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Dune Remake Could Mean 3D Sandworms
bowman9991 writes "The new Dune remake is becoming as epic as Frank Herbert's Dune series itself. Now that director Peter Berg has been ousted, new director Pierre Morel has decided to throw out Peter Berg's script entirely, starting afresh with his own ideas and vision. 'We're starting from scratch,' said Morel. 'Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again.' Morel also reveals that 'It's the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D.' He's also keen on sticking to the original material and recognizes that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness."
I don't thinking remaking the movie in 3D would make the plot any less confusing. (To someone who never read the books, that is.)
Nice! I cant wait for a sci-fi movie that's entirely done in 3D where the main character bonds with an idigenous species who dwell on a planet that has a resource unobtainable anywhere else in the universe! They should get James Cameron to direct it!
and recognises that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness
No more weirding modules? Pretty please?
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Alternatively, they could use Frank Herbert's screenplay that he wrote for the original Dune movie (rejected for length; hardly an issue given the length of recent epics). That would arguably be closest to his own vision.
Floating in the black seas of infinity without a paddle.
Unless it is as close as the SciFi one or better we can do without. 3D is a neat effect at first, but just like explosions don't make Michael Bay movies watchable neither will 3D rescue an abortion of a film.
Maybe, because I was never really into 'Dune' in the first place that's why I'm not really excited one way or another except to say that it's pretty lame to do a remake of a movie that was fine enough the way it was just to be able to slap on some new effects and try and milk a few more dollars out of people so that they can get a rehash of a story they already know. This criticism isn't specific to Dune, but to a bunch of other films as well. Just sayin'.
Some of us LIKE that movie. Frankly, no Dune movie can succeed without Brad Dourif.
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
"Dune" is probably the greatest 20th-century science fiction novel. It is, for better or worse, unfilmable.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
And all those 'Lynchian' crazy choices he made, but decades later, it is still the version(besides the book itself) that every future effort will be compared to. It takes unforgivable liberties, but it has a look and sets a mood and still gets people to read the damn books.
At least compared to the made-for-TV siffy channel version. While not accurate to the book, the visual design was quite impressive, as were the 1980's vintage special effects.
I'm too lazy to google it- but I do remember watching one for nine hours over three dvds without getting up! Can I have trophy?
I guess I'm just a cult member. I happen to like David Lynch's version. I know it's not the most accurate, but I thought it was fairly well done for its time - and how many film adaptations are well done? Some of the Harry Potter movies (Order of the Phoenix being the worst offender) are so off it's funny, and The Lost World (Jurassic Park 2) didn't resemble the book at all. I also really enjoyed the principal actors - Kyle McLachlan, and just enough Patrick Stewart to lend some legitimacy.
This space for rent...
It will always be in the process of being created with the best 3D effects available to film?
The David Lynch interpretation was brilliant. It was artistic, it looked great, had excellent sets and cinematography. The literal stage play, I mean the SciFi production, was flat, dull lacking in emotion and life as it tried to accurately portray the novel. Nerds! Stop it! Movies are cinematic interpretations of a novel or another body of work, for it to work in the movie format, many things must change. The David Lynch version had a great score, had actually emotional scenes, the Baron was excellent, Sting brilliant. Yes you hate it because it wasn't accurate, fine but you don't respect excellent cinema either.
I hope this version pisses you particular nerds off by being cinematic, beautiful and daring in the liberties it takes with Herbert's fine novel. Really now it can't be any worse than what his son has managed to accomplish.
I'll probably watch it as soon as they're able to delete the images of Sting in a speedo from my consciousness.
I see watered down action with completely known aesthetics coming our way.
If the directors aren't allowed a LotR-level timescale, the best they can hope for is remaking the Lynch version. 6 hours, minimum, and yes, you will still have to cut stuff out at that length.
Also, Alec Newman should be run straight out of Hollywood. If his whiny, young Luke Skywalkerish version of Paul didn't convince you, his appearance on Enterprise should have.
Not a typewriter
I thought the SciFi network mini series a few years back was pretty faithful. I'd watch a new 3D big effects version, but it hardly seems necessary.
Mesa think isa great idea.
