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

[Hugo Rune]

Re: Forrest Gump - working on Zemeckis' preference, they decided to invert the focus of the book... bringing the love story to the fore and backdropping his "adventures". As I said, working in partnership. In the book Forrest is actually a bit of a dick and quite unlikable, twisted by his adventures. That, I am sure makes for a compelling, possibly complex character, but may not have sold as well to audiences or producers looking for a whimsical fantasy hero. Further to that, due to the volume of material in the book the mostly just adapted the first 11 chapters and the final 2/3.

Re: The Postman - it in fact appears that Roth's draft of the script was, allegedly, a complete reworking of the book, much to the frustration of Brin. So they eventually brought in Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential) to start again. What is on screen is seemingly mostly all Helgeland, but Roth gets credited also due to how Hollyweird works... and then Costner/Helgeland re-wrote the book's story themselves, though keeping the central themes.

Roth's an interesting choice and it'll be interesting to see how his relationship with the source material, Villeneuve and the production company's whims, works

Hugo - The Insider has one of the best modern thriller scripts in the past 30 years

 

[wayoung]

Villeneuve has met with Bond producers and is considered to be the front runner to direct the next film. If he is chosen then there is no way he is also doing Dune in the near future. Which would mean Dune is getting yet another director, is indefinitely delayed, or cancelled once more.

 

[lurok]

In an ideal world I would rather and hope Villeneuve do 'Dune', and Nolan or a.n.other do Bond. But I'd happily accept a DV-->Bond, Nolan-->Dune swap, or vice versa.

 

[wayoung]

I'd definitely prefer Nolan do Dune, but there's no inkling of that. Fincher remains my #1 choice.

 

[Reverend]

I'm still holding out the vain hope that they'll give up trying to make a movie and let HBO or Netflix turn it into a GoT style series.

 

[fireproof78]

I really like the philosophical/existential underpinnings of GEoD....but like the rest of original Herbert books you can see how it's a real challenge to dramatise. The Herbert fils/Anderson books are so much easier, but equally so much more superficial.

I think they got that way, but the "House" prequel series to "Dune" was very well done, in my opinion.

I'm still holding out the vain hope that they'll give up trying to make a movie and let HBO or Netflix turn it into a GoT style series.

Agreed. This book does not lend itself to film adaptation very well.

 

[Reverend]

I think they got that way, but the "House" prequel series to "Dune" was very well done, in my opinion.

I'd say they were the least awful of the bunch. With the benefit of hindsight, all the warning signs for the later excesses were there on full display. The business between the Baron and the Reverend \Mother certainly leaps to mind, to say nothing of Gurney's sister.
Too many lurid details, too much gratuitous violence and next to nothing in terms of actual depth and character.

 

[fireproof78]

I'd say they were the least awful of the bunch. With the benefit of hindsight, all the warning signs for the later excesses were there on full display. The business between the Baron and the Reverend \Mother certainly leaps to mind, to say nothing of Gurney's sister.
Too many lurid details, too much gratuitous violence and next to nothing in terms of actual depth and character.

I enjoyed Leto's story.

 

[Beagleman]

It has far more potential as a series, and in these times I don't get why the producers would insist to push a movie, look at what money those damn dragons make for HBO. TV/streaming isn't really a lesser choice anymore.

 

[Reverend]

I enjoyed Leto's story.

That had the bones of a good story, but no meat or muscle to speak of.
Just to be clear, I don't intent to disparage those that found value and entertainment in them. I rather liked the first three at the time, but my tastes have changed with time and the later entries gave me a different, and I like to think, more informed perspective that retroactively tainted them in my eyes. Hence: "least awful".

It has far more potential as a series, and in these times I don't get why the producer's would insist to push a movie, look at what money those damn dragons make for HBO. TV/streaming isn't really a lesser choice anymore.

As is often the case, I think the main reason is money. People forget that the first season of GoT wasn't nearly as lavish as it's become. Even though they they achieved a lot with the relatively modest budget, they still struggled at times with portraying the full scope of the story.

With Dune it'll be much harder to balance for a TV show since there's no getting around location filming in the desert, which is notoriously troublesome. I'm not saying it's impossible by any stretch, but it's a daunting financial commitment for an unproven property. Indeed, it's a property that has twice been a disappointment in one way or another, so that makes investors even more sceptical.

