Dune 2018 (19,20,21...)

[The Wormhole]

I like Momoa, but honestly I don't picture him as Duncan Idaho. Admittedly, that's likely because in my mind when I read the novels my mind defaults to Edward Atterton, the actor from the Children of Dune miniseries.

Although, looking at the drawing of how Frank Herbert imagined the character, I suppose if Momoa cut his hair and shaved the beard, he could actually be a reasonable duplicate.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Had an ex-girlfriend who liked to sing "I'm building my own Duncan Idaho."

 

[wayoung]

I like Momoa, but honestly I don't picture him as Duncan Idaho. Admittedly, that's likely because in my mind when I read the novels my mind defaults to Edward Atterton, the actor from the Children of Dune miniseries.

Although, looking at the drawing of how Frank Herbert imagined the character, I suppose if Momoa cut his hair and shaved the beard, he could actually be a reasonable duplicate.

There are a lot of things I loved about the second miniseries, but Atterton was not one of them. Even as a Zensunni Philosopher/Mentat Duncan isn't stoic. He's one of the most badass mother fuckers in the universe, he is Gods gift to women, he's a genius, and he has the swagger that comes from knowing it. In that way Momoa is a good, if unexpected, casting choice.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

There are a lot of things I loved about the second miniseries, but Atterton was not one of them. Even as a Zensunni Philosopher/Mentat Duncan isn't stoic. He's one of the most badass mother fuckers in the universe, he is Gods gift to women, he's a genius, and he has the swagger that comes from knowing it. In that way Momoa is a good, if unexpected, casting choice.

I agree but I doubt we'll get to see Momoa playing the ghola of Idaho, Hayt, in a movie adaptation of Dune Messiah or Children of Dune. In a way, there are so many secondary characters close to Paul in Dune - Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, and Wellington Yueh - that it's not possible to fill in anything but the sketchiest of backgrounds for them. I suspect there might be a temptation to leave out the Fenrings this time as well.

 

[wayoung]

I agree but I doubt we'll get to see Momoa playing the ghola of Idaho, Hayt, in a movie adaptation of Dune Messiah or Children of Dune. In a way, there are so many secondary characters close to Paul in Dune - Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, and Wellington Yueh - that it's not possible to fill in anything but the sketchiest of backgrounds for them. I suspect there might be a temptation to leave out the Fenrings this time as well.

If we do get Messiah he'd be in his late 40's having sex with a 13 year old girl.

Not that a 20 something actor is any better for that.

Frank had some uncomfortable stuff in those books....

 

[wayoung]

November 20, 2020 is the scheduled release.

I'm still wary it will happen until they start filming.

 

[Reverend]

Even if they do start filming soon, that date seems a little optimistic. I'd be shocked if it's not pushed back to at least Q2 of '21.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I pretty much agree with this assessment of why any movie adaptation of Dune seems destined to fail:

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Dune is presented as a subversion of the hero's journey and of the adventure quest. By the end of the novel, Paul's prescience means that everyone has effectively become a clockwork mouse on rails without free will and, even with the jihad, humanity is doomed to inevitable extinction. I doubt the average punter wants to spend several hours in a movie theatre assimilating that message.

In a 1969 interview, Frank Herbert described the action denoument of the novel as deliberately "high camp". The 1984 movie got that aspect correct.

It took Frank Herbert three further books to unbind humanity. Adapting those would likely require at least two further movies.

A TV miniseries would be the way to go but it would likely lose a lot of its audience before it could get as far as God Emperor of Dune.

I just hope a movie adaptation of Dune can tackle and subvert the current zeitgeist of people looking to supermen (Putin, Trump, etc.) to save them.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Jackson's LOTR exhibited the successful formula for a trilogy of films. Just make sure there is enough spectacle. If the story beats in the source material don't provide the spectacle where the cuts between movies need to occur, just bloody insert it.

 

[Set Harth]

Kunta Kinte must be black. Story doesn't work if hes played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Tell that to J.J. Abrams.

I suspect there might be a temptation to leave out the Fenrings this time as well.

The Fenrings always get shafted.

 

[Reverend]

I've probably said this half a dozen times in the 2 years and 40 pages of this thread: in order to adapt dune into any other medium, it needs to be *adapted* specifically for said medium.

That means cutting out certain subplot, shifting around certain events to better support pacing, translating important information the book conveyed though internal monologue to either dialogue, world building or exposition. Certain events may need to be combined and some may need to be created from whole cloth to serve the larger narrative.

