Cool News
Pierre Morel To Direct DUNE!
Beaks here...
EW's Nicole Sperling is reporting that Paramount has hired Pierre Morel, the director of such rambunctious action flicks as DISTRICT B-13, TAKEN and the upcoming (and very goofy looking) FROM PARIS WITH LOVE, to call the shots on the studio's long-in-development adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel DUNE. Morel will take over for Peter Berg, who left the project last October to focus on the more thematically complex likes of Milton Bradley's BATTLESHIP. Have fun with that.
According to Sperling, Morel is planning to be "very faithful" to Herbert's text. Sounds great. But am I the only one a little troubled by Paramount's preference for directors who specialize in gritty, hand-held action? I certainly understand the studio's desire for a DUNE that looks and feels nothing like the two previous adaptations (Lynch's and Sci-Fi's), but I think I'd like something a bit more classical - more Lean than Greengrass. And maybe that's where Morel is going. It's far too early to tell at the moment.
Paramount is currently looking for a new screenwriter to rework - under Morel's direction - the previous draft by QUANTUM OF SOLACE's Josh Zetumer. What kind of DUNE would you like to see?
Readers Talkback
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While Taken was entertaining, it was not a "good" movie.
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how about we find a real director for this, yo?
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at the last minute i shortened my comment, because brevity is... uh... witty or something.
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Unless they are going to make the Jodorowsky/Giger version LET IT GO! Christ!
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Jan. 4, 2010, 7:20 p.m. CST
There must be some powerful Dune fans in Hollywood
by Anything But Tangerines
This is the adaptation that JUST WON'T DIE
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Its hard to imagine a "Borne Ultimatum" shaky cam version of Dune. The way it comes across in the book is more evocative of a sweeping epic. The rolling sand dunes, the aristocratic intrigue, and the religious overtones conjure up images that are more majestic for me personally. On the other hand, who's to say a new direction can't work? Will be interesting to see what comes of this news.
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a small mp3 player...?
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I'm so with you on that. The film looked nice but it had many many flaws. How that girl got kidnapped by sex trafickers and came out the other end a virgin is beyond me!.......oh by the way, spoiler alert, it was a shit movie!
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All he's made so far have been stylish action films with absolutely no substance (yes I loved Avatar, and I still think it had substance). But hey, maybe he could surprise us. Did anybody think Peter Jackson could handle LOTR after watching his low-budget (but entertaining) creature films?
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doesn't need another remake
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sorry, had to be said...Dune is great, but i needs to be a trilogy in order to be faithful to its complexity...
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No really, faithful but slightly less "weird" than Lynch's would be perfect, I think. Hard sci-fi, for sure.
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...the spice, must flow!
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Loved the Lynch version. There are so many potential franchises out there. We have the technical possibilities to bring some wonderful stories on screen: Jack Vance , Tanith Lee, George R. Martin, Terry Brooks etc...Hollywood go to your local bookshop. The truth is out there!!!!
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Need a visionary for this, but who knows, don't know enough about the director to completely write him off, but the script for Solace sucked. Fincher or Nolan or Ridley Scott or Spielberg would have rendered me excited.
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There's been two attempts now to make the greatest scf-fi novel of time. It is. That is fact. End your internal discussion now. Neither came off well. Although Lynch's came the closest. But unless this is done as three films its just going to be a waste of time, effort and money.
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It's almost asking if a plant is green. The one sure fire way, to the question, is to simply ask the question, which was better, the original or the Sci-Fi Channel remake? Or ever better, the theatrical version or the director's cut, of the original, which is the best one to watch?
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I love the novel and the David Lynch version, warts and all. I can't imagine having the same feelings for a remake, but then again, I thought Tim Burton's "Batman" was definitive until "Dark Knight." I think Morel is more talented than Berg, though.
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And you've got me onboard :)
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...did Master and Commander right? If he brings the naval combat nous from that to Battleships, it might not suck.
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Asimov's Foundation series and the Ender's Game are right up there for me as well. But it's hard to argue (too much) that Dune is the best.
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With his post-Avatar clout, get Steven Soderbergh and Alex Garland to script it, hire Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cauron to Direct one movie each with the same cast/crew and shoot it in 3D. Get Alex McDowell to handle the Production Design, Clint Mansell/John Murphy on scoring duties and cast Chris Pine as Paul Atreides.
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this last week from this cold I've had are more talented than Berg.
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...you know what I meant, I'm assuming.
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I liked the original version, and the original cut of it. By the way, I am curious, who will play the Baron in the remake? I loved the over the top performance, done by Kenneth McMillan. It's one of the my favorite things about the original. That and the soundtrack.
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Dune is a planet where directors die and movies go into turnaround...
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Imagine the sheer awesomeness, of sand worms, in 3-D!
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But he'd be good for this too.
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...to pull this off.<P>Good luck buddy. Seriously...good luck.
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...which studios actually want these days, is that if the first film doesn't make gobs of money we'll be left with an incomplete story. It's going to take balls to get this done in the first place. That's why it's been in (re)development for so damn long. Getting a trilogy, or series of films beyond ONE, green lit before the first one has been successful just seems like a pipe dream.
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The uncut David Lynch version.<p> Failing that, Berg's version.<p> Certainly not the guy who directed Taken & definitely not one written by anyone involved in that shitburger called Quantum of Solace.
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...that has eaten after midnight.
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shia labeuf for the sand worm
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Just saying.
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aaaaahaahaahahahahhaa (inhale) aahaahahahahahahaaaa
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One needs to really, really great of a director to pull it off. Taken was ok, but somehow I can't imagine him doing really great at it. Best of luck, he'll need it.
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First of all, I agree that Peter Weir would be an interesting choice. Second, Chris Pine is way too old to play Paul. He's only supposed to be about sixteen when the story begins and eighteen when it ends. I think they'd be better served by going with an unknown. I'm not jazzed about this decision. I wish the Neill Blomkamp rumor had panned out. Better yet, I wish someone from the future could go back in time and cure Ridley Scott's brother's cancer so he wouldn't die and Scott wouldn't quit the project.
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As Lynch, intended, or is the version, on the two disc DVD, best chance we'll get to see it, in our lifetime?
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Either that or I need to refresh my screen more often. Seriously, they should use some of his and Mobious' original visual concepts for the design.
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OH MY! ANOTHER REMAKE! I thought the first film was fine (although I remember that the theatre was handing out "cheat sheets" to those moviegoers who had ever read the books so they know what the heck was going on and who was who). I thought the mini-series, though well done and with much greater detail, was excellent, with the exception of Lady Jessica, who was poorly cast. Francesca Annis was absolutely regal and PERFECTION in the feature film! I don't know what else they can do with the franchise unless the make several films ala LORD OF THE RINGS. I guess we shall see soon enough.
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...moves?<P>I thought DISTRICT B-13 was fun.
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Lynch's cast was perfect beyond words. Some of the best character actors around at the time. Even Kyle MacLachlan fit the part. The one problem I had was Sting. Not strong-looking enough for Feyd. That was a mistake. But I don't think you can top the art direction/sets/costumes of the Lynch film. Whoever said this new version should be more David Lean than shaky cam, that's right on the money. No Shia, no Sam Worthington. Christopher Lee would be good. You may fire when ready.
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I was hoping for Weir. Though I enjoyed Taken, the choice for Morel seems less about being faithful to Herbert's vision than about adapting it into an aesthetically pleasing action-adventure - a more marketable product. Though I'm willing to give Morel the benefit of the doubt, Paramount deserves only derision for the way its been handling Herbert's work.
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If they get a great cast together but more importantly if the script is awesome, then go ahead. Make it a close adaptation. The ideas in the story are what makes Dune great sci-fi. You're far too trusting.
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...about Lynch's DUNE. Only the story and editing had some troubles...cast, art direction...sets...effects (those cubist shields!) were perfection.
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But anyone who loved the Lynch version had too much time on their hands.
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It took balls to do that, plus also having Toto, do the score for the film.
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Another director that's into that shaky-cam, quick-edit bullshit. Dune deserves better.
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Raped Again by Hacks! HACKS!!! Dune is far to nuanced and complex for film. The End!
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Need to have that first BIG project as well. Just cross your fingers, it's not like we don't have the 80's version to fall back on. I agree about Sting and Toto JM!
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Jan. 4, 2010, 8:09 p.m. CST
...I liked Sting. I think we all agree the winged diaper...
by FlickaPoo
...(henceforth referred to as the "Winged Freddie Mercury in honor of the mighty fallen) was a little...off, but Sting was cool.
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So that the rest of the series of books, can also be made as well.
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...books? Do you think there are movies in them?<P>They get pretty weird.
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Lynch's. Not Sci-Fi miniseries. Looked too much like... a TV miniseries, I guess. I am aware of '84 Dune's flaws. I never said it was a perfect movie or even one of the greatest ever made. I make the personal distinction between movies that are great and ones that I just enjoy watching. Now, what shall we talk about.
