My main problem with the weirding modules was that they injected mysticism into subjects that clearly
were not in the books. It lessened the Fremen and their toughness unnecessarily, IMO. And I never envisioned the Fremen fighting style, augmented by Bene Gesserat techniques, as "Bruce Lee-level kung fu", but as more practical fighting techniques with some special moves added -- more like what I've seen of the Israeli martial art
krav maga.
A lot of my complaints against Lynch's
Dune boil down to the fact that he likes weird, exotic, and disgusting for their own sakes, not as things that might (
might) enhance storytelling. The Harkonens were the worst -- They're evil? Give them boils leaking pus and heart plugs that allow them to drink the blood of their slaves.
Then folks will know they're terrible. No need to show them doing actual evil things.
Ridiculous...
Exactly.. what i'd like to see is modern close combat action, i.e. effective military hand to hand fighting not cartwheels, elaborate attack/block choreography or standing on a thin tree branch (i love those Kung Fu movies to death but i don't want to see this in a "serious" movie).
Krav Maga is one of the examples too i thought about.. no nonsense, direct attack and defense. Fremen and Sardaukar should both use it and it would be quite simple to show the evolution of it from Sardaukar dominating Atreides troopers until later when they meet Fremen and get their asses handed to them
This is why i'm so hopeful for Villeneuve's version.. he has that subtlety when called for it and i hope he delivers on the villain front too. Nolan's Joker is a good example of this.. despite being a very flashy character his/Ledger's version was a deeply disturbing/insane version of him as he should be. In contrast Nicholson's version was the flash, silly one and i rate it much lower despite Nicholson being a fantastic actor but he didn't have much to work with in Burton's movie.
The movie or movies might be good but does anyone really think this will make money? To weird for the casual audience and lots of people only know the movies and many no doubt found them also to be to weird. Makes you wonder if the first one bombs if thy even do the second one. Seems like it would have been a better fit on Netflix or something were weird can be a advantage.
Jason
The basic story is quite simple - noble house gets sent into a death trap because they have become dangerously popular politically to the Emperor and the Harkonnens, the trap is sprung, the house is destroyed save for the son and his mother who find allies within the native population who, in a surprise twist, are actually much more numerous and have tremendous combat capabilities.
Son gains their loyalty and becomes their leader, breaks out of the desert to conquer the single most important planet in the human sphere and forces the Emperor to abdicate so he can become the new Emperor.
I don't expect the movies to go too far into the politics and the sociology of it, much less on the level of the following books, especially God Emperor ( which is a very vital book concerning the overall plot but consists of barely any action and is mostly dialogue). People are also used by now to superheroes and superhuman abilities so the Bene Gesserit, Mentats and the Kwisatz Haderach concepts could be rather easily explained too.
It comes down to the marketing.. visually it can be awesome. Vast sprawling shots of the desert, giant sandworms breaking through the surface, intense combat scenes and a top notch, all top level actors - this can be sold quite well through trailers, interviews and merchandise to create interest.
The only thing that could pose a problem is the now extreme concentration of major blockbusters to the fall/winter due to Corona - the original plan had the movies release over the entire year (Marvel, Mulan, James Bond, Top Gun 2 etc) but they are now being crammed at the end of the year and it could get ugly for many movies when viewer fatigue sets in and drags everbody down.
).