Like for example the hero of the story was a kid not an adult.
Wasn't the SciFi network mini-series good enough?
Good enough to do what:
- to ensure no further remakes are made out of shame?
- to strengthen the eye muscles of anyone who'd read the book by either rolling their eyes or attempting to close them after they've already been shut?
- to harvest a few gigawatts of electricity from the wild dynamo of Frank Herbert rolling in his grave?
Before they made that movie they should've considered whether they needed to add any more disgrace to the Herbert estate. Hasn't Brian Herbert done enough damage already?
"Dune" is probably the greatest 20th-century science fiction novel. It is, for better or worse, unfilmable.
No. It's a difficult adaptation but not impossible. LOTR was thought to be impossible. I think Peter Jackson did a bang-up job. Your mileage may vary.
The mini-series adaptations were noble in effort if flawed in execution. The problem with something like Dune is that it really demands to be made into a full season. Take the first three novels since they were meant to be the original story. Season 1, season 2, season 3. 13 episodes a piece. That's more than enough time to tell the story. As it stands, the miniseries would probably be incomprehensible to anyone not already familiar with the story. And trying to do it in a single movie? Impossible. Madness.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I liked the 1984 version.
Don't sell beverages on movie theater and put the old version. You will have a 2D movie + thirst, a whole new dimension to it (and you won't need spice to know how everyone will feel at the end)
With all the books that Frank Herbert wrote about Dune, combined with all those written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson, there should be enough material to last for quite a while. As a bonus, all the summarization that would normally happen at the continuation of a series is already built into the Brian Herbert/Kevin J Anderson stuff. Hated it in the books, because I read them straight through. I would appreciate the mid-series summaries if spaced out by a week, though.
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
First off pick up the book again some time and read the dialog aloud and tell me
Herbert's writing doesn't define wooden.
That's OK, maybe the Bible has more in common with this book then say,
the slangy chatty "Avatar".
That Lynch pulled in stuff from a different dimension was well and good. I personally
think "milking a cat", Gurney attacking with one hand on a gun and the other holding
a pug, heart plugs and the tubes going into the brains of the Guild are more poignant
than anything in the book.
Lynch's "Dune" sent me to a different dimension. "Avatar" sent me to bed
with a headache.
I'd settle for a 3D script and characters...
That is all.
" I don't care what's in the books - the Lynch movie is what the Dune universe is to me"
.uk domain. Sorry for being a grammer nazi when I'm far from perfect, but it's kinda a pain to quote the article and have Chrome tell me I'm misspelling words I didn't write.
You, good sir, are probably speaking for about 90% of the population that has seen the original 1984 Dune movie.
My issue is his quote " 'Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again'...he recognises** that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness."
Probably not a good idea, to remake a movie completely different from the from the popular original. I'm just saying ain't broke, don't fix it. I'd watch the exact 1984 Dune redone with fresh graphics, but I'm not sure about erasing the original from our minds. I think we liked the original and would like to see more of that.
**it's recognizes, with a z, unless the guy's in britian but i don't see a
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
And I don't mean "animate as in Avatar" or "animate as in UP" I mean "animate as in Akira, Paprika, Metropolis, etc. etc. (Pity I can't think of any comparable American productions. The Lion King?) A twelve-hour series would do Dune justice, but I'd settle for a three-hour film.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
recognises that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness
Hell, erase the memories of a fantastic adaptation by a fantastic director and replace it by a freaking 3D toystory?
kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D
Has the scope? Geez, the world is 3D, genius, and everything in it has the scope to be 3D.
I've had my fair share of avatar movies for this decade thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, it seems we just should rest this "movie" thing for a few decades, since it seems they either just make movies that are crap or they think creating new ideas is uncool and just keep remaking worse and worse versions of previous movies.
It is an industry alright. So we should treat it as such: pay, watch, and if it doesn't deliver what was promised take it back and demand the money. Or do you keep a mower if it doesn't cut the freaking grass?