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Drink the water of life and perish! for you are a false messiah!
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... that would excite me. ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER are undying classics, while almost everything else he's done has been okay at best. Some talkbacker once ingeniously asked, "Why does BLADE RUNNER seem more authentic than AMERICAN GANGSTER?" And it really does. Maybe Scott should only do Sci-fi. In any case, his DUNE would really interest me. This guy, I dunno.
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His only good movie was Welcome to the Jungle, and even that isn't that good.
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Leave this alone and have Morel make ENDER'S GAME or something.
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Haven't read too much of the books, but from what I remember, the series does get progressivly weirder and complicated.
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could do 'Dune' justice.
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The sets and costumes looked like they walked off the page, or more accurately the original woodcuts from Analog January 1964 (I had the original series). But I got a sinking feeling in my gut when they used those awful Guild Steersman and terrible models to get to Arrakis. After that, I tried hard to enjoy the movie, but I kept getting thrown out. 2010 CGI and someone who actually knows something about hand-to-hand fighting could really take this a long way. Paul Atreides, for all his mystical powers, is a very *physical* presence; more of a Jason Bourne type than anything I've seen on the screen so far.
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It plays to all his obsessions: violence, religion, brutal environment, alternative civilizations... a dream project for Mel.
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OK, Sting was good for the movie. I concede. Just wasn't what I pictured from the book, is all. And I thought the final knife fight was a little too slow. Not that I'd like to see it redone the way they shoot fights in today's movies - shaky cam, fast motion, slow motion, quick cuts. Sickening. Hope they make the new Dune old-school and straight from the page of the book. Haven't read the books beyond the first sequel, so I can't comment. Yes, I know you will.
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and convinced him he still has unfinished business.
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Did hit on the big problem with the Sci Fi Channel version, it look too much like a TV mini series. Imagine, what would Lord of The Rings, would have looked like done by Sci Fi Channel. Now that would have been, something else.
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...as a geek I want to stick up for the less accessible stuff, but Herbert man....fuuuuuuuck!
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I made a discovery, Lord of The Rings, the animated version, will be on Blu Ray, pretty soon. Now I'm be both bored, and awestrunked by the film, on Blu Ray!
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...opus at this point...plunk their dicks right down next to Cameron's and break out the ruler...
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Lynch's DUNE had great production design and ... and ... well, that was about it. And it got a little crazy in spots, which is what we'd expect from Lynch and also what felt like "Hey, this movie is gonna suck, so we'd better have Kenneth McMillan drink blood and maybe stick Sting in some metal underpants to divert the audience's attention!". But the whole movie played like an ADD-addled Asian whore for whom English was a half-assed second language had explained to Lynch what the book was about, then Lynch sat down with some crayons and about half a page of blotter while listening to "Rosanna" over and over again and banged out the script. And, no, Kyle Maclachlan was a SHITTY choice for Paul Atreides, who was supposed to be fucking FIFTEEN, per the novel. In Lynch's movie, you kept wondering why Paul and his mom were about three years apart, age-wise. There were a few awesome casting decisions in that flick, but Maclachlan (and Sting) was definitely not one of them.</p><p> They got a lot closer to the book with the mini-series (and a miniseries is what it needed to be!), but they literally had a fourth of the original movie's budget (possibly a lot more, if you adjust for inflation and what-not) and William Hurt as the biggest name actor in the cast. And once again, Alec Newman was about five to seven years older than the character was supposed to be. The even-greater offender was that fucking "Children Of Dune", and while compressing "Heretics Of Dune" (which was pointless even in novel form) and "Children Of Dune" into one story was a decent idea, they copped out by making Paul's kids what appeared to be twenty years old (they were eight in the novel, that was what was so cool about it!) and especially by fucking up the awesome "sandtrout stillsuit" Leto made up to kick everybody's ass. And thanks to the lameness of that miniseries, we got no "God Emperor Of Dune" miniseries, probably the most awesome book of the series (we did, however, get a great spoof of "God Emperor" in an episode of, believe it or not "Billy & Mandy"). If they treat it like "Lord Of The Rings", maybe, and made DUNE the first one, compressed "Heretics" and "Children" into the second one and maybe kicked everybody's ass by making "God Emperor" the third one, it might be decent. Oh, who am I kidding? NEXT!
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Has he ever made a decent action movie? I remember thinking during MASTER AND COMMANDER's battle scenes, "*I* could've directed this." It was like he just pointed the camera at a bunch of guys and said "Okay, fight!" What am I missing with this guy?
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I have only too words.... Uwe Boll.
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It's too much Lynch. Too weird for weird's sake. And the actual reading of the lines never felt right to me, regardless of the cast (which I also didn't really dig all that much). I did like Sting, though, so maybe it's me (shrug). Anyway, the way Lynch directed the actor just never felt or sounded the same way they did in my head when I read the books.
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Both, I guess.
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PLEASE!!!<p> Anyone who read the issue of Empire from a few months back (one with Avatar cover) with the Dune special knows that this would be the best movie EVER MADE!!! <p> Well maybe not the best, but definitely one the most bizarre, deprived and insightful films ever. God damn it, he wanted to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam IV when the movie was in pre-production some 40 years ago. How fucking awesome is that?!
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the feel and look of it was great. The Fremen were really cool. Max von Sydow was perfect... actually, most of the casting was kick-ass, and the landscapes- and the worms- actually, the LOOK of everything was EXACTLY how I pictured it in the books... but some of the choices sucked it hard. The Weirding Modules were a freaking joke, for example. The changes they made to the story were less than stellar. <P> My concern with this whole thing is that Dune needs to feel vast. Enormous. Bigger than Middle-Earth. I guess if Peter Jackson- who before LOTR, no one would have thought HE could pull off that trilogy- could do it, then this guy COULD. Maybe. <P> If someone could please make DUNE without trying to reinvent it, that would be nice.
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I effing bet you they will, even though Herbert made it very clear in interviews what the spice represents (psychedelic consciousness, man...).
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...but they're both dead now. Just sayin'.
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He'll say he is in 1, 2, 3...
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time to move on to something NEW
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Kyle MacLachlan, while gorgeous and otherwise right, was too old... you called it, Armageddon.
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Or how about Ridley, Cameron, Verbinski, Fincher, Jackson, Cuarón, Zwick, Weir, Fuqua, McTiernan, Bigelow, Verhoeven, Stone, Francis Lawrence, Zhang Yimou, Shekhar Kapur, Tarsem, Martin Campbell, George Miller, Stephen Hopkins, Kevin Reynolds, Wolfgang Petersen, Kevin Costner, Roland Emmerich...Alex Proyas...Ron Howard...John Moore...p> I just don't know what to make of Pierre Morel. Taken WAS pretty good I suppose. I think I'd like Jean Pierre-Juenet, Jean-François Richet, Florent Siri or Louis Leterrier better as far as Frenchmen go. Will Luc Besson be involved?
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...point. But then I realized that I actually liked the movies PJ had made before the LOTR trilogy, too. I don't really care who the director and/or writer are. I think the points about it needing a HUGE budget, more than one film and a MASSIVE look/feel are more important. The casting would be my next issue. If they can get ALL OF THAT right and stick closely to the already brilliant story there really shouldn't be much to worry about. So what's the problem? I DON'T see any studio ever giving up the amount of money this will take to get right, or allowing for more than one film before production starts, or staying as close as possible to the already brilliant story. Historically, that's just not what they do.
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for BARON HARKONNEN
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... that Jodorowski's got balls to reach for the stars with his films. I'm sure if you gave it to him now he'd shoot just as high as he once did with this material. <p>Then again that might not be a good thing, since his over ambition was one of the reasons the movie fell apart. <p> But I look at it from a positive angle. If Jodo's Dune didn't fail, we'd never have Alien. That's a fact.
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...it's a question of scale... but then, nothing Jackson had done before LOTR was anywhere near that scope. Could be the same with this guy... but I doubt it. Jackson wasn't just the director, he was a driving force in developing the script and production. He wasn't just hired on, like this guy. <P> I'm all for a Dune remake, if it's done by someone as obsessed with the material as Jackson was with Tolkein. I'm not feeling that here... and really, Dune has been half-assed enough already.
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For a third time remake of a book from 1965. Laughing my ass off here at some of the posts though. Love it. I must admit, I don't know who Peter Berg or Pierre je ne sais pas are either. I think you overestimate their chances. Ciao, folks.
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Except they'd have to keep him from singing. <P> [Baron Harkonnen floats in, stage right. Strings begin to play.] <P> "I would do anything for love, now milk that cat. OH YES, milk that cat!"
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God, lets hope not. <p> I found Taken to be a terrible film and don't expect much from this "Dune" adaptation either. Hope I'll be surprised, the book was pretty damn good.
