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Culturegasm: New DUNE Film Adaptation In Development
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CommentAuthorwarrenellis
- CommentTimeMar 31st 2008
No, it's not. -
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CommentAuthorwarrenellis
- CommentTimeMar 31st 2008
If you want an obscure sf dystopia that will surprise everyone, by the way, hunt out a copy of Thomas Disch's ON WINGS OF SONG. -
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that game was awesome, and the overworld map of dune was impressively detailed. also, you could ride sandworms later in the game and choose to just sit back and watch the whole trip.
It was a cracking game. The sequel was pretty much the development for the Command and Conquer series after that, wasn't it?
And - for the heck of it - I love the Lynch film. The whale-sperm guild navigators floating around in their tanks were one of the most enduring images I can remember seeing as a kid. -
- CommentAuthordnwilliams
- CommentTimeMar 31st 2008
thanks warren, will do -
- CommentAuthorBrent Wilcox
- CommentTimeApr 3rd 2008
I was thinking about Cordwainer Smith's Nostrillia, and realized some of it could be a parody of Dune. There's stroon, the immortality-inducing drug produced by huge, diseased mutant sheep on the unpleasantly harsh planet of Old North Australia... populated by simple, multi-billionaire shepherds. (And written about the same time as Dune) -
The original Dune game was what led me to the movie, which lead to the books. I still play it from time to time, although it really is astoundingly easy once you know how everything works. I think my record is beating the game in something like 10 in-game days, and I suck at strategy games. Still a pretty unique game, genre-wise. Haven't really seen many other adventure-strategy games in the decade-and-a-half that's passed since it came out.
I loved the movie the first time I saw it. I can't have been older than 11, 12 years old, and I had to close my eyes when the Baron did the flying blood-shower thing. Reading the novel years later severely diminished my enjoyment of the movie. I've seen the first mini-series, which, while it may have been more faithful, was a huge step down acting-wise. And visually - not just in terms of CG, but the general aesthetic - I far prefer Lynch's film. Haven't seen Children, though.
As for this new adaptation... I'll remain catiously optimistic for the time being. I will not apologize for thoroughly enjoying Welcome to the Jungle, and I think parts of The Kingdom showed significant talent on Peter Berg's part, the introductory credits being one of them. I don't think he's done anything that makes him wrong for the film, and while that might sound like faint praise, it'll do till more details come in.
I wouldn't have pegged Jon Favreau as the perfect guy to bring Iron Man to the screen, either, and everything I've seen for that movie has left me salivating. You never know what people can do with the right material, and Berg certainly seems passionate about this. -
I picked up all the issues of the 1980s Dune comic adaptation for 50 cents each at my comic store a few months ago.
It's a great, and pretty, adaptation, but my favorite thing about it is the old-school ads throughout the book. It even contains the original source image for "How do I shot web?" -
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CommentAuthorflowbert69
- CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
If you want an obscure sf dystopia that will surprise everyone, by the way, hunt out a copy of Thomas Disch's ON WINGS OF SONG.
just went out and picked this up, it's great. thanks! -
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CommentAuthorwarrenellis
- CommentTimeApr 4th 2008
My pleasure. -
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CommentAuthororwellseyes
- CommentTimeApr 4th 2008 edited
Any of the Dune fans on here ever come across this book?
It's a semi-official book, Herbert let the author read semi-completed portions of "God Emperor". It died out due to "copyright issues" and Herbert's son took a completely different direction with the stories then what's in this book, so it's likely to stay dead.
Fascinating stuff if you can get your hands on it. The authors contributing entries (including Herbert himself according to some) on everything from languages to religion to characters of legend in the Dune Universe. Their version of the Butlerian Jihad is far more entertaining than the prequels. It goes for around 30 bucks, three times cover price funnily enough. -
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CommentAuthorwarrenellis
- CommentTimeApr 5th 2008
Is that the one that Matt Howarth illustrated? -
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CommentAuthororwellseyes
- CommentTimeApr 5th 2008
Is that the one that Matt Howarth illustrated?
Yes. Some really nice little portraits of some of the main characters.
Speaking of art and Dune, have you seen the short picture/story "Road to Dune" that Herbert did with Jim Burns? It was collected in "Eye". A walking tour of Arrakis in pencil art and guidebook style. That collection also has Herbert writing about working with David Lynch on the Dune movie. Two very strange men. -
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CommentAuthorRachæl Tyrell
- CommentTimeJun 3rd 2008
I've come a bit late to this thread...
Most of which I'd have added has already been said (Lynch's version got the tone and the scale of the books, the SciFi series looked like a sound stage, Sting and Kyle are beautiful in the original, etc...).
However, as far as the question asked earlier on: "Why always Dune?"... well, I think Dune is the closest science fiction equivalent to Lord of the Rings.
From a personal standpoint, I tried to get into the Lord of the Rings books a number of times when I was 13, but they simply didnt' grab me. The Dune series however... I blew through the first four books off the series the summer before highschool, and my brain nearly exploded. I tried to memorize every Arakeen term in the glossary. I designed and built an overly complicated three legged chair in shop class, due to references of Harkonnen furniture.