It part of the reason why I'd much prefer to see this adapted as a Netflix style TV show of 3 seasons of 8-10 episodes. It'd allow for a much slower pace and ability to really dig into the characters, themes and world building without having to compromise too much for the sake of a 120-150 minute runtime and a three act structure.

Now, how that applies to the rest of the novel series would probably mean merging parts of DM & CoD into a single narrative as the minis did and (assuming it even gets this far) skipping straight over GEoD as a stand-alone story and rolling the bare essentials of it into HoD. No matter which way you slice it, GeOD is very poor material for a theatrical adaptation. It's basically a series of conversations with a giant worm-man, a lot of internal monologue and-then-he-falls-off-a-bridge-THE-END!
IMO it would be much more effective to divide the saga into two parts: the Muad'dib end of things and the Odrade/Honored Matres end of things with the substance and details of the intervening millennia being drip fed as backstory for the latter part.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Maybe frame three movies based on D (2) and combined DM and CoD (1) within a GEoD setting where Leto II summons up memories of things past? Perhaps too much narrative exposition to start with, of course, and it would be hard to avoid possible comical comparison of Leto with Jabba the Hutt. At the very end, Leto sacrifices himself (by manipulating Siona, or maybe not) to save humanity through the golden path and to return the sandworms to Arrakis.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

If I were doing it:
1) D part 1
2) D part 2
3) DM+CoD+GEoD hook
4) GEoD most

 

[Reverend]

Guys, GEoD simply isn't suited to a theatrical adaptation. It has next to zero plot, like 5 characters, a love interest who is two dimensional by design with all the passion of a lecture on the future of paperclips, a protagonist who has little to no agency and is barely even in it, a villain who's about as far from menacing as it's possible for a 50ft human grub to be, and I would describe the ending as anticlimactic if it weren't for the fact that there's no prior build up. Which is fine and works well as a novel since it's meant to be an introspective piece about old men fighting over philosophical matters.

You can't really use it as a framing device for CoD either since again, there's no good way to link the two together without it ending up being 'The Princess Bride' meets 'The Godfather: Part 3' with Fred Savage played by Jabba the Hutt.
I suppose you could do a weird 'Cloud Atlas' type of thing for HoD & CHoD, but again, you'll just be inserting Leto II as a character, not integrating GEoD as a literary narrative. Anyone not already deeply familiar with the material would have no God Emperor damned idea what the hell is going on.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I suppose you could do a weird 'Cloud Atlas' type of thing for HoD & CHoD, but again, you'll just be inserting Leto II as a character, not integrating GEoD as a literary narrative.

Since I never saw or read Cloud Atlas, I'm not sure what that means.

 

[Reverend]

Since I never saw or read Cloud Atlas, I'm not sure what that means.

Honestly, it's kind of hard to describe accurately and if I tried it'd either sound nonsensical or not quite doing the concept justice. All I can suggest is that you check out one or the other (or both!) Failing that, this trailer might get the basic gist across.

 

[Takeru]

I'd combine Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune into a single movie, with God Emperor just being the last five to ten minutes, when Leto II becomes emperor he starts giving a speech about his plans, we see Arrakis transition into a lush green world, get a scene with Leto II, Duncan and Siona, then the assassination, Leto II finishes his speech about the golden path and we're done. It will be kinda exposition heavy but I think it would be the best way to do it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I'd combine Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune into a single movie, with God Emperor just being the last five to ten minutes, when Leto II becomes emperor he starts giving a speech about his plans, we see Arrakis transition into a lush green world, get a scene with Leto II, Duncan and Siona, then the assassination, Leto II finishes his speech about the golden path and we're done. It will be kinda exposition heavy but I think it would be the best way to do it.

That's an interesting idea.

 

[arch101]

I like Momoa, but honestly I don't picture him as Duncan Idaho. Admittedly, that's likely because in my mind when I read the novels my mind defaults to Edward Atterton, the actor from the Children of Dune miniseries.

Although, looking at the drawing of how Frank Herbert imagined the character, I suppose if Momoa cut his hair and shaved the beard, he could actually be a reasonable duplicate.

I thought Lynch cast the role well. It was easy for me to imagine Richard Jordan when I read GOoD and the other books. Too bad he was offed quickly and his other filmed scenes were cut.

 

[Marc]

Slight tangent but wondering if last nights episode of The Simpsons was referencing the Lynch version of Dune. The plot revolved the filming of a high concept SciFi film in the 1980s that came from a book that was considered unfilmable and production took place in Mexico.