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Agree 100%. In fact, after going through all the things we've already discussed in this talkback, I'm wondering if they shouldn't just let it go. Especially after your PJ observations. Because not only was PJ obsessed with getting LOTR right, but so was every other person he had working with him. The entire crew of writers, artists and crafts..uhh.. persons had a "we cannot screw this up" attitude. If Dune doesn't get the same treatment it WILL fail.
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Of course, they'll make it anyway. <P> Sigh.
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Hmmm... not sure how I feel about this director. Taken was enjoyable but not epic. For those of you interested I have been struggling away on a FANEDIT Special Edition of David Lynch's DUNE... with NEW special effects. You can check out the project at My blog... http://dunese.blogspot.com or view My animation tests over on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oo5QIwNU3U
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Actually, I'd prefer it if they made it a bit unsettling, these epics with "pleasant" backdrops are everywhere. Would be a welcome change to spice it up a bit (pardon the pun).
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She looks the same...
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And I want to hear Baron Harkonnen say, "Cowabunga, dude!" That would rock the house.
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Neither movie came close to catching the bad-assness of the Sardaukar from the book. I have always wanted to see a real fight between the Fremen and the Sardaukar. The Sardaukar got some serious points against the Fremen.
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I'm kinda looking forward to see how they fill the roles. I cant picture anyone as Paul at the moment. Or anyone else for that matter.<p> John Carrol Lynch as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen maybe? He might need to fatten up even more though, but hes a great actor.
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Is making the people in the story who are professional killers look/act like professional killers. They've either been completely Bravo (Sci-fi) or limp Death Star extras(other movie). You can have the most visually spactacular movie ever, and its not going to work if the Sardukar look like Gilbert and Sullivan's version. Or if Mua'Dib looks like he's a Twilight cast member. I'm all for gritty, but the main thing is the characters making sense. The second thing is making the whole thing look quasi-plausable. Easier said than done but it starts with the characters. In Taken I believed the killers were killers (as opposed to Die Hard 4)so maybe this is a good start.
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At least, that's the impression the studio has to fight, based on my impressions of the Sting movie. Most of the money to be made will be from people like me who never read the novel... While I don't condone dumbing it down, they definitely need a director who can make it look stirring and epic to get my butt in the seat.
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try to make it "enjoyable for all audiences." I absolutely hate it when films throw in unneccessary sight gags or plot points just so the average retarded american can comprehend whats going on in the movie. Take oLand of the Lost for example. I know the original was campy and cheesy as hell some times, but I honestly think it couldve had some potential. Now Im not saying this because I grew up watching the show or anything (Im actually a child of the ninties) I just honestly think if taken in a different direction and tweaked a little that it couldve been very successful, but they didnt and it absolutely wasnt. The same thing with Transformers. Cut out all the unneccessary shit and you have a decent 30 min. show that couldve replaced its shitty scenes with actual scenes of pure awesomeness. Anyway, I dont know a whole lot about Dune, but if last years films were any indication you might want to skip this.
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So far, it looks awesome! Best of luck!
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So far, it looks awesome! Best of luck!
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Have David Simon and The Wire people write it to really get the political intrigue shit right, and if Tom McCarthy really nails A Game of Thrones, have him direct it.
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DO IT!
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I feel more strongly as though this is a bad idea. There is a feel to Dune that is really old-school sci-fi, as in schooled-in-science-from-45-years-ago sci-fi. This isn't sci-fi like Avatar (which today's crowds understand, and expect.) Dune was old-school to ALIEN audiences. This may be a worse idea than I thought.
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and you KNOW I love me some JGL... but no. Just, no. <P> That is a real problem. NO ONE comes as close to looking like Paul as MacLachlan... and HE was too old.
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You do make a good point. Remember, the last time they tried to adapt Dune, it was on the heels of another whiz-bang, game-changing, sci-fi adventure space opera ... and look how that turned out. That's why I maintain the only way to do this is in miniseries form ... but not like SyFy did it.
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Actually struck me as decent choices up above there. Would never happen, though.
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But it would be like a 3 hour movie to establish the story well and to be faithful to the themes of the book. Seriously, if they want to do it right they need a really great director behind this.<P> I agree with whoever said Peter Weir, he's a master of the craft who's proven himself able to wrangle a big studio picture, and still make it his own.
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LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS!
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There are only a few obsessed enough to do this....ridley Cameron or Jackson. Of those three I'd be happy for ridley just cause it'd be a nice bookend to a wonderful career.
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A text like this deserves nothing but the best. A visionary director. Taken was an okay movie made great by Liam Neeson(They should cast him for Dune!). I dont think this guy is up for for it. Lynch's Dune although controversial is a classic and has influenced many. How can anyone but a great director hope to top that vision. Maybe they should be looking to District 9 director Neil Blompkampf (spelling?)
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.."hard" sci-fi. It's not fantastical or escapist. It's dark and dirty and it believes itself to be "real". If that makes any kind of sense.
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WHY????!!!!
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Before his brother died, and then Lynch took over?
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... his trademark rhythm is too clean and pleasing. His pacing is great, but it feels too clean for Dune. <P> Team Ridley Scott, here. All the way.
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Who cares about Dune?
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And that's DUNE.
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...I think he's past his crazy fightin' days and is far too intelligent to WANT to deal with something like this. Just a gut feeling, though. But the ease with which he can get projects done with Russel Crowe makes dealing The Dune Headache seem really unattractive.
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I like Lynch's version, but there is a stateliness to much of the Duniverse that doesn't grab audiences. <P> Picking up the pace would be my hope. (No, I don't want hand-held jitterbugging.)
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Love or hate Lynch's vision of Dune, it was fuckin' epic. The Shite-Fi version was retarded. Both chose to trim down the Benne Gesserit litany, but at least Lynch's kept the really good parts. Sci-Fi fucked up Kwizarda Haderack for fuck's sake. The worm effects are hideous in the movie, yes. I still love every minute of it. It turned me on to the books, which is the truest science fiction you will ever read. Fantastic prose, a scary vocabulary and a complex plot that speaks to all political parties, races and religions. Back to the movie, even the weirding modules were a nice touch. Getting released around the same time as Return of the Jedi and all the Star Wars hype, they needed their lightsabers. It was a great way of translating the weirding way (along with the voice, it was actually more of a martial art). I am not one of those purists that say no remakes, but it must be worthwhile. LOTR was taken seriously. Now we are taking a classic and dumbing it down.
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...as the sandworm.... all of them, actually.
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I always root for the sandworm to have them for lunch.
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your complaint is MY complaint about any good or great work of fantasy/sci-fi fiction adapted to a movie. It was my complaint with Harry Potter (yes, all of them) and it was my one complaint with LOTR... it feels as though, when people start adapting "sacred texts" to the big screen, the sheer weight of fans' expectations drags the speed down. Lots of long shots and pregnant pauses that feel wrong. Too much gravitas. <P> It's too much to ask, though, that they get the look right AND not fuck with the story AND make a really good MOVIE, not just an adaptation of a work of fiction.
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Jan. 4, 2010, 9:41 p.m. CST
I actually like alot of the characters from Dune (the book)
by m_reporter
Especially Paul. I find his arc heartbreaking. He starts off as a very bright but somewhat distant kid and by the end he's turned in to a demi-god and almost completely dehumanized. And the relationships between the characters are so layered that I personally can't help but empathize with Paul. <p> Also the villains where great, especially the baron and Feyd.
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You know, like Avatar is Dances with Smurfs??? I keed, I keed.
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The Th3rD time's the charm™! You're welcome.
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to relay the sheer vastness. That's not the worst idea I've heard tonight.
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With HP I can simply accept that they are two different views of the same world right up until film five (especially with films 1-3, though). But books five and six became some sort of SUPER glossy action films (really, re-watch them all and I think you'll see what I mean). Book six, the slimmest since the second, I believe, cost $250 million dollars to make? Whaaaat?! I don't see $250 million up there AT ALL. Anyway, that's a (slight) digression. My point is really, that from film 1-4, I could live with the minor changes, the "long shots and pregnant pauses". Because I just accepted that I was viewing the "scenes" in the books from a different perspective. I lost the ability to do that with films five and six, though.
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It needs a european director to give it a baroque feel
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Imagine the depth of field. Arrakis would melt brains.
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The fact that this property has already been done twice (each time to mixed results), means that this new version (if it ever hits the screen) will have to be a 10 on every conceivable level (i.e. more than just a CGI/FX showcase) in order to justify its existence. I wish Morel well.
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...and on top of that I'm stealing it from where somebody else did it in another talkback. But people are actually reading this one at present... soooo... The Hobbit casting call http://tinyurl.com/yeahbne
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I had read the books over and over... I KNEW they weren't going to get my version on the screen, I accepted that. I figured the least they could do was make kick-ass movies out of them... but they sucked the life out of them. It was like watching a series of still-shots strung together. Drove me INSANE. <P> I love the books, so really, I didn't need the movies. I didn't see any after Order of the Phoenix, and I'm not going to... I wouldn't have seen THAT if it wasn't the only thing playing at the IMAX theater where we were staying that weekend. The pacing was just one of many problems I had with them. <P> It does seem endemic of books made into movies, though. LOTR was slightly better, but had the same problem.
