Just to clarify, I didn't say that. What I thought Lynch did well was mesh conspiracy and strange forces in that opening scene. I acknowledge I could have made clearer, but it's messy Dune
That wasn't the impression I got from the film. The Guild had become aware of this already-underway conspiracy and demanded to know what the Emperor was up to. The Emperor explained it to them (and us). The Guild could have stopped the whole thing, but chose to allow it (not participate themselves) on two conditions: 1) Whatever happens, THE SPICE MUST FLOW!!! 2) Make certain Paul dies. They sense he's a looming threat to them, even if they themselves aren't sure how. (The script indicates that the Navigator is well aware that Reverend Mother Mohaim is listening in, and the message is as much for her & the Sisterhood as the Emperor - a heads up/warning.)
I think many of our future conversations will be like this. The book prints/says this, the film shows/says/implies this. It's a minefield
Any adaptation must find a way to present the world and the story in a new medium. Movies aren't novels, they don't have the luxury of spending pages and pages of prose describing the fine inner workings of the characters and their surroundings in between the narrative or in the copious appendices; it must all be done audio-visually. Through production design, performance and through scoring. Technically speaking they could indeed just mention or even allude to what the deal is with the navigators...but this is cinema, you're going to want to show *something* otherwise it feels like a cop out, and why would you NOT want to show a freaky weird mutated space-fish-person in your freaky weird sci-fi movie about giant sandworms, witches, and a knife fighting messianic prophet?
Because you have a limited run time and are already expanding Jessica, Kynes, and Chani's (edit: and Duncan's from the sounds of it) roles. Something's got to give. I'd prefer that something to be elements that aren't in the novel to begin with.
Well so far as I'm aware they haven't announced anyone cast as Fenring. So there's your time saver right there.
Two pages of dialogue threatening the Baron and a little non verbal exchange in the finale, not much to cut. Personally though I love Fenring. It's too bad but understandable.
I bought the Prelude to Dune trilogy. Thought I might read that first. Might give me a unique perspective
That's not really expanding a role so much as moving information from prose to dialogue and characterisation, which as noted above in often necessary in adaptations. As for Irulan, I think her role could do with some expanding. I suspect they'll go a similar route as the mini and give her some of Margot Fenring's plot points.
Expanding Irulan's role wouldn't be some crime, I mean the story itself was a bit unfair to her in the first place and