I’d go see a Forgotten Realms movie, and I did, so suppose Yes, I’d go see a Dar Sun movie (as long as it didn’t look awful).
Yeah, I know that Edger Rice Burroughs’ Mars series have a lot in common with Dark Sun. But Dune is relatively recent. As the DMs Revenge explained. So a Dark Sun movie has to have good writing, good direction, good set design, and good costume design. So it won’t be awful.
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Yes, I would definitely see a Darksun themed movie. Hopefully, besides the aforementioned good writing, directing, and cast, it would at least debut at actual theaters rather than straigth to streaming. I feel that both Dune and John Carter of Mars series are in the DNA of Darksun. I liked all incarnations of Dune on the big screen and even the mini-series for television. I am probably in the minority but I really enjoyed the John Carter of Mars movie as well and only wished it had been properly advertised, especially since it is an older IP and has not been in the public mind for a very long time. Of course, I’m old so I have very fond memories of reading the books and comic books.
I also think having a splash of Mad Max in there would be great as well. I loved the original Road Warrior, but enjoyed Fury Road even more. The absolute zaney imagination going into making that movie feel different and apocalyptic was awesome to behold.
So to add on to the OPs original question, what Darksun story do you think would be entertaining on the Big Screen? Personally, I think I’d reverse things a bit from the main emphasis of the setting on the tabletop. In other words, I’d make the ecological nightmare that is Athas and the contrast of its Blue and Green Ages to the Age of the Sorcerer Kings be the forefront of the story. It seems, at least in a lot of the games I’ve played in Darksun (but not all of them), the Sorcerer Kings and their agendas or the Dragons seem to take center stage as the antagonists.
Also, in the story you see as a movie for Darksun, who would you like to see as actors for the main characters and the Big Bads? I can think of lots of older actors, but they may be too old or passed. I’m not as familiar with newer actors, at least not for the more serious tone I’d like to see from a Darksun movie. I’m sure it would not be as popular, but I would definitely not be interested in a “campy” action/comedy of the D&D movie. At least not for Darksun. Despite, me actually seeing and liking the latest D&D movie.
I maintain that the lesson studios should have learned from Game of Thrones is that covering a novel requires a season of television, not a single movie.
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Probably, but it would depend on the director, cast, and script. If any of those are poorly chosen then I would likely wait for it on streaming.
The DS novels are relatively small in scope. You could easily fit one novel into a movie. Verdant Passage seems like a logical choice for the first movie in that case.
If we hope really hard, we can get Uwe Boll! 
If the people in the Athas.org forum of all places would even debate whether to see a Dark Sun movie then that’s not a great sign.
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It is the result of chronic disappointment, and not just in RPG to film adaptions, but also novel adaptions. Somehow the worst people that appear to diss the source material seem to be put at the helm of these projects, and the movie or TV series is awful, and sometimes it’s changed so much that you wonder why they licensed the IP.
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For reasons we nerds seem to rarely consider: studios are money-making machines, not art or lore-producing machines, and because executives are not inclined to take big risks that will ultimately waste money; its the same reason game companies like WotC produce stuff that’s lame trash instead of unspeakably awesome.
Known IP is assumed to already have a built-in audience, new creations have to find an audience.
Only by marrying creativity, talent, and perceived profitablity can good stuff be made at massive scale or budget. That’s why a few smaller films get recognized as being awesome each year and why you see lots of “flop” big projects each year - because little artists with nothing to loose can take big swings, and because big companies like to play it safe and sometimes that backfires.
And unfortunately, sometimes the meddling executives who usually ruin projects (projects that still manage to be financially successful, even if they ultimately sucked) save a project that an artist director is screwing up enough to remain useful.
So, we get hits and misses as nearly a dozen factors push and pull on various movies/shows/projects.
End rant.
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