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Dune just screams vastness and epic. Harry potter not so much. Granted I like the films and they get the job done but compared to the books they are readers digest versions. <p>if the studio is willing to try for a third time they need to get it right and that means big.... As is in scope. Otherwise you're wasting my time.
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to see Dune translated correctly into a film (and I really liked Lynch's uncut version), I just think that the story is too complicated to be translated correctly. SO much important detail in the book.... too little time to show it all.
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Seriously folks, how can you sit through it. Are you so starved for someone to tell the story that you accept that garbage? I know it was heavily edited and all, but even without it... the acting with the exception of a few people is soooo bad. I can't believe Patrick Stewart ever got another acting gig.<BR><BR> The Sci Fi channel version is only slightly better in terms of forgivability since they did have a TV budget and all, but the acting was stellar apart from the one chick in Children of Dune that obviously was somebody's girlfriend at the studio. She was awful.
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...who was planning to direct it anyway, back in the day. Once you've watched Lawrence of Arabia, it's hard to imagine Dune without practical sets, on-location photography, and immense character development. I'm not holding my breath, but should Paramount need another director...
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I'm glad at least one other person feels the same way I do about the acting in that film.
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... for everyone who gets a job on this set. Except without the benefits to the community at the end. <P> Please, you bastards... prove me wrong. Come on... put some egg on my face. Fucking pwn me. <P> On that note I'm out. Nite y'all.
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TERRIBLE. <P> But it LOOKED great... and everyone LOOKED right. Well, except Sting, but I love him so I don't care... HE actually got the mood right, anyway.
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...but I think LOTR worked better because there are actually long pregnant pauses in those books. Tolkien goes off on describing lineage, or flora and fauna, or that hill over there, or language, or the view from the veranda, for PAGES at a time. That's not a dis, either. The top shelf of my bookcase contains ONLY Tolkien, the Harry Potter books and every Neil Gaiman hardback I've been able to get my hands on. I love Tolkien dearly as my grandfather used to read the books to me when I was FAR too young to understand what was actually going on (and then, much later, gave me those books). But there is certainly more of a need for standing around (pausing) as the story catches up to the character in Tolkien than there is in HP. Regarding HP, as I said, loved films 1-3, like film 4, deal with films 5-6, just want to see the last two because I'm attached to watching the actors (not the characters) grow up.
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Maybe they can get Ian McNeice again for Baron Harkonnen? He was great in the miniseries.
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As much as this pains me to say this, his version is fucking unbearable. I worship at Lynch's altar, too. The man can just about do no wrong in my eyes. Shit, I even love Wild at Heart and Lost Highway, two of his lesser-respected works, but Dune is just a catastrophe. The acting was awful, and the goddamn thing was just one flat frame after the next. Boring and painful.
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... nite then. Until next time!... or, something...
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Sub-par predictable bullshit movie does not inspire any confidence in this guy doing DUNE.
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Can't we all just agree that Herbert's source material is too dense for a worthy cinematic adaptation and move on?
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I've already gotten to the point where I've accepted that any adaptation of Dune will be sub-standard to awful. To me Dune is like Stranger In A Strange Land, it's just hard to get all that magic down on film. I still say Tarsem should do it though, as far as I'm concerned after watching the desert scenes in The Fall, he's the guy.
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Wasn't Lynch's Dune (which I loved) pretty David Lean already? I don't care how many versions they make -- I can probably appreciate something out of each. I'm pretty into the book so the film versions don't really replace it for me. But it's hard to imagine shaky-cam Dune, that's for sure.
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Thanks for taking time to check out My work Jamie McBain! DUNE was David Lynch's first color film. He also admits (The video is on youtube) that he, in his own words "SOLD OUT" on DUNE... ie he started making compromises from the word go. Ultimately the final theatrical cut was I believe completed by Rafaella DeLaurentiis... which is why it is such a discombobulated mess... The extended TV version, while reincorporating much of the deleted material was reassembled by people who had NO IDEA what they were really working on and made a giant mess of it. Also they filmed in Mexico at Charrubusco studios, which at the time was barely standing. While they managed to get some decent acting talent (YES! I LIKE the actors... especially when compared to the SyFy mini-series version... Patrick Stewart, Dean Stockwell, Max Von Sydow, Jurgen Prochnow NOT cast as a bad guy!)... I also like the serious "adult" tone to the movie. They had constant problems with Mexican customs. They built the biggest blue screen in the world and it was burnt down before it could be used. The LA effects house they were using was too expensive and they had to make their own FX down at Charubusco. Jurgen Prochnow was almost killed by an exploding lamp and was finally injured by that green gas that comes out of his face - suffering 2nd degree burns. The assistant director (I think it was) accidentally fell down that cliff that Paul falls down in the movie while checking out the set and was almost killed. Heck - make a movie about making the movie! LOL Anyways - I think one of the reason I like the movie so much - even though it is nowhere near as good as it could be - is that there is NOTHING that looks or sounds like it. http://dunese.blogspot.com
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A crazy sci-fi fever-dream. It's like watching Star Wars while tripping your balls off on acid. Lynch may have "sold out," but it's still one of the most insanely bat-shit movies ever to get a big-budget greenlight from a major studio.
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Are we ever going to see another original property every again?
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I want to see a sandworm swallow the fucking White House.
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Lynch's Dune although tampered with, and flawed, it was still brilliant and one of my favourite scifi movies. I put it next to Star Wars, Blade Runner and Alien. Unfortunately Lynch was never able to dumb down his work on his own. His most mainstream films eg. Elephant Man and Mullholland Drive are still insanely weird! I would find it difficult to watch a remake unless it was really well made and tried something different.
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He'd have the perfect eye to shoot Dune.
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The novel actually has a lot of action and Paul and the Fremin utilize the "weirding way" a form of hand to hand combat, not the "weirding module" in Lynch's film, so taking an action-oriented approach isn't totally out of left-field.
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Dune is never going to be made as a faithful adaptation, there's just too much that goes on with scheming, internal monologue and narrative. Lynch did probably the best that anyone can hope for. I enjoyed his version, but it was just the action of the novel, not the deeper subject matter that Herbert delved into. It's just one that can't be done right. At least it's not Michael Bay, i'll take solace in that.
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Just took a look at your blog. Fuuuuuck man, you're going all out, haha. Good work! Can't wait to see how it comes out.
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I tried watching the Lynch version of "Dune" a few months ago and was embarrassed by its lameness. David Lynch is generally a good director, in my opinion, but this was one of his low points.<p> God, it was horrible.<p> Had to force myself not to shut off the television. SciFi's version, despite its shortcomings, was infinitely more interesting and watchable.<p> Maybe Morel will surprise us.
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I can't sit through another remake , even the last terminator film felt a totally unoriginal rehash.... Maybe it will be wonderful , but the first Dune was so perfect (well apart from Sting)I really don't see the point.
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doods been slackin long enough
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I think he could get the best bang for your buck if given the reigns to this type of property.
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As in,"what the fuck is this shit? Who the fuck thought this was good enough for me to spend $4 to sit through this shit?!?" Of course, he hadn't read any of the books like I had at the time, but right then, when he said that, I was wondering if it were just me...
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in this article i can only fixate on one thing are they really making a battleship movie based on the game i mean thats the worse idea i have read since reading about the karate kid remake i dont even know what to think about hollywood anymore
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Its time to "re-imagine" this story with an all male cast.
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They should have gone with or at least considered Besson.
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as someone earlier pointed out, why would he? He can make whatever he fucking wants and he has a pocket A-list actor (Crowe) that will star in it.
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Ridley should make it BECAUSE he can make whatever he wants AND has several A list actors who would be willing to star in it. I expect directors the stature of Ridley to want to make movies of this caliber because he can, not shy away from them. If you don't want to direct the best movie you are able to at any given moment, then I'm sorry but you're not a good director in my book.
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Give it to Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah, him or Blomkamp.
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As a big science fiction fan and reader, who is usually thrilled by any news about books being adapted for the screen, this time I can't help but feel that it's time to just give up on Dune. Its concept just doesn't translate well. Whoever makes it, the film will probably come across as hokey and have fans frothing at the mouth and critics laughing their arses off. For once, I'd love it if this particular film never gets made. Maybe once someone makes Harlan Ellison's script of 'I, Robot' there'll be some hope for adapting SF classics properly. The new 'Dune' and the forthcoming 'Foundation' make me really nervous.
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...I have always wondered about is the fact that the book reads very visually. And still neither of the two attempts have used the book descriptions of scenes. Say, the introduction of Baron Harkonnen, with the man himself in shadows, only a hand playing around with the Arrakis model. Or the very beginning, with the Reverend Mother coming to the Atreides castle on Caladan in the storm. And Duncan Idaho's last stand should finally get the treatment it deserves -- the man took down *SEVENTEEN* Sardaukar (you find out the actual number in one of the later books).
