Villeneuve did pay some small homage to Lynch - just as he did to Jodorowsky. But nothing substantial. The bigger parallels are all things taken straight from

Villeneuve did pay some small homage to Lynch - just as he did to Jodorowsky. But nothing substantial. The bigger parallels are all things taken straight from the book. So, in cases were both Lynch and Villeneuve closely followed the book, they end up with similar results. The eyes are one example of this - they are described as entirely blue ("blue-within-blue") in the book, and that's why both movies (as well as the TV-series) did blue scleras. That part is just book-accurate. The book also described the blue as being increasingly dark the stronger the spice saturation - to the point of getting almost entirely black. The reason nobody ever was accurate to that detail, is down to black eyes feeling uncanny and scary. Eyes like that would weird out viewers, and not allow them to connect with the characters.