Sci Fi Gives Green Light To "Children of Dune"

fooguy writes "Our friends at the Sci Fi Channel have given the Green Light to begin production of Children of Dune. According to the release, 'The miniseries begins production in Prague in April 2002 and is slated to air in 2003. Dune adapter John Harrison wrote the script, based on "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune," the second and third novels in Frank Herbert's six-volume Dune Chronicles series. Richard P. Rubinstein comes back on board as executive producer. The sequel will continue the story of the Atreides family and recount the fall of Paul's empire, with the future resting in the hands of Paul's heirs, his twin children."

Comments

Better news than the novels

[Christopher B. Brown]

If the folks working on this include those that worked on the previous miniseries, this would be not horrible news.

The previous miniseries suffered from the problem that they kept forgetting that Dune was a desert; hopefully enough fans can remind them of that fact that it might not be such a problem this time.

And hopefully the miniseries will be better than the "Dune: House X" series (for the assortment of values of X).

messiah probably cut to 10 minutes

[garyrich]

The book is 90% interior dialog. A lot of it is actually important to the overall Dune world though. I wonder how they will handle that? Probably ignore it. Children of Dune is far more filmable, so I imagine that's where they will spend screen time.

garyr

Re:messiah probably cut to 10 minutes

[garyrich]

I seem to recall that the mini-series people set themselves a "no voiceovers" rule for the 1st mini-series. That went too far.

A lot of the voiceovers in the Lynch/Smithee movie were the meta-text that started most chapters. I don't mind those, they fill in lots of misc info and set the tone that you are reading an account of ancient history (from the narration perspective) and seem to imply that some of the book text itself may be seen through the cracked glass of history.

I remember when the mini-series came out at least one reviewer said that Dune was going to be like Macbeth or Hamlet in that it would be redone every generation with a different perspective.

garyr

I'll watch it...

[Washizu]

if they get back the girl who played Chani. Double her pay!

Slashdot Gives Green Light to Complain About Dune

[mttlg]

You just know everyone is going to use this for a "The Movie Sucked!" vs. "The miniseries sucked!" flamefest. Let's just hope these people don't organize into rival houses and fight for control of the world's supply of Dune criticism...

(My take on the whole thing as someone who hasn't gotten around to reading the books (which are sitting with the rest of the classic sci-fi books I haven't read yet) is that things in the movie make more sense after watching the miniseries, and that the miniseries has more emotional depth than the movie. And despite its constant darkness, the movie seems rather upbeat, to the point of silly humor at times, not even counting the screwed up ending. I found the miniseries to be much more subtle, and that made it preferable to the movie for me.)

The Movie

[ackthpt]

I read the book, in the week prior to the movie coming out (what, 1985?) and was stunned at how incomprehensible the film was. Ok, it's really an epic tale told in probably 120 min. or so of film and like the recent Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, much was left out or the film would have been 8 hours, if not longer. Sacrifices have to be made, but I'll probably never alot another couple hours of my life to see Dune the movie again.

Now, if anyone is interested in seeing a really fun film, go find Amelie. Also, film noir with some chuckles, Novocaine (w/Steve Martin) Both worth seeing a second time. Hopefully LOTR will not disappoint, after all the hype.

How to make this a hit

[Weaselmancer]

It's a formula for success that hasn't (to my knowledge) really been tried yet, so here goes:

Change Nothing.

It's really just that simple. Who is the target audience? People who watch the Sci-Fi channel...or to put it more simply, Us Geeks. And we're sticklers for detail. Don't believe me? Go to a sci-fi con sometime and ask anyone there who Nomad is. You will have your ears talked straight off.

I really wanted the miniseries to make up for the movie. I really did. But as I sat there watching it I couldn't help but say over and over, "Well that's wrong. So's that. She shouldn't be there. Those aren't supposed to look like that. He shouldn't be here yet." And so on.

Other bits were pleasing, and an improvement over the movie. Hearing the water sellers cry in the city was a nice touch. Cloaks over the stillsuits. Fremen popping up from the sand to fight. Details like that are exactly what we're looking for.

So my advice is this...if you're short on time, omit something if you must. That's entirely understandable. But don't change anything! Omissions are far easier to ignore. Having Irulan seduce Feyd was inexcusable.

If I were to take a picture of the Mona Lisa and crop it a bit to fit on my web page, everyone would still be able to tell it was the Mona Lisa. If I put her in a bikini top, give her a moustache and make the background Coney Island....well, it's no longer the Mona Lisa, right?

Please, if anyone at Sci-Fi is reading this...show this series the same respect you'd show any other work of art. Mr. Herbert wrote everything in a particular way to express a story he had in mind - you cannot improve upon it. All you can do is change it, and it's his story that we are fans of. So read the books carefully, and please don't paint another moustache on Dune.