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So I can expect several 3 hour films?</p><p>Really...hasn't making Dune been tried several time already? Ya know...not EVERY book makes for a great movie...somethings just do not translate well.
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I still want to make a CG model of late great actor Richard Jordan (Who was considerably better in the role than the two iterations in the SyFy series - but not exactly book acurate), so I could extend that cool scene where he dives into all the Sardaukar to rescue Paul before being killed by a slow pellet stunner. Ridley Scott as I'm sure has been mentioned by now WAS working on DUNE in 1991/92 when his older brother died. It had a profound effect on Ridley and he departed the project ultimately ending up doing Blade Runner instead. Would be nice to see him return to sci-fi... but please for the love of goodness NO MORE ALIEN films (At least til everyone gets over their boring colonial marine fetish... Jim Cameron already did that movie!).
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Bring It On over Dark Knight. -shakes uncontrollably-
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No fucking way, Pierre. John Travolta got owned by Chloe Moretz.
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It's really that simple - Dune cannot be properly filmed. You can either get the cast right, as Lynch did, or you can get an involved (if inaccurate) story with shit effects where they're all obviously standing around in sandboxes (as Sci Fi did). Sorry kids, but as a life long fan of the novels, Frank Herbert simply created a novel unfilmable by any human means. NO MAN OR WOMAN ALIVE CAN DO DUNE PROPERLY. NONE. For starters, they'd have to cast a 15 year old to play Paul Atreides, and no studio, producer or director has the balls to do that, nor is there any 15 year old actor working today who's a talented enough actor to pull off the role.
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Unless Paramount has the balls to release an almost 4-hour epic - I'm talking fucking old school, maybe with an Intermission so moviegoers have an opportunity to empty their tiny little girl bladders because this bitch ain't over and we're not cutting an hour and a half just so you can more easily digest the experience, you fucking pussy! - there's no point in making another Dune adaptation. Unless they're going to sell the rights to HBO and have them make it into a better (and more adult) miniseries than that Sci-Fi shitfest. There's simply no way to make a Dune movie that's faithful to and respectful of the novel in an audience friendly 2-and-a-half hours or less.
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Lynch got the cast right? Kyle MacLachlan isn't exactly a bundle of personality. In fact I'd say he was the Sam Worthington of his day.
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Please explain
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Hey, it's NOT just me! I've been thinking Meat Loaf would make the perfect Vladimir Harkonnen for years now...
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Christopher Lee as Shaddam Corrino IV? I can dig that too...
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Deal with that shit sci-fi nerds
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A: It's one of the best fucking science fiction stories ever written, and one of the best fucking science fiction series as well. Explained.
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LMAO. You oughta try reading it sometime then.
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It's very involving, epic sci-fi with complex characters and a very dense plot. If you're into that sort of thing, it's worth a read.
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Oh, nevermind. I thought you were asking a serious question.
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Anybody claiming to be any kind of science fiction fan and talking shit about Dune is obviously nothing of the sort and needs his membership card revoked with all haste.
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It's like a fantasy fan trashing Lord of the Rings. Also, I doubt this guy even read the book.
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"Hyperion" is remarkable.<br><br>"Dune" by Frank Herbert is extraordinary.
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Truth. Now, if he's talking about the shitfest that Kevin J. Anderson has been forcing Brian Herbert to slap his name on every year, then that would be another story...
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for the first time literally two days ago. Although hampered by some mid 20th century space opera creakiness in the first 150 pages or so...really takes off as the book everyone claims it to be. Captures the imagination. And I do think there is a movie in there that could be faithful in spirit at least and be a great adventure epic. I don't see how anyone could watch the first 20 minutes and last 5 minutes of Taken and think this guy has much grasp of complexity. Certainly not a sense that he could make a giant LOTR epic trilogy. Could always be wrong. Im not a huge Rings fan. But I am a Jackson fan and I knew when they handed it to him, he could make that leap. As someone who JUST came to this universe, I'm a little sad to see this is who they chose. I hope no movie gets made rather then a Watchmen style well intentioned debacle.
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Yeah I haven't bothered with any of his stuff, even though I've been tempted from time to time. My Dune experience begins and ends with Frank Herbert.
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it's Space Opera<br> That takes place mostly on planets
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Hmm, then I wonder why you can only find it in the 'sci-fi' section? space opera is still sci-fi. It's just epic sci-fi.
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I've watched Disrict 13 and Taken and really enjoyed them both. However, they were just your usual action flicks, nothing more. So I'm a little doubtfull that he's got the chops to handle Dune but it would be very nice indeed to be proven wrong. If this gets fucked up I'll be incredibly pissed off, as we'll probably have to wait another 20 years or so to see another big screen take on this material.
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The director of Taken... doing Dune. Right. I mean, I'd go for Spike Jonze, but still...
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So, yeah, it's good news. Besides, the french really love and respect Dune. Dune is the type of SF that the french are very good at and love. At least the new director will have a good level of respectfullness to it which i doubt Mr Action Peter Berg would even dream of.
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...again
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The answer is simple: FRANCHISE POTENTIAL. And considering how many books Frank herbert wrote about the Dune universe, and that his son is still writing them, you can see that for Hollywood Dune has a enourmous franchise potential appeal.
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Again, i have to point out, at least it's not Michael Bay wannabe Mr Shallow Ass Action Peter Berg, he from that bullshit HandInCock Big willy vehicle movie fame.<br<And if you guys have having many doubts about Pierre Morel, let me just point out that in the hands of a lesser hack like Peter Berg, TAKEN would had been an insufferable dumb stupid bullshit movie. But Morel with Liam Neesen mannaged to put some class and elegance to what in all sense would be just a banal actioneer. So, excuse me if i actually consider the new director for the Dune project to be a good thing.<br><br>And fuck Peter Berg up his fucking ass. Yeah, you go make the Battleship movie, hackface! Fucking ass!
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You people all really seem to HATE movies. The director of the film has just been announced and I think Sardonic sums up the sentiment of Aint it Cool News' community with 'prolly gonna suck'. Awesome. I love coming here to bask in the well of negativity directed at EVERYTHING, regardless of context, shape or form - you people are the original douchebag haters and you all deserve yourselves. I rank you all equal to Youtube commenters, I do hope you take that as the insult it was intended to be.
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That movie quite suprised me. It's a far better movie then it has any right to be. A truly effective action movie which doesn't even look and feel dumb. Which, in this day and age, is quite an achievement in itself.
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I mean, Patrick Stewart should have played Thufir Hawat the Mentat Assassin, not Gurney Halleck. McLachlan was all kinds of wrong, etc.
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Sure you could probably do the plot on film, but so much of the book deals with people reading into the way they are told things. The words that come out of a character's mouth are dissected for inflection and tone, etc, usually what they are saying is the opposite of what they mean. To do this clearly would need some remarkable acting and a deft and detail obsessed director (or they'd have to stick in loads of voice overs which wouldn't work). I do love the look and mood of the Lynch version, I think it's one of the most visually stunning and crafted movies ever.
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Sure you could probably do the plot on film, but so much of the book deals with people reading into the way they are told things. The words that come out of a character's mouth are dissected for inflection and tone, etc, usually what they are saying is the opposite of what they mean. To do this clearly would need some remarkable acting and a deft and detail obsessed director (or they'd have to stick in loads of voice overs which wouldn't work). I do love the look and mood of the Lynch version, I think it's one of the most visually stunning and crafted movies ever.
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REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE! REMAKE!
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At least from my opinion. I like the set and costume design of the movie. And the Dune theme is great as well.
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but it was not as good as Lynch's bastard offspring. So being true to source isn't always a good thing. 99% of the time yeah but not in this case.
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Dune is an absolutely superb book one of the very best science fiction novels of all time and a work of literature in it's own right. The world(s) and society it so lavishly creates are so far removed from our own and so 'alien' that to truly recreate it on the big screen will be very hard and not necessarily that palatable to Joe Public. I wish the project well but without much expectation - Lynch's was a noble and interesting failure.
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It can be done. Rings was probably the most daunting adaptation any filmmaker could take on, and they did it. A 3 hour Dune could easily work, if they focus on all the right stuff. It doesn't have to be exact to be good.
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but the sets were so cheesy that it killed the whole thing. Those damn cardboard backgrounds are just too distracting. Children of Dune was actually a much prettier production, so I enjoyed it much more. Maybe I'm superficial, but I need realistic looking sets in order to suspend my disbelief.
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All the female leads would be played by sassy trannies and drag queens. With the exception of lady Jessica of course who would be played by Penelope Cruz and the reverend mother who would be played by Chus Lampreave...