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
I cannot wait, not for the release of the film, but for the funny as heck review by the old crazy guy on you tube.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
neither will 3D rescue an abortion of a film
:)
Oh, so you missed out on fashionable movies lately, or so it seems
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1. Shoot the film from the perspective of the Shaddam's throne and characterize the freemen as your basic extremist/Jihadist types. The neocons will eat it up right up until the "evildoers" win, and then again claim Hollywood is anti-'merican. 2. Shoot the movie from the Bene Gesserit perspective and get funding in Israel. Invite Joe Lieberman to the premier gala. 3. Shoot the movie from the Shai Haluud perspective in an Disney-esque animated children's classic called "Sandworm Come Home". 4. Shoot the movie from the Guild space-folding perspective as a road movie. Any of the above will suck just as much as anything we're likely to see. Unless Frank "Old Blue Eyes" Sinatra sings the soundtrack, of course.
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Do we really need another attempt to re-make 'Dune'? Yes, David Lynch's 1984 film version was really, really bad. Unwatchable, even. But I thought the healing process was complete with SciFi's Dune (2000) miniseries.
I watched the miniseries (but not the followup, Children of Dune (2003)) and thought it was great. They did an amazing job with the story. With a 3-part miniseries, you can take your time with the story, so it doesn't feel so rushed. Sure, it had William Hurt in it (I find him boring) but was good nonetheless! :-)
I'm not convinced we need another re-make of this.
recognises that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness.
The "images" were actually quite well-done. Lynch's Dune suffered from several problems, but the visual effects and costumes weren't one of them. And the Brian Eno score was really good (I even liked the end Toto instrumental).
I knew I'd get that -- I hear it quite a bit, so I must just be in the minority.
I read Dune several times before seeing any of the movies.
It was like nothing else I'd ever read -- the "afterglow" of Dune carried me through Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, each one losing me a little more. I never finished Heretics of Dune, so maybe I'm just not a true fan.
I even tried one of Brian Herbert's books (shudder -- I'll have agree with you there).
I was told the mini-series was bad, and I tried to hate it, but for some reason I just couldn't.
I don't think any film could give you the whole experience, the mini-series adaptation was a bit mechanical, but at least they tried not to leave stuff out.
I never caught the Children of Dune mini-series, so I can't comment on it.
I thought the SciFi network mini series a few years back was pretty faithful. I'd watch a new 3D big effects version, but it hardly seems necessary.
I liked the SciFi version too. Not the best dramatic work ever created, but enjoyable (and this from SciFi??!?) and the pacing was good.
How long was the mini-series? Dune just doesn't fit into a two or three hour movie. The 80's version just made me feel like I lad low blood sugar the whole time I was watching it. Even the marketing blitz ahead of it (I recall a many-page spread in 3-2-1-Contact magazine at the time, which didn't do much of anything commercial) couldn't convince us that it was a good movie (though some people saw the movie they wanted to see). I understand, it took me a few viewings to convince myself that The Phantom Menace was complete horseshit.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
All I can think is "I will kill him!" I had the Paul and Sting knife fighting action figures stuck in the light over the kitchen table for about a decade looking down on everyone with their knives at the ready; no one noticed.
I read the original 3 Dune books before I saw the David Lynch movie, and I didn't think it was half bad.
But why not adapt some other stories?
A Canticle for Liebowitz, or some other ACC novels, like The Light of Other Days, or even Imperial Earth has come miniseries potential.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
Why is 3D mentioned? Who cares? I am so sick of people chasing carrots. Just make a fucking good movie and be done with it. Or at least try.
And I foresee something to the effect of Dune Nukem 3D ;-)
I was hopping for another Dune RTS remake in 3D.
Ok, so Lynch's Dune took huge, I say I say, HUGE liberties with the source material. (There is a legend that Herbert endorsed Lynch's version as true to the source material, which to me means either Herbert had the novel ghosted and never read the drafts, or he was on crack.) And the version on siffie or whatever they're calling themselves these days was deadly dull.
Does that necessarily mean we need yet another version of Dune? Couldn't the producers pick a novel that hadn't been done yet and mess with, er, make that instead?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
" he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness "
This means no Dune, at least for me. And I actually don't want to forget Lynch's version - it is one of the best movies I ever saw (first time when I was 12 or 13 years old).