My point is, that while there might be more people out there learning Elvish and carrying broadswoards than those designing stillsuits (GOD I want one), the level of immersion and devotion amoungst the fans is equivalent.
I find the idea of making an adaptation of the book(s) to maintain the proper scale, detail, immesity, complexity, and tone as unlikely and strenuous as the LOTR films. I somehow doubt that another Peter Jackson anomale will emerge to give the same kind of kid-gloved respect to the Dune series. -
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Everyone seems to have said most of what I was going to.
I am both mildly looking forward to and quietly dreading this movie.
much as I felt about star wars eps 2&3
The dune series is my favorite series of books ever, I loved both Lynch's and the two miniseries for their own reasons. Though whilst both worked in certain ways they also ultimately fell flat for the simple reason that Dune is an INCREADIBLY hard book to adapt. Multiple languages, internal dialogs, gesture communication and layers upon layers upon layers. It is an incredibly complex and amazingly mind blowing book, that would take a writer/director of considerable talent to capture even half of it's greatness.
I only have two major hopes for this movie
1 is that it isn't turned into a one dimensional "revenge" movie
and
2 that the bring back these millenry gems:
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CommentAuthornick3pointone4
- CommentTimeJul 29th 2008
well i'm interested in this movie with a sort of cautious optimism, i guess we'll see.
but to be honest the only adaptation of dune that i ever really wanted to see was the jodorowsky version, but never went anywhere, which i think is quite tragic. but it looks like he's getting to make king shot so that's a bonus. -
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I'm actually re-reading Dune at the moment. I haven't read the series since I was 15. It is even better than I remember it being.
I have seen David Lynch's adaptation, and it was interesting. It was to Dune the Novel what David Cronenberg's version of Crash was to J.G. Ballards novel. In that he took certain aspects from the source he chose to explore, and sort of changed the story to his own style. Which isn't to say it was bad, it was just different.
I remember catching a few episodes of the mini-series a couple of years back. I didn't really enjoy it, it had that over-polished feeling that many US mini-series of that time period had. I haven't seen the Children of Dune series they did. I understand that it combines the plot from God Emperor and Children. I might try and check it out some time.
I'll approach a new movie with trepidation. It is a massive story to adapt, and it would be very easy to lose the depth of the material and just pump out an FX-fest to please the masses. Damn, I am a cynical fuck. -
However, as far as the question asked earlier on: "Why always Dune?"... well, I think Dune is the closest science fiction equivalent to Lord of the Rings.
From a personal standpoint, I tried to get into the Lord of the Rings books a number of times when I was 13, but they simply didnt' grab me. The Dune series however... I blew through the first four books off the series the summer before highschool, and my brain nearly exploded. I tried to memorize every Arakeen term in the glossary. I designed and built an overly complicated three legged chair in shop class, due to references of Harkonnen furniture.
Same here. I always troll my friends about LOTR because i couldn't get into it, they finally close any convo we could have about it by telling me that i was "a girl so i couldn't understand LOTR". Never heard of anything more stupid.
On the other hand i need to re-read the Dune serie every two or three years and each time i catch a small detail i didn't notice at first. -
Their version of the Butlerian Jihad is far more entertaining than the prequels.
So it wasn't Robot Wars, then? -
It wouldn't be possible to do a film adaptation of DUNE that ever did justice to the novel.
The Lynch film (and i do LOVE Lynch) missed the boat and ended up on it's own path... a bastardized version of Herbert's odd vision and the odd visions of Lynch himself.... even though it is (despite some plot similarities) NOT Dune it is still worth rewatching over and over again for it's delicious camp value. "I WILL KILL YOU!!! I WILL KILL HIM!!!" i love the visuals and the Lynchian performances but... it just doesn't capture the book.
The SciFi miniseries miss the point even further. Though they are closer PLOTWISE to the book they lack even more of that element that makes Dune of of the greatest scifi/fantasy/theological series of all time. They get the PLOT and the Action correct but they seem to miss a good bit of the motivation... of the emotion.. of the concepts that Herbert was begging us to consider.
If one really wanted to make a film that was TRUE to Dune... that brought forth the essence of Dune... one would have to completely and totally rape the book and start over with the tiny bits and pieces that could be used to actually bring out what Herbert was talking about in a cinematographic way.
The scifi series, especially, seemed to be focused on "MAN, IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME WHEN THE LASER HITS THE SHIELD!!!" instead of rocking out what Herbert really had to SAY.
And Dune didn't "foretell" al-Qaeda. Herbert was writing about al-Qaeda. Violent religious extremist groups centering around a messianic character didn't start the planes struck the trade center. They didn't just start springing up in the 20th century or even the 1rst millenium AD they've always been with us. Herbert was simply giving a reflection of that... especially of the big three monotheist that sprung up in the deserts surrounding the fertile crescent.
"WE HAVE WORMSIGN THE LIKES OF WHICH EVEN GOD HAS NEVER SEEN!!!" -Big Ed Hurley (yeah, i totally agree on that one, dude :P) -
Oh, and Kevin J Anderson and Frank Herbert Jr missed the point BIG TIME as well. Their novels are perversions of a vision... not to be hypercritical or anything. :P