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Lynch is probably the only director on the face of the earth that could do anything with Dune, and he made his version 26 years ago. <p> And the TV version may have been more faithful but it was appallingly acted and directed. Lynch's Dune is the only version worth discussing.
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From the director of Taken and the writer of Quantum of Solace.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 5:59 a.m. CST
How about Francis Lawrence, from a script by Akiva Goldsman?
by TheNorthlander
Starring either Will Smith or Keanu Reeves?
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You said it, my fellow portuguese-speaking friend from oeverseas.
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Loved the books - have read the series countless of times due to the rich tapestry created by Herbert. PLEASE! Let the writer read the bloody book and get the Bene Gesserit right at least. Weirding modules - uh, no! The whole point of the exercise was to show how Paul's intensive prana bindu training / result of breeding program by the Sisterhood resulted in slightly 'different' humans - stronger / faster + more aware. That becomes clearer in later books.
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...to see more DUNE on screen. I love DUNE, but just leave it alone for a few decades...I just got my DUNE card punched again tonight and I'm good for a while...
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Since you asked.
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...oil/Middle-East etc...etc..etc...angles to mine...as a director you'd have dreams of making it the first Iraq war movie people will finally show up in a theater for...
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wHollyweird sucks.
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...the idea of mashing DUNE with a biopic of Freddie Mercury. Turns out Freddie is the Kwisatz HadeROCK! and the story takes place on ArROCKis. The music would be by the surviving members of Queen...the main song being an homage to We Will Rock You with thumpers as the big drum intro...
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Stunning work. I take issue with adding blue eyes to those whose spice addiction is *hidden*. Piter and the Navigators (and Reverend Mothers!) hide their spice addiction. The contact lenses come loose from the Guild personnel only during the climatic battle between Paul and Feyd. It is Paul's insight that the universe hangs on Spice... "He who controls the spice!"
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Directed by Quentin Tarantino, with a script from Orci and Kurtzman...do it
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And come to the conclusion that Dune is unfilmable. Even if they got a PJ obsessed style director, a half billion budget and three movies to just tell the first book, modern audiances just wouldn't go for it. It really is old school sci-fi, dealing with big ideas on a grand scale within a long timeframe. Today's ADD riddled MTV generation just ain't gonna click with it. I've wanted a true to the book movie of Dune most of my life. The time is not right for it and sadly I don't think it ever will be.
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Would you imagine filming God Emperor of Dune? That'd be like making a movie of the Socratic Dialogues.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 7:10 a.m. CST
...quicksilver. I'd like to hear a sample of that Tarantino...
by FlickaPoo
...DUNE dialogue. I'm making breakfast, don't have time...I'm sure you can whip something up...off to imdb with you!
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But it'll probably fall flat. I just don't see any studio giving this project the commitment it'd need to be done right. If there were some way to meld the best aspects of the Lynch version (The production values and aesthetic) with the good parts of the Sci-Fi Miniseries (More developed story), you'd be about as close to a perfect "Dune" movie as you could ever hope to get.
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already. do something new you assbags.
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"One of the most fucked up moments in a boy's life is when he realizes he can't share his parents love for each other, not that he wants to bang his mom, mind you...what the fuck was I talking about?" Paul Muad'Dib
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Couldn't come up with anything better, gotta work!
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Or, fuck it, Mel Gibson.
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That's right Hollywood. Keep going back to the same dried-up well over and over again, and keep effing it up each time. Remember the first one turned David Lynch in Alan Smithee when he took his name off the credits. Yeah, despite your rosy memories, it really was that bad! As far as science fiction goes, I'd rather see an adaptation of Gibson's Neuromancer. Sure it'll be a royal f*ck up, but at least they'd be f*cking up something new(er) for a change.
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...substitution game. You know, something about shoving your spice in a woman's holiest of holies or some such...or "getting the good spice...my wife buys shit".
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he would like a crack at Neuromancer.
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I'd love to see it as Laurence of Arabia with great FX.
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That is all.
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1) Keep all of David Lynch's design work. Don't even hire new designers. Port Lynch's designs straight over. (Well, you'll need a few to create the things Lynch left out, like Ornithopters, but their work should be based on the 1984 film. The designs were beautiful.) 2) Hire a lead writer who actually understands and will be faithful to these novels, J. Michael Straczynski or Neil Gaiman. Many of the scripts will be word-for-word from the book, with reasonable extrapolations and variations which seem to flow naturally from the source material. 3) Hire a real director to work with the writer to craft the form of each season. I don't know who-- but stay away from the John Harrisons and Mick Garrisons of the world. Andrew Dominik or Alfonso Cuaron. He won't direct the individual episodes, but he'll create a kind of cinematic visual arc--a bible for the television directors to follow, based on a careful reading of the novels which are to be the basis of each season. 4) Make a television show. Not a movie, not a mini-series. A show. 22 episodes a year. Season one is Dune. Season two is Messiah and Children of Dune. Season 3 is God Emperor. Season 4 is heretics and Chapterhouse. Season 5 is whatever book was written to "finish" the series by whoever wrote it. A) Stop. B) If it's been wildly successful and the studio wants to keep the Dune cashpump flowing, you reset, here. Now you have to do new design work, hire a new cast, etc. And you go back in time, and Season 6 begins as an adaptation of the Kevin J. Anderson/Herbert's kid prequel series. And you do another 5 years of that. Then you stop. For real. No more.
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< p > but without spaces.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 8:32 a.m. CST
Thank God no-one will ever make a movie of my favorite fantasy n
by Mrelia
After seeing all of the failures to truly capture the magic of good to great genre novels on the large and small screen (like either version of Dune or the evisceration of Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" by Skiffy). I'm very, very glad that some of my favorite books aren't the kind of thing that most movie makers would touch with a 10-meter-cattleprod. Back on subject though, I wouldn't mind seeing a Del Toro take on Dune....
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... would also be good, I *think*. He's apparently going from SIN NOMBRE to JANE EYRE, so he has range...
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OPEN RANGE is one of my favorite movies of all time, with a great apocalyptic gunfight that engulfs a whole town. And Costner has that occasional sci-fi itch...
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Now that you mention it, it seems pretty obvious. :)
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They'll undoubtedly put the cast of The Jersey Shore in this and make it a CGI headache-inducing nightmare. Fuck this.
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I saw Dune in theaters prior to reading the books – at the time I thought it was bizarre but fairly entertaining. Over the years, it’s grown to be a film I rather enjoy. As for the books, I stopped reading after the fourth book in the series. The original Dune is a masterpiece, an amazing mix of epic storytelling, adventure, political intrigue etc, but then the books drop in quality fairly quickly (and the letdown is harsh, especially since nothing much happens in the 2nd book). It’s hard to maintain interest in a storyline when all of a sudden characters are mutating and living hundreds of years in the future. Based on what it would take to render the Dune world on film (and the limited franchise potential) I don’t see why studios would bother with a remake. If somebody wants to take a run at making some good classic Sci-fi (without Will Smith) I’d like to see somebody try The Forever War, Footfall, Rendezvous with Rama, or the long rumored Ender’s Game.
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...that a third movie version of one of the most esteemed books in Science Fiction is really going to bring anything at all to the table...so put me down for a well considered "meh."
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<p>I would have watched any Dune remake, save for something done in Greengrass style. After Bourne 3, I won't watch that shaky cam, quick edit bullshit ever again.</p> <p>Interesting to hear they may do Neuromancer. After Fight Club, I think Fincher would be best for that though. Don't know who Duncan Jones is.</p> <p>As for The Forever War, it was once reported that Ridley Scott would be doing that, but I don't expect we'll ever seen it. That would probably be the best book to make a movie out of, provided it had a decent epic like director.</p> <p>And I'm shocked that they didn't capitalize on the Harry Potter craze with Ender's Game. That would clean up at the theater, no doubt in my mind. Hard to find that many good child actors though.</p>
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And that took three days worth of television viewing. A two-hour Dune feature just isn't possible unless they make it a trilogy or something. Lynch's film was interesting, but it wasn't Herbert's novel.
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...is the same problem that Sci Fi ran into. After Children of Dune, it would get extremely hard to film. 90% of God Emperor of Dune is watching (reading) Leto II play word games with Moneo, Siona and the latest Duncan Idaho while the rest of the universe lives in a love/hate relationship with the way his government steamrolls over EVERY aspect of the universe. There's not a lot of action. And with Duncan being the ONLY "original" character left by the time of Heretics and Chapterhouse, it would be a very hard sell to an audience already attached to a core set of Atreides, Harkonnens, Corrinos and Fremen. If Dune itself is unfilmable, as I truly suspect, anything after Children of Dune isn't even worth an effort.
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I'd want to see it cast appropriately for once. That means a 15 year old Paul Atreides who can be made up to look 12 years older or at least convincingly recast for Messiah and Children, 9 year olds playing Leto II and Ghanima...if it's going to be done, it should be done as close to the source as possible and that means that Atreides CHILDREN are the movers and shakers of the universe...not Atreides 20-something CW castoffs...