IMHO some remakes are not meant to exist. This might be just one of those [ Another one would be a Cronenberg's Existenz remake ].
What will happen ? Probably some high-speed movie with state-of-the-art photography and visual effects, a typical Hollywoodesque movie made for profit. Not a real movie, from my perspective, a movie that I'd go and watch.
Anyway, just my opinion.
as it is in the books. way too much internal dialog, and politics.
You can tell the story, just not like it is in the book.
Now that 3d is a mainstream tool in the movie makers tool belt being in 3d is certainly possible to add to the visuals.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
**it's recognizes, with a z, unless the guy's in britian but i don't see a .uk domain. Sorry for being a grammer nazi when I'm far from perfect, but it's kinda a pain to quote the article and have Chrome tell me I'm misspelling words I didn't write.
Even the awful webster's dictionary RECOGNISES an alternate spelling. Furthermore, since you want to pick nits, "britian" is spelled "Britain" (proper noun with the right spelling) and "grammer" is spelled "grammar".
No wonder the modern world is so bad. Dune is utterly great. If the general consensus is that it's crap, then I now see what is wrong with the world. All you people are wrong! Wrong wrong wrong!
Seriously, if you want to remake Dune and not make it like Dune, you will fail. I say this as someone who has read all the books. Repeatedly. And discussed them at length with my wife.
The David Lynch Dune film is gospel.
How many remakes are needed of this story? Wasn't the movie done in the 80s, and a tv mini-series done in the 90s or so? I mean whats so interesting about this "blue eyed cataract" anyways?
Im sorry to hijack this threat for something a bit offtopic; Why the hell did they choose Joseph Kahn ("Torque") to do Neuromancer? And am I the only person who considers this MUCH more shocking than yet-another-crappy-classic-movie-remake?
No, if you have to read the books to understand the movie then its not that great.
Wasn't the same said about Lord of the Rings?*
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Whats up with the Dune fetish...?
There are so many other great SciFi stories that could be incredible films. Larry Niven alone could supply amazing stories.
Hasn't Brian Herbert done enough damage already?
I still cringe that I forced myself to read all the way through the second sequel he wrote, because I had to know what happens.
What happened? Nerd rage, as I threw away the first book I've ever thrown away in my life. Its poo. It's worse than poo, poo has redeeming value as fertilizer and a place for flies to spawn their maggot babies. All the Brian Herbert milk-my-father's-work-so-I-don't-have-to Dune books (of which there are too too many) Are cut off. They no longer exist in my personal reality.
Lady Jessica can ride my 3D sand worm any time!
I wouldn't trust anyone else do it right.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Isn’t Dune an interesting parable for our time – religious, desert-dwelling tribesmen rebel against an Empire that is extracting their precious resources, and are led in their jihad by the Mahdi. Will Hollywood really want to make a movie in which al Qaeda are the good guys? Granted, Avatar painted all of industrial civilization as the bad guy, but this still might be a bit of a stretch
I know it's fashionable to bash Avatar, at least for the hype sorrounding it, but I think it wasn't a bad film. It had a nice twist on the Pocahontas story (which is at least 200 years old, and a lot of other works used it for a basis as well), the dialog flows nicely, most characters have an actual motivation. Though it wasn't really revolutionary (wasn't Beowulf done in 3D as well?).
The problem I have with both Lynch's Dune and the miniseries is their treatment--neglect, rather--of the minor characters. Harah is not Tom Bombadil; she and her sons are the lingering aftermath of Paul's duel with Jamis, and her evolving reaction to Paul serves a larger narrative purpose in explaining his transition from outsider to messiah. From "THIS bested my Jamis?" to serving as nanny to Alia and later the twins, she is transformed form hardened skeptic to follower.
I agree that one movie is probably not enough to cover all of Dune. Like Les Misearables, the tragedy of filming such an epic work is that there's so much good material that it's seemingly impossible to do so without excising critically important pieces. Les Mis, however, did get a 6 hour treatment... (The Dayan Depardieu/Malkovich 2000 adaptation) but not in English. Would that Dune would get such an expansive treatment!
