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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!"
they've already ruined the dune series- lets hope the trend reverses like Batman Begins did for Batman.
Why redo the first book in the series when there are many more in the service. The current Dune is a great film anyway.
I mean, I like Dune, but how many remakes is enough?
Ok ok, the first one was a bit off (but it had Patrick Stewart and Sting!).
But the Sci-fi Channel version was pretty good.
I just wonder what is to be gained by doing it again.
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
Well, luckily this one stands a decent chance of sticking with the book's plot. HOWEVER, having purchased the rights certainly doesn't guarantee this will ever see the light of day. I'll hold my enthusiasm until they tell me they've got a working script.
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I happen to think David Lynch is a genius. Some will not agree. That's fine. However, I think hopefully we can safely agree that Lynch does know how to direct (he's been nominated for several Academy Awards). The problem with the original Dune in my opinion is that the story is vast. It was just impossible to do justice to the story in a 2.5 hour movie. I don't personally consider the differences between the film and novel to be significant and for those who do, well, just wait until you see this film. If you think that in 2.5 to 3 hours that Peter Berg will somehow be able to produce a more faithful version of Dune , well, that's a rather interesting thought that surely will be proven false. Lynch had to leave out large sections of the first book to save time and Berg will operate under the same conditions. That's why the SciFi Channel filmed Dune as a multipart story.
The spice is life!
I see how you correlate the examples you provide for the power struggle for resources, but I don't see how they're specific to Islamic culture. Provide examples that are specific to Islamic culture.
The sleeper has awakened. Long live the fighters. "Oh-h-h, the Galacian girls Will do it for pearls, And the Arrakeen for water! But if you desire dames Like consuming flames, Try a Caladanin daughter!" I also enjoy the Dune references in Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice"
But then we'd ruin Hollywood's tradition of messing up good book-to-movie transitions!
Seriously, you would think they learned from peter Jackson that the closer to the book you hold, the more popular it is.
Besides, there's enough nerds out there, that if you get it close enough, they'll be chanting "The DVD is life!"
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
It seems like all Hollywood does these days is re-cover movies they've already made (which were generally adaptations of books in the first place).
Seriously, there's only one of two reasons why these are successful:
1) Nostalgia.
2) The idea was good the first time around.
We're rarely improving on the ideas at all. It's just mindless drivel rereleased again and again.
NBC's fall line up consists of a Jekyll and Hyde remake, followed by Knight Rider, followed by... A movie studio (not sure who) is making another "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", and yet another is making a sequel to Wargames.
Seriously Hollywood: stop. Just stop it. You're embarrassing yourself.
There are plenty of other books that you could make into movie that would translate well. For example, the Feist series of books, starting with Magician: Apprentice would translate pretty well to the screen.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
... but if the acting is supurb, and they're telling a good story, then I'm happy.
Maybe, if you have not read the book. The 1980s theatrical movie had good acting and a good story but plot elements really knocked the movie down a notch, for example for many who read the book the sound based weapons were a strong negative. The Fremen won fights because their environment and culture made them tough, it was not a technological gimmick. The movie discarded a major element of the book, people adapting to and being influenced (culturally and physically) by their environment.
Well, that was my problem with David Lynch's movie, basically. It's like an abbreviated summary of the book. Actually, probably a better way to explain it, would be Woody Allen quote: "Woody Allen I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia." That's just about it.
If you had already read the book, I guess it wasn't a bad movie. It had just enough visual clues to let your memory do the rest. So you can look an go, "ooh, I know, this is the Gom Jabbar sequence", and you'd already know what led there, where it goes from there, and why is that important. While the movie would move to the next scene and give you yet another piece, and again, it would be mostly up to your memory to fill in the gap and put the new scene in context too.
I, however, must have been one of the few who saw the movie before reading the book. In fact, I got the book only because the movie didn't make that much sense at times, and certainly didn't leave me with the awe for Dune that everyone else semed to have. (I know, I know, I'll hand in my nerd card now;) It wasn't a _bad_ movie per se, but in retrospect it just wasn't Dune. It was a mildly SF-themed action movie, where some guys fought for some desert planet, for some resource those guys had. And not only it was just as superficial as any other action movie (it could have been "Rambo Does Iraq" just as well), but the plot seemed a little bit condensed and rushed through even by action movie standards. Everything that made it... well, made it _Dune_, was at best hinted at, and sometimes it came via short scenes that didn't seem to make that much sense or have much relevance for the rest of the movie.
Again, in retrospect I can see how you'd figure it out if you had read the book already, and only used the movie as a visual summary. Without that background, I wasn't impressed much.
Can someone else do better? Heck if I know, to be honest. One can only hope. It's certainly impossible to do justice to the whole Dune story, you're right in that aspect. But maybe he can make a movie that at least makes sense on its own.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Now, Ringworld, on the other hand... That's a classic novel that just aches to be made into a movie. A simple, easy to follow adventure story, with interesting characters and plenty of potential for awesome visuals. *crosses fingers*
True... I'll take Omega Man any day over I am Legend.
I don't think Christianity has much in terms of merging of the feminine and the masculine.
That aside, you're reading into the minor parts that most likely to pad the story with details. The Kwizatz Haderach is simply a profit figure. It unites the Fremen to become the dominant power of the world (and quite violently so). That is very allegorical towards modern day extremist Islam.
The other theme is that the profit of the Fremen is not complete. The later books show this in that Leto II came and did away with the Fremen empire built by his father.
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 ...
... Dune provides insight into what makes an extremist and their motivations.
That is not relevant to our times, it is relevant to all of human history.
No, *extremists* are usually looking for any excuse or pretext to justify their actions. Legitimate grievances are not required.
And the Matheson novella any day over any movie of it.
There is a lot more Islamic and Arabic stuff in Dune that one thinks.
See Arabic and Islamic themes in Frank Herbert's Dune.
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