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Don't.<p> Read the books and be far more gratified.
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For anybody wondering, Kevin J. Anderson has raped the corpse of Frank Herbert and done so with Brian Herbert's approval. Kevin J. Anderson is a hack; I've read more compelling, intelligent and attention grabbing stories in my toilet bowl after a long night at P.F. Changs...
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FOR HE IS THE KICKASS CRACKERJACK!!
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FOR HE IS THE BITCHASS HADAWRECK!!
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FOR HE IS THE FLAPJACK HALF'N'HALF!
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FOR HE IS THE MISMATCHED LAUGHING-GAS!!
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Jan. 5, 2010, 10:20 a.m. CST
Hey_Subby_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Bitch
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FOR HE IS THE BADASS HAPPENSTANCE!
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FOR HE IS THE KNICKNACK PADDYWHACK!!!
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FOR HE IS THE KICKBACK HAVEASNACK!!
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who pulled a gun on team-mates and then spit on little kids who wanted his autograph?<P>Man, if only those b-ballers would act like NFL-ers and clean their acts up!
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As far as faithful adaptations go, the miniseries was pretty much taken straight out of the book. Does Hollywood really need to send cameramen out to get yet another panoramic shot of open desert? Toss Stargate or Lawrence of Arabia into your blu-ray player instead. You'll be better off.
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It simply must be made...
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Neill Blomkamp, Darren Aranofsky or Chris Cunningham would all be way more interesting choices but I am already getting a bad vibe from the studio deciding that we need Dune (which we do) and then go and hire some stooge to manage it. It should be directed by someone who takes the initiative to do it (like Jackson/lotr) and has a passion for it. It shouldnt just be a paycheck job like it's shaping up to be atm..
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Sand worms: Rosie O'donnell. Paul: Charlie from Always sunny in Philadelphia. Feyd: Gilbert Godfrey. Alia: Jurgen Prochnow in drag kneeling on his shoes. Rabban: Kevin James. Giaus Helen Mohiam: Rhea Perlman. Lady Jessica: Eddie Murphy in drag. Stilgar: Eddie Murphy. Barron Harkonnen: Eddie Murphy in fat suit. Gurney: Eddie Murphy (doing a patrick stewart impersonation) ---All other parts to be played by eddie murphy.
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but...the Dune novel had features that were game-changing in 1965: real combat (described blow-by-blow); flipped-out drugs; flipped-out religions (about a dozen!); ecological warfare; and finally a genetically-engineered Messiah. Normal stuff for 2010.
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Sell them quickly. <p> It's just hitting some of the more technical news channels and sites now, but Kodak FrameChannel products are F*CKED in a major way. <p> Kodak shares are gonna fall HARD after this mess. <p> Look for the story about the frames on Slashdot.org to see what I mean... <p> Damn, I don't like mentioning other sites on AICN... but I've been here years, and it's the first time I've ever posted an off-topic FYI like this... Back to usual talkbacking now...
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Seriously? Ok, don't get me wrong, District B13 and Taken were badass movies, but... I'm not sure if Pierre will be able to do justice to a very worldly loved sci-fi classic like Dune.
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Make it mostly black cast, get some Obama lookalike kid to be Paul, and bam! Timely and unique! You know it to be true.
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I liked Taken; it was a cool, retro action flick, but I'm not sure how that same director can pull off something like Dune, which is more of a character piece science fiction flick. The screenplay would need to be superb, and would need a big time writer.
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'nuff said.
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Sheesh. Not having read the books I do really like the movie DUNE by David Lynch. Love that style. The SciFi one was okay. But if I recall the people who didn't like Lynch's adaptation didn't like that either so I don't get the need to keep trying.</p> <p>I did like DISTRICT 13 but I didn't think it looked very nice. Do we have a word for whatever that look is where they either put too much color in or take too much out? I don't know what it is exactly, but I'd like it if things would go back to looking the way they do in real life. So I can't imagine I'll find much of a purpose for this, since Lynch's is so lovely to look at. </p>
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Wait, what?! Perhaps on some abstract level... but it can be done so much more faithfully.
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...is that, to build up hype for the new version, someone finally puts the money up to have Lynch do a mega blu-ray and put together that four hour cut that people have requested since the days of laserdiscs.
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...It's Lynch's Dune. Remaster it, tactfully fix the shoddy effects (no stupid CG robot slapstick, please) and I'll buy that for 2$!
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They should do the National Lampoon parody instead.
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Great suggestion. DUNE as a series structured the way you outlined it would be the ROME of science fiction. It'd be perfect for HBO IMHO.
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Yeah you'd think there'd be enough footage shot of Lynch's Dune to make a Final Cut Blade Runner style and then release a 5 disc blu-ray set of all versions known to man in Hi Def, right?<p> I would love to see a better edit of that film!
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Dune is the sci-fi equivalent of Lord of the Rings. If they can pull off a kick-ass Dune, they can do Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. And then, if they want, they can adapt the crappy 10,000 Son of Frank Herbert Fan Fiction books. It's a big franchise, with a lot of potential for money. The only way it won't work is if they Golden Compass it - shit on everything that worked in the book in favor of something more idiotic and cliched, I mean, "audience friendly." That said, a Dune movie in 3D, pulled off right, would be all kinds of badass. Can't wait.
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As much as I liked Taken, naah. No Dune film is going to be worth a crap and I'm sure Piter and the Fenrings will be miscast. f-it, situation is just like Potter films and Sherlock Holmes.
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Thanks
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I'll take anyone good at this point and Hancock was not.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 3:09 p.m. CST
CountryBoy, yeah Costner's sci-fi has worked out great so far
by MattmanReturns
Waterworld. Postman. His hair-piece.
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I vote for 'Sirens of Titan'. First time I've ever posted.
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...passed on making a Foundation movie to direct Space Invaders? No? Because it didn't fucking happen. Peter Berg is showing his high aims here.
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despite the fake sets and sketchy accents, there were some really interesting ideas behind the lighting design if you watch the dvd. I thought it was a waaay more faithful adaptation than Lynch's. And ArmageddonProductions, they compressed Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, not Heretics of Dune. After Children of Dune, what SciFi should have done was create a weekly series in the post God Emperor world - where Arrakis is mostly green with a small patch of desert left. Chronicle the events of Heretics and Chapterhouse and beyond, with flashbacks to the God Emperor era. Maybe some cameos from the 2 miniseries, or get James McAvoy to do some CG work as the God Emperor. This way you can keep the universe alive, tell new stories, but still build on the miniseries. But like everything else, SciFi channel totally dropped the ball. Now they're SyFy.
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There, I said it.
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How can you make the same movie twice? It doesn't make any sense. It's blowing my mind! (head swells up Scanners-style and explodes)
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Totally fucking with you on Sirens of Titan movie! As I read that book, cinematic lollipops danced in my head. I also call for a long overdue film adaptation of Stranger in a Strange Land.
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aw, fuck it
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Take from that what you will. However, for something that's supposedly unfilmable (Dune), I'm pretty sure I've already seen it filmed twice.
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How in the sweet, holy fuck do you go from Taken to DUNE?! "Look mom! I took the MCATS! I'm going to conduct open heart surgery on dad now with a potato peeler!" Dune isn't a spare production ala Cloverfield with Michael J. Fox and a fucking hand-held, it's a sweeping fuck-off huge cinematic extravaganza that you spend not $10mill on, you dump $100mill on it and find the likes of Cameron or Spielberg then back up a Brinks truck on to their front lawn. FUCK YOU PARAMOUNT. WHOMEVER GREEN-LIT THIS ATROCIOUS PIECE OF SHIT SHOULD BE FED INTO A FUCKING WOOD-CHIPPER. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'RE RUINING DUNE YOU NO-TALENT ASSHATS.
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Yes, yes, yes. That would be terrific. As for Stranger in a Strange Land, isn't that just a ripoff of the Jesus myth, like Avatar was a ripoff of Dances With Wolves? Why aren't the haters all over that one?
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Sirens of Titan would be my preference though. In fact, I'd love to see more screen adaptations of Vonnegutt's work period. Cat's Cradle would be amazing too, IMHO.
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I'm not ragging on Stranger in a Strange Land. It would make a lovely movie. I like when artists/authors/filmmakers wear their influences on their sleeve. Spielberg has pretty much said Indy is James Bond blended with Clark Gable mixed with matinee heroes. I'm busting on the Avatar haters.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 4:32 p.m. CST
I think there's a Cat's Cradle movie in the works, actually
by ColonelFatheart
DiCaprio has the rights or some such thing.
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tinyurl.com/ychubor</p><p>I don't care what the studio says...pushing this back so close to production, and with no viable script in place smells of dead on arrival.
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Yeah, just saw that. Can't say I'm heartbroken by the news. I would really like Raimi to move on to something else.