 

[fireproof78]

That had the bones of a good story, but no meat or muscle to speak of.
Just to be clear, I don't intent to disparage those that found value and entertainment in them. I rather liked the first three at the time, but my tastes have changed with time and the later entries gave me a different, and I like to think, more informed perspective that retroactively tainted them in my eyes. Hence: "least awful".
.

The first three were well done enough for my own tastes, but the latter ones, especially the ridiculous sequel to the Dune/prequel to Dune Messiah. That was annoying.

 

[kirk55555]

I honestly really liked all of the Brian Herbert/KJ Anderson Dune books that involved the characters from the main Dune books. The only ones that lost me where their prequels set 10,000 years (or however long) before Dune. I couldn't get into those, but I liked their House Trilogy and the books that ended the main Dune series. I also liked the books about Paul before Dune (aka Paul of Dune/The Winds of Dune) a lot. Honestly, while they don't match up to the original Dune Trilogy the BH/KJA books are all generally superior to all the stuff frank herbert did after Children of Dune, especially compared to the rather boring God Emperor and the really sleazy Heretics of Dune (Heretics specifically being outright terrible and not just because it has in depth, fairly pornographic sex scenes for absolutely no damn reason).

There stuff isn't perfect, especially the 10,000 years ago prequels I can't be bothered with, but I do consider a lot of the BH/KJA Dune books to be essential parts of the franchise, and I've read them all at least twicew (which is less then I've read the main trilogy, but I'm sure I'll read them all again).

 

[JD]

I can't find a story to link to, but they've announced that KJA and Brian Herbert are going to be doing a comic book adaptation of the original Dune.

 

[wayoung]

Someone actually liked Paul of Dune?!

Was it when he ran away and joined the space circus?

 

[Reverend]

I can't find a story to link to, but they've announced that KJA and Brian Herbert are going to be doing a comic book adaptation of the original Dune.

Still picking at the bones of his father's legacy I see. At least he hasn't bothered sullying the Consentiency or the Pandora books with his utter lack of original thought.

 

[The Wormhole]

I can't find a story to link to, but they've announced that KJA and Brian Herbert are going to be doing a comic book adaptation of the original Dune.

That was announced back in 2011.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/dune-is-getting-a-comic-adaptation.152555/
It hasn't happened yet.

 

[wayoung]

That was announced back in 2011.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/dune-is-getting-a-comic-adaptation.152555/
It hasn't happened yet.

Earlier this week they announced a new adaptation on social media, replacing this one that obviously died on the vine. No new material, unlike the previous announcement, only adapting Dune with the hopes of also doing the prequel trilogy.

In other words, they couldn't get anybody to agree to finance or publish new material/adaptations of the prequels so they agreed to put out Dune in the hopes if it is a big success they can do what they really want (and nobody else wants), which is their own books.

 

[The Wormhole]

Ah, just found an article about that:
https://www.newsarama.com/35681-frank-herbert-s-dune-coming-to-comic-books.html
They claim an adaptation of Herbert and Anderson's House Atreides is also planned.

 

[kirk55555]

Earlier this week they announced a new adaptation on social media, replacing this one that obviously died on the vine. No new material, unlike the previous announcement, only adapting Dune with the hopes of also doing the prequel trilogy.

In other words, they couldn't get anybody to agree to finance or publish new material/adaptations of the prequels so they agreed to put out Dune in the hopes if it is a big success they can do what they really want (and nobody else wants), which is their own books.

The last Brian Herbert Dune book (so far) was in 2016, ending a prequel trilogy (which I didn't read since its another "1000s of years before Dune)" trilogy). He's also apparently got two more of the "heroes of Dune" series planned (Throne of Dune and Leto of Dune) that got delayed for the last Dune trilogy BH and KJA just finished, but they'll still probably get made and I'd definitely need them. The fact that they've done so much and continue to make books (that are presumably making a profit) proves that many people do want their books, including me.

 

[The Wormhole]

The fact that they've done so much and continue to make books (that are presumably making a profit) proves that many people do want their books, including me.

I remember reading an interview with Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson actually do address the criticism their Dune novels get, basically saying something like "people can say as many harsh things about our novels as they want, in the end our novels still pull in millions of dollars and that's what we and our publishers care about."