Oh, and if they can bring back Max Von Sydow as Liet-Kynes, I'd be perfectly happy with that. :-)
He's referring to the sequels that were written by someone who clearly hasn't read the originals. In Children of Dune, Frank Herbert writes about the attitude of dependency being destructive not the machines themselves. In God Emperor, he writes that humanity has evolved to the point where it is no longer likely to suffer this problem. The dialogs between the Reverend Mother and the God Emperor indicate that fear of computers is irrelevant for modern humans. In Chapter House, he reintroduces this theme, showing that the Archivists lose some of their humanity when they start to think like computers and are, ultimately, a dead end.
In the prequel and sequel series, there is an evil AI with completely inexplicable motives who tortures humans for no obvious reason and is later somehow a threat to humanity.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Is anyone else sick to the back teeth of "IN 3D"!!!!!1!!!!!?
It seems to be that they think no one will go see any film unless it has IN 3D writ large at the end of the trailer and on every poster, and they the film makers think that some 3D element will somehow make their film great whether it is or not without being IN 3D.
I know such singleton action is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but I for one will make an effort to get through 2010 without seeing any film that shouts the IN 3D gimick in its pitch.
Please tell me I'm not the only one. Please tell me the average cinema goer isn't a Bay fan wanting nothing more than EXPLOSIONS IN 3D who is going to be suckered into thinking this new gimmick is what makes films great...
Not another remake. This weekend I saw a movie in the theater, and EVERY trailer was a remake. Clash of the Titans, Death at a Funeral, and even the A-Team for crying out loud.
I'd like to see you summarize 2001:A Space Odyssey.
No Tom Bombadil. Less adventures and more war than Indiana Jones. Lame.
I like the idea of exploring the rise and fall of a messiah and how his life and teachings become twisted by his followers. I'm sure this sort of tale has been told before but Dune is the first time I encountered it.
The oldest version of this story that I know of is in a book called the "New Testament." The tale is STILL being twisted by its adherents, 2000 years after its 1st edition. FWIW, I still prefer the Dune stories, though I can't say I am much of a follower there either.
There's plenty of good sci-fi books out there that would make excellent movies. So why do a remake?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Come on, instead of endlessly remaking one novel, how about trying to film one of the many, many other great sci fi stories that haven't been done yet? How about "The Mote in God's Eye"?
Your comment reminds me of what Johnny Depp said when he was asked to play Charles Manson in a dramatization of Ed Sanders' book The Family. He said that he thought the 1976 TV miniseries Helter Skelter had told the story well enough, and that "there was no point in doing it again." Depp was wrong and so are you: just because a story has been told well in one movie, doesn't mean it shouldn't be told again. Especially when the first movie was made a long time ago.
http://ihatehate.wordpress.com
Why go to all the trouble to render in 3D a creature that has essentially only one dimension? Also, do we really need another overly long 3D extravaganza about whitey going native?
Edith Keeler Must Die
Dune is about humans who've rebelled against computers and machines and pushed their human talents to the limits. You need F/X for the worms and spaceships, but not for most of the story.
Could be rather creepy if you see a race of people without white eyeballs. This is the main distinction humans have from other animals- ours are one of the rare white eyes. Ours probably evolved for cohesion: eye contact during conversation and sex; And to see what the rest of people are looking at when they are in a group.
Lynch's Dune is one of my favorite movies. The re-make (I don't care if Herbert's kid had something to do with it) was largely a travesty borne of lame acting, and an over-reliance on digital effects. My only real complaints with the original were the miscasting of Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck, a few blocking fuck-ups, and the "weirding weapons". I can only imagine that further attempts to remake Dune would only manage to dissuade future generations from actually reading the fucking book.
-Oz
I had no idea there were so many haters out there of the original movie. I thought and still think it's one of the most epic movies ever created. When someone asks me "What is an epic movie?" The first thought that enters my head is "Dune". You people are crazy. Original Dune movie was the s**t!!!
As originally planned, why not just give it back to Ridley Scott, with a reasonable budget and a team of iconoclastic digital filmmakers with something to prove, and let him - again - hire H.R. Giger to do the Harkonnen industrial design.
