Paul Farquhar
Legend
Monty Python and The Holy Grail is pretty much the most referenced source, despite it having been made before most of my players where born!Lord of the Rings had a much bigger impact on my gaming at that time. 3e had released. Then came Fellowship of the Ring. Then the GM's elves could walk on snow. Then came The Two Towers. Then the GM's wargs looked like giant hyenas too. I don't think that my high school GM could have been more transparent about his main sources of inspiration even if he had tried. (But the Dune movie was nevertheless often quoted at the table alongside the usual others: e.g., Star Wars, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, etc.)
The other problem with Dune is it's brand of space magic is closely tied to the setting and very distinctive. Same is true of Star Wars. That's great for world building, but for something like Level Up something more generic (e.g. Traveller) is called for. Generic is boring, but it has the best chance of appealing to the broadest target audience.