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That's ok, but only if they have Tom Waits as Bokonon
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Sorry, but anything's filmable. Hell, HBO is making Game of Thrones.
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and that would be Darren Aronofsky. I'm a huge fan of Cameron, Jackson, Spielberg, Cuarón, and Blomkamp, but Aronofsky's ability to create atmosphere and draw powerful performances would make him my #1 pick.
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WHY are they stuck on the first goddamn novel? "Children of Dune," was a fantastic start- MOVE FORWARD from there!
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And yes, Ridley Scott could nail it so good.
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Jan. 5, 2010, 6:28 p.m. CST
Again I put Drew Barrymore's hat in the running
by JeanGrey_X23_lesboSex
Ms. Barrymore should have directed the Hurt Locker and we could have called it Ellen Page's Pink locker
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Have you seen the trailer for this directors new movie "From Paris with Love?" It looks crap!!!! It stars John Travolta in an action type movie. He has a bald head and goatie. How can this guy direct dune? He will turn it into a cheap piece of rubbish!!!!
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before they can move onto the next ones.
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... I just said he was into it, and he HAS made some good movies. Why can't the two go together?
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If they put a leash on his quirkiness, his visual style could be great for this.
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and you get Planet of the Apes. Aside from ape fucking and a WTF ending that not even Burton understood, that movie was so ridiculously normal and bland.
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So...yeah, that's probably why geeks want it. It's fucking awesome.
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Nobody nailed it. Lynch's had a cool look, but was a chore to get through. SciFi channel had a campy look, but adapted the novels in an engaging way. They can keep adapting it until they get it right. And if you're burnt out, don't watch it, and stop bitching.
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google is telling me that in an Omni magazine interview Frank Herbert identified CHOAM with OPEC.
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I totally agree with your assessment of the Sci-Fi mini-series. Paul was also terrible casting. William Hurt as Duke Leto was actually inspired. I forgot to mention in my earlier post my love for the Children of Dune mini-series that followed. Daunting task to take two of Herbert's books (albeit much thinner than the first one) and make a four hour mini-series that captures the essence of both them fairly well. A young James McAvoy as Leto II was great. He should have been cast as Paul to begin with. I am glad that there was always a decision age Paul and Leto II in the movie and the mini-series. Leto II was only 9 in Children of Dune. Would have seemed more like a Robert Rodriquez film to see someone so young with the sand trout skin killin' fools.
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just wanted to say that i love all the Dune novels and the movie and the two Sci-Fi channel mini's!the prequels by Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J Anderson(who wrote alot of the post Ep.6 Star Wars novels!!!!)is very cool!i'm currently reading Paul of Dune,which is a direct sequel to Dune!anyway?isn't everything a re-make these days??? More Dune!!!
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Yeah Paul sucked. I seem to remember his mother being fairly decent. I really liked the chick who played Princess Irulan. Children of Dune was far better though. I never actually liked Dune Messiah, but they wrapped it up nicely in the first two hours. I still watch Children of Dune from time to time... if only for that awesome Brian Tyler score.
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ROSIE O'DONNELL - HA HA HA HA! thanks for the laugh; excellent name, too!
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had it been made, would have been the most psychedelic, fucked up incoherent mass of shit ever put to film. And IT WOULD NOT HAVE RESEMBLED 'D U N E' EVEN REMOTELY! <P>Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam? Are you fucking batshit insane? He was a PAINTER for Christ's sake. I've seen that man on film, and he looked and sounded like a mentally deranged lunatic having a bad acid trip. <P>Jodoworsky is a visionary, granted, but his version of DUNE would have been straight out of his own id and his own obsessions, and would not have had even an iota, a particle of Frank Herbert's epic storytelling and characterization. The characters and the planets would have the same names, and that's where it would end. <P> I have read and enjoyed many of Jodo's comic books, illustrated by geniuses like Jean Gireaud and Juan Gimenez, and I've seen what Jodoworsky is all about. He needs to be kept the hell away from DUNE, because it's got an agenda of its own, and Jodo would not be able to resist fucking with it; He's too obsessed with himself and his own ideas to allow Frank Herbert to run the show.
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The guy that directed District B-13 is directing Dune and the guy that directed 10,000 BC is directing The Foundation. Have I got that right? I've apparently entered The Twilight Zone...
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house atreiades, harkonnen and corrino were'nt that bad. hunters and sandworms were a shitstorm of disappointment. brian herbert and KJA need to publish frank herberts notes on the last book, like what christopher tolkien has done with all his fathers works, so we can have a satisfying conclusion. I think thats partially where all this new movie hate is coming from. too many people have tried to interpret on genius and the original works are not even truly finished.
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the same guy who used to do time-travel stories in HEAVY METAL?
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came so tantalizingly close to what the story needed, but there was just too much wrong. <P>So many of the actors LOOKED perfect for the parts, but the delivery felt stilted, stiff and alienating. I wonder if that was on purpose. You needed to feel as if these people were more advanced, more evolved than us. Just to look at them you needed to be able to see that they had more going on upstairs. Elegance, focus, deadliness, intellect. <P> The costuming and sets where absolutely gorgeous for the most part. Then there were the Sardaukar - Hazmat suits? They needed to look something that would weaken their enemies bowels in terror, not dudes in clean-room bunny suits. Howling Stuka dive bombers on two legs, for pete's sake. <P>the Spacing Guildsmen were pretty darn good in my opinion, although the Stage One guys needed to be a bit more inhuman-ized. Freaky contacts with distorted irises would have been enough. The Stage Three tank was very very cool - stylish and intimidating. <P> Sound design and atmospherics are one of the best parts to Lynch's version that I can point to. Lynch really understands how sound can shape the mood of a scene, and he deserved an Oscar for it on this one. <P>The spaceships were uninspired, disappointing design. All of them were boring Boring BORING. Whoever thought them up clearly had never seen a Chis Foss or Jim Burns spaceship illustration. I could do better than that, and I'm a fucking DRUMMER. <P> the spice harvesters were OK, although the Carryalls were just totally fucking wrong. A flying wedge of cheese? Stupid. <P>The ornithopter designs didn't just disappoint me, they pissed me off. Goddammit, they got one of the most signature, geek-centric elements of the entire book WRONG! The earliest illustrations of the DUNE ornithopters had them looking like Bell 47 helicopters or mechanical dragonflies, not flying brass door-stops or double ended dildos. <P> prop design was terrible - all the firearms were inelegant, blocky, clumsy and unrefined. The Weirding modules were not only dumb as a plot point, they looked like they had been designed by grade-school children. The Fremen Crysknife was badly done as well - A spiceworm tooth is a crystal, so it should be translucent, opaline in appearance, not ivory like a tusk.
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Yeah, you got the right one. He does hardware and beautiful women better than just about anyone but Oscar Chichoni.
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One of my all time fav films. Sure it departed quite a bit from the book, but I still loved it. The soundtrack was A+.
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at the sci fi museum here in Seattle at the EMP. Film is forgiving. The only props there that look substantial are the Rocketeer's duds, and the Terminator body parts by Mr. Winston. Oh, all of the Henson stuff from that traveling exhibit last summer was gorgeous. The Muppets they displayed were perfect, and the clothing, utensils and jewelry from The Dark Crystal were exquisitely crafted.
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nyah nyah
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Think "Lawrence of Arabia" done as science fiction.
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...but I agree that it can't really be filmed. Chapterhouse and Heretics, on the other hand, are probably more filmable than all the earlier books in the series. Miles going all Matrix style is what audiences expect these days anyway.
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I agree with the other posters who say that it can't and shouldn't be filmed (again)./ The books themselves were largely devoid of action and were full of political intrigue. Dune is far too cerebral for the average person these days, anyway. Besides, we got our version of Dune with Avatar. :)
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Give it a fucking break. Seeing the first two incarnations is plenty for me. The film version was pathetic and too short to get all the storyline properly fleshed out. The mini-series was a better adaptation, but it was still sort of dry - LIKE THE BOOK. Let it rest
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but it exists only in my mind. Another Dune film? Sorry, but with me; two strikes and you're out.
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Fremen Fatties. Oh, an the Bene Gesserit hats. Oh, and the way they pronounced Harkonnen.
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...isn't a bad choice. If I were the producer my lineup would be... <br> DP: Sergey Trofimov (Mongol, Day Watch, etc.) shoot the film with an anamorphic lens... get those beautiful flares, etc. I'd like a classic epic look as well... like Lawrence of Arabia, etc. <br> Duke Leto - Liam Neeson <br> Lady Jessica - Lena Olin <br> Muad'Dib - Chris Pine <br> Baron Harkonnen - Ray Winstone <br> Feyd-Rautha - Ben Foster <br> Chani - Emily Blunt
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Get Joe Penhall or Steven Zaillian to adapt/write the script.
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The Dune books are superb but lets not get our hopes up too high this story is going to be watered down in order to make an entertaining movie Im curios to see where they take it.
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