For casting, try:
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Paul
Joaquin Phoenix as Duke Leto
Laura Harring as Jessica
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Baron Harkonnen
Peter Fonda as Piter De Vries
Russell Crowe as Gurney Halleck
Jude Law as Duncan Idaho
Martin Donovan as Thufir Hawat
Sigourney Weaver as the Reverend Mother Mohaim
Eric Bana as Stilgar
Claire Danes as Chani
Ben Chaplin as Dr Wellington Yueh
Make it an anti-messiah film, and help people see how they are led astray by charismatic leaders, in-line with Herbert's logic.
And, during the orbital shot of Salusa Secundus, let it reveal the familiar outlines of the Atlantic ocean, bordered by recognisable land-masses...
I specifically bought a TOTO toilet because TOTO shit on rock and roll and I wanna get one back for rock and roll.
The problem I had with the Lynch movie was simply that it was too compressed and you got jerked from event to event, sweeping past so much of the story. The actual look and feel I really enjoyed. (At the time - I haven't seen it recently, so maybe I would feel differently now.) The mini-series had so much more time to tell the story, so I was hoping for better.
But a huge problem with the miniseries was the size: the portrayals were so small. Dune the book was big, the deserts were vast, the halls were immense. In the miniseries even in the desert there was no sense of scale - the frame was always filled with the characters. There is a banquet scene set in a big hall, but we're treated to a tight shot with a few characters that looks like it could have been filmed on a soundstage the size of a nice office.
I parse that as duke Remake could be 3d
For a brief moment I was overwhelm by joy and confusion
I think that "abomination" of a film would be more appropriate, given the Dune discussion.
Let me fix that:
Rampaging cult overthrows galactic government with the help of hallucinogenic drug everyone eats with breakfast .
There, much better.
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
I'd rather have a 3d sandwich.
You should have heard the whining in ~82 when Conan had brown hair instead of black hair...Gygax (I think it was him) even complained about it in a Dragon magazine column.
First Movie As a Kid
I saw the movie first as a kid and didn't understand it except for the basic plot of sand, worms, spice, good guys vs bad buys, emperor, Bene Gesserit, the Guild, a lot of scheming, but loved the dark visuals and the gritty feel of the movie. I had to watch it again once or twice to try and understand it more but still couldn't grasp the details of the whole story, there was just too much missing from the movie.
Then The Whole Book Series
Then a few years later I decided to read the whole series from front to back and the movie really helped me wrap my head around the look of the Dune universe and how things should look. However the picture that the series drew in my mind was a bit different than what the movie portrayed and some of the style and look from the movie did not fit. I felt like the book series starts centered around Paul's life, then the series widens up to his sister and family, then broadens the horizons towards the Jihad and the expanse of the known universe, until the God Emperor comes and overshadows all, and then starts to collapses again back towards Duncan's experience. The movie helped me put some faces to the characters for the first few books and get a start on the story but detail in the books quickly built up that the movie just became overshadowed.
I saw the movie a once or twice after finishing the series and I just wasn't so thrilled by it anymore as I was before. The dreamlike hold of the movie was lost on me since I found the background story between the shifts of power in the universe in the book series a lot more interesting than the personal adventures of Paul and his friends.
Old Movie, PC Game, and Miniseries
I liked the books very much and I like the original movie because the look and feel were almost right and were great on their own. The movie was a bit different than the story but it was faithful to idea in the books. I also played the original Dune game on the PC so I got to play through the story of the movie and liked that very much, even though even the game was a bit off the movie. I also loved the original Dune 2 real time strategy game since it was the first tank warfare game before Command & Conquer and World of Warcraft showed up on the scene.
I did not like the SciFi Dune miniseries at all since I felt that even with the better acting I could not associate the actors and the characters they played with the people in the books. They all just felt very wrong and no matter how much prettier and more colorful the miniseries was it made me feel that the miniseries looked more like a theatrical production than a TV series.
New Movie
As for new Dune movie with 3D worms, I say good luck to them and let's see what'll happen with that. I won't hold my breath though since I don't believe that these are the times in which a good rendition of the Dune series can be made. There's just too much Wow! factor required in today's movies and even though I liked Avatar 3D and saw it twice, I can't say much for the predictable story. I predict that this Dune movie will be similar, great visuals and an entertaining movie but just a snip of the real story without much depth.
I say good luck to them and show us something entertaining!
I've been saying it ever since the 3D craze started hitting big time in the theaters, and I haven't changed my mind after seeing the best example 3D movies have to offer (Avatar, which is also the only 3D movie I've made myself suffer): keep it in DisneyLand where it belongs. 3D is a gimmick and should stay where gimmicks are acceptable, which is not 99% of all movies.
Parsed it as "Duke 3D Remake Could Mean Sandworms"
TFOAE
Herbert should have been more specific about the weirding way in the novels. It ain't the frickin' Glass Bead Game!
-- thinkyhead software and media
The basic problem with "Dune" today is that it predates the Gulf War. We know what "desert power" looks like now - M1A2 Abrams tanks and A10 Warthogs. There were worries back in 1991 that mechanized armies couldn't operate in the desert. Wrong. You go through more air filters. Some spare parts get used up. The tanks keep rolling. Remember those Iraqi solders in the first Gulf War who were all dug in, armed, and ready to fight? THe US sent in a line of tanks equipped with bulldozer blades, rolled over them, and buried them alive in sand. Being out in the open desert against a modern army is death. I don't care how good your knife fighters are.
And a giant sandworm with a big open mouth looks like a good RPG target.
There are insurgency tactics that work, but they depend on having a friendly population to hide in. They also require an opposition that doesn't consider extermination of the entire population in the area an option.
I love Dune the novel, and much as I'd love to see it "done right", I'm not sure that's possible for many of the reasons already outlined.
But, why isn't anybody tackling some of the other great Science Fiction stories just waiting to be filmed?
Off the top of my head:
and so on...
The miniseries stuck more closely to the story, but the acting was bloody wooden.
Excuse me? To call Kyle MacLachlan's "acting" wooden is to insult trees. I saw Lynch's Dune when it premiered, at the Oakland Paramount theater - a 1,200 seat house with a state-of-the-art sound system - and the audience was all fanboys (me included). When Paul first sees Chani, and "thinks" (in voiceover) "My god, she's beautiful!" the entire audience burst into derisive laughter.
And don't get me started about Stink, and his, "I will kill him!" ham salad.
Feh.
The miniseries (and the followup, Children of Dune) was orders of magnitude better than Lynch's abortion.
Hell, National Lampoon's Doon was better than Lynch's movie!
Check out my novel.
WARNING WORM SIGNS DETECTED
Aww shit, i need to move my harvester to rocky ground.
On welfare for example, and spare me your middle-eastern (surprise! surprise!) toned 3D rip-off of adolescents' literature, please.
I always preferred the explanation put forward in the Dune Encyclopedia which, although not "canon", still rings more true to the spirit of Dune:
AIs were used to control in vitro fertilization systems. The AIs started to breed more controllable humans, and IIRC even killed off offspring that were likely to be a threat to the AIs.
This quite nicely explains two Dune taboos in one go: AIs and IVF.
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It all depends. Is it going to be sci-fi -looking but behave like Fantasy.
Or is it actual sci-fi?
I dont remember the originals that well, where they Fantasy or sci-fi?
If the new is going to be actual-sci-fi then some serious thinking has
to be done about many things.
Btw, How about a remake of Star Trek with actual sci-fi!? What, too soon? :P
Unless we are talking about Ray Harryhausen's stop motion animation. That could rescue an abortion of a film.
The thing about 3D animation is that even when it is very skillfully done, it's just not impressive. Yes, it may have been the product of blood, sweat and tears, but after a few more years of software development kids will be doing stuff almost as good as a hobby. So 3D only works if you are immersed in the story.
Stop motion animation, on the other hand, is a wonder even if you don't care to pay any attention at all to the story.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Rampaging cult overthrows galactic government by leveraging hallucinogenic drug responsible for space-faring civilization.
