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New Dune Movie Confirmed
bowman9991 writes "Peter Berg will be directing a new big-budget Dune movie from Paramount. SFFMedia reports that 'although there were some doubts that they were going to get it,' the producers have secured the rights to the Dune novel from Frank Herbert's estate and are looking for writers to provide a screenplay that is true to the original text. Can't wait!"
Dune is incredibly relevant to our times because it shows how an oppressive power structure exploits a people's resources and make enemies of the natives on Arakkis, it is completely analogous to how we handle oil today. Even more so Dune provides insight into what makes an extremist and their motivations.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
They made Children of Dune in a tv mini-series sequel to Dune on the sci-fi channel.
Not technically a movie, but only because of length and presentation format. It had the production values easily - so it was pretty much a 4-5 hour long movie (and was sold on DVD that way).
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
The "recently" released extended version has some of the internal dialogue. It extends the story but is very boring to watch indeed, no wonder it was cut from the theatrical release.
Try this paper. VERY well-written and engaging. It's interesting to see someone attempt to identify the myriad of influences Herbert used to craft these fantastic and detailed worlds. http://baheyeldin.com/literature/arabic-and-islamic-themes-in-frank-herberts-dune.html
"Oh, Florida. Just think, somewhere in this state, right now, Jeb Bush is eating a live puppy."
What goober rated you offtopic? Very relevant remarks IMHO.
Breaking the book into 2 or 3 movies might work with the right acting. Adding in Dune Messiah might make a beeter story arc for the screen too, though I might be expecting a bit much from movie audiences there.
Personally I would welcome a new movie that stayed withing the original boundaries of the book. Anything to overwrite the creative license abominations the first movie seared into my memory.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
Corrino is a Latin/Italian name. Harkonnen is German/Dutch. Atreides is Greek. And yes, the Fremen are based on a combination of Muslim and Hebrew cultures and ideologies.
"Oh, Florida. Just think, somewhere in this state, right now, Jeb Bush is eating a live puppy."
Semitic-looking Fremen speaking perfect Arabic with English subtitles. Remember, the Sayyadinas reconstructed the "Language of the Book" by imbibing the Water of Life and consulting with Ancestral Memory.
... Zensunni Catholicism" (blatantly ripped from the WP page, don't have my copy of the book handy). That's pretty mixed together if you ask me.
Now you're spot-on about them being semitic, but I would argue against Arabic. Yes, there are a lot of Arabic words borrowed and adapted, but the actual language examples in the book are NOT Arabic based, but rather a dialect of Roma (according to Wikipedia, YMMV). Secondly, even though the Fremen religion is called Zensunni, it is not distinctly Muslim in any way. Based on what we do read of the Fremen religion I would argue that they are more Mizrahi JEW (with Zen sprinkles) than Muslim. Let me make my case:
Herbert played fast and loose with his religion, mixing things around a lot. This ISN'T sloppiness though, since he fully intended to have his religions be amalgams: The appendix in Dune says the Orange Catholic Bible "contains elements of most ancient religions, including
Now, what we actually know about the Fremen religious tradition is mostly centered around the Messianic nature of Paul, which fits in very closely with the Orthodox Jewish notion of the Messiah (anointed leader who takes power and rules etc). The Muslim notion of the Mahdi is vaguely like a messiah, however it is not of the highest cannon (it's only in the Hadith, not in the Qu'ran) and what the Mahdi will do is not always explicitly said. Consequently, it's not a formal doctrine of all Islam and there are vastly different interpretations between sects: The Sufis and some Shias take it pretty seriously, but even those beliefs don't correlate with Paul Atreides very well; the Sunni (>80% of Muslims) are ambivalent about it. This all comes back around to the fact that the Fremen are "Zensunni", not Zensufi or Zenshia, which are given as distinct religious groups.
Another important fact we know about the Fremen is that they spent generations in slavery, and they wandered the galaxy before settling on Arrakis... That's a clue-by-4 of Jewish-ness if there ever was one. No Muslim tradition includes that.
Yes, I know that the Fremen are not the only Zensunni and that Judaism is specifically referenced in the books as a distinct religion, but when you look closely, Herbert made the Fremen Jewish in all but name. It might be too late for this post to get noticed, but I had a fun time blowing my Nerd-load while writing it.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender