They are making a product called "Dune." Comparisons are inevitable.
Dune 2018 (19,20,21...)
- Thread starter wayoung
- Start date
He was the teenage version of McConaughey's son Tom, played as an adult by Casey Affleck. He almost drove the truck off the cliff when Cooper was trying to take control of the drone.
Brian Herbert tweeted that the book will be split into two films.
On the one hand, this alleviates my concerns about the adaptation as a film as oppose to a mini-series and this news follows what Villeneuve wanted (i.e. two films). On the other hand, this is commercially dangerous.
Producing the film in such a way runs the risking of alienating/confusing fans, while just confusing non-fans (or people who watched the Lynch film), a la Fellowship of the Ring. I know this is where marketing comes in, but I worry that even with the best marketing, this could be a disaster. Matrix Reloaded/Matrix Revolutions also comes to mind even though I know that's not a fair comparison.
I guess the biggest question is whether Legendary Pictures will allow Villeneuve to film both parts back-to-back.
On the one hand, this alleviates my concerns about the adaptation as a film as oppose to a mini-series and this news follows what Villeneuve wanted (i.e. two films). On the other hand, this is commercially dangerous.
Producing the film in such a way runs the risking of alienating/confusing fans, while just confusing non-fans (or people who watched the Lynch film), a la Fellowship of the Ring. I know this is where marketing comes in, but I worry that even with the best marketing, this could be a disaster. Matrix Reloaded/Matrix Revolutions also comes to mind even though I know that's not a fair comparison.
I guess the biggest question is whether Legendary Pictures will allow Villeneuve to film both parts back-to-back.
Where's the natural break between two movies? Perhaps it'll be after Paul and Jessica escape into the desert - with the majority of the first movie being used for world building. It'll be interesting to see if Villeneuve avoids inserting the huge chunks of narrative exposition that David Lynch used.
That's a great question. The book Dune is itself divided internally into three books.
The other breakpoint being Paul taking the Water of Life?
The escape to the desert has more stages to it than in the Lynch film.
The second book begins with Paul and Jessica linking up with Kynes and Idaho for a short time before going even deeper into the desert on their own.
The second book ends with Jessica becoming a Reverend Mother.
That's true - it's been several years since I read the book and events get conflated with the movie and TV series depictions in my memory. Jessica becoming a Reverend Mother isn't much of a cliffhanger though.
I hope they'll use Brian Eno's Prophecy theme but it seems unlikely. That is one seriously inspired piece of composition.
I clearly need to read the novel again because I was also having a hard time thinking of a natural place for the film to end. I had forgotten that Paul and Jessica's escape into the desert was considerably longer than than what we saw in the Lynch film. The only thing I distinctly recall was the section where they had to walk very carefully at night so not to disturb the sandworms.
Hell, better yet, bring back Eno to score the film.
That would be a very nice inclusion. Villeneuve (or rather Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer) used echoes of Vangelis' score in Blade Runner 2049 so maybe he'll ask for the same here? I guess it depends if Eno is open to it.
Hell, better yet, bring back Eno to score the film.
It's part of the world-building, and it begins the establishing of what Kynes has been working towards. The outpost they visit is both literally and figuratively between civilization and the open desert. The battles involving Atreides, Harkonnen, Sardaukar, and ultimately Fremen are also considerably more extensive and interesting than what the Lynch film depicted.
Breaking 'Dune' into two parts is narrativly very tricky since there's nothing in the middle that I think would serve as a good climax & cliffhanger of what came before. Everything from the escape into the desert to Jessica taking the Water of Life is basically a second act story. There's no rising tension of climax there as the conflict with the main antagonists has faded into the background. I'd be tempted to cut it somewhere around the duel with Jamis, but even that feels like a weak ending.
Personally, I think the only really logical place to pick up the second movie would be after the time-jump. Indeed, I can see the opening scene being entirely from Gurney's perspective as he re-encounters a very different and changed Paul. The problem is that after that, it's pretty much all climax followed by a brief denouement. Front loading all the interesting plot and intrigue in part 1, basically turns part 2 into a fairly shallow action movie.
Personally, I think the only really logical place to pick up the second movie would be after the time-jump. Indeed, I can see the opening scene being entirely from Gurney's perspective as he re-encounters a very different and changed Paul. The problem is that after that, it's pretty much all climax followed by a brief denouement. Front loading all the interesting plot and intrigue in part 1, basically turns part 2 into a fairly shallow action movie.
So assuming each movie is two and a half hours (on average these days for something like this), this would basically make the whole thing roughly five hours, so pretty much equal in length to the TV miniseries.
Someone refresh my memory: Where did the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series place the divide? Did it work narratively speaking? I honestly can't remember since I haven't seen it since it aired.
Obviously a mini-series is a different creature since the second part is usually out up to a week later as oppose to a year (or however longer) later for films, but I'd still be interested on the narrative construction there.
Obviously a mini-series is a different creature since the second part is usually out up to a week later as oppose to a year (or however longer) later for films, but I'd still be interested on the narrative construction there.
I believe that's right (I'd look it up but I'm heading out the door) and I, too, would love to hear that score. Either way, this would give Eno a second chance on such a project.
Ah, the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth...
Just checked and Part 1 finished when Paul and Jessica's thopter dives into the sandstorm while fleeing the harkonen.
Part 2 finished with Paul having a vision but I can't place it from the book (sequence starts with him in bed with Chani). Think it could be around the time he took the Water Of Life.
Wow, there you have it. My memory really sucks. I could've sworn it was two parts.
Thanks for the refresher.
Almost all I know about this franchise is the miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. The casting is excellent, with a couple STAR TREK veterans employed, here, like Alec Newman and Alice Krige. Julie Cox was really good and they couldn't have cast Chani better than they did with Barbora Kodetová. Very talented, exceptionally beautiful. Some of the CGI in this 3 parter really sucks, but the sets and the costumes are first rate. I could've done without some of the over-the-top stuff, dealing with Alia Atreides' possession, especially. Every once in a great while I'll watch it, again and it never disappoints.