If a mechanized army does so well in the desert, why is the U.S. STILL fighting insurgents there or in Afghanistan? It's because for all the firepower an A10 has or an M1, they're pretty useless when you have to go house to house in order to find your enemy. Reread Dune again. Look at the tactics the fremen use. They're classic insurgency tactics, strike and fade, avoid a full blown line-in-the-sand type battle at all costs. Wear the enemy down slowly and sap their will to fight. The fremen also hid in the populace to make it more difficult to find them, the same as the U.S. faced or is facing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. They'd be labeled terrorists if they were fighting the U.S.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
The problem is the books are more of a political thriller then a sciFi film.
I would state these:
Dune is more "Patriot Games" then "Star Trek"
Dune is more "The Manchurian Canidate" then "Blade Runner"
As a Herbert fan Dune has been from my view a political and social narrative about where politics and religion collide under feudalism. The future setting was really incidental to the story. You could have just as easily swapped Spice for Oil and Arrakis for Arabia... The SciFi elements are not the point, they were mearly tools.
The Spice was the perfect drug\commodity just as Soma was for Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, the ecological cost of Spice was the real story in regards to the Spice. The dependencies, politically, religiously, economically were also undercurrents in the plot but the larger story was how, as a result of the Spice, and how it factored into society, left man kind stagnant (The Fremen specifically) and how Paul's kin would "stir the pot" and break the universe out of it's stagnant state (the Golden Path) and get the ball rolling again getting back to the uncertainty of life.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
I'd read the book (and the National Lampoon parody Doon, which is EXCELLENT) before the movie and was annoyed that Lynch had cooked up unnecessary things, but I still loved the movie. It's beautiful and moody and the images do stick in your mind in a way that very few movies achieve.
But on the subject of the utterly unwatchable TV version, I'd like to point out a rule of film/TV analysis which is almost always correct and places blame where it should be placed: When one actor delivers a bad performance in a movie, that's a bad actor. When everyone does, that's bad directing.
A good director can get bad actors to deliver excellent performances. A bad director gets crap out of even good actors.
i have to see Sting in his blue bird speedo in 3D? no thanks
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The first movie incarnation of Dune, in the theaters, is one of three movies I have ever walked out on. The other two being Barton Fink (omfg what a piece of crap) and 1984 (with Richard Burton). Now, of course, 1984 was just gruesome as a story, but the way the movie was put together was just too painful to stomach for me.
Sure, 3D sand worms might be nice, but if the rest of the movie isn't thoughtfully put together, complete with actors/actresses that can act, etc., then it will be yet another crap movie with 3D "something" in it.
...You're living, thinking, mad, deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer-god secret over-all plan Worldwide living-death Frankenstein slavery to explore and control the entire universe with the endless stairway to the stars, namely, the man-made inside-out planets! (Higher and higher...)
It goes well beyond the concept of 'dependability' and has a big "In Your Face!" component - it's more along the lines of "screw you guys, we'll do this ourselves, we don't need any of you".
Just my [$0.02US | 23 won], of course ...
Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
welcome our new Sandworm riding Kwisatz Haderach.
recognises that he must try to delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public's consciousness.
At least for my share of the public consciousness - I was born in '85.
So far, my only exposure to Dune is the 1992 computer game. Here I was hoping to be able to play it again....
Compared to what Brian Herbert had already done to disgrace the Herbert estate, the SciFi network mini-series was like dropping a firecracker on Hiroshima.
There are only so many receptor to which LSD can bind. After you saturated all of them, there isn't pretty much anything else you can do. LSD doesn't act on anything else, it has exclusively an effect on the brain, no other effect on the body (no risk of blowing up hearth's blood vessels or whatever). So more LSD simply means a longer wait until everything is degraded and recycled by the body.
The only real life-threatening danger is doing something utterly silly and dangerous while too much high to realise the dangers (highly possible given how much LSD can impair perception and judgement and given the increased risks of paranoia).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Outsiders take natural resource peculiar to the planet as their own, whilst the native inhabitants are on bad terms with the outsiders.
A young male outsider gets together with the locals and impresses them. He turns against his own people, kicks arse and drives the outsiders from the planet and they can no longer harvest unobtainium.
OK I fail at the other books, the first was confusing enough.
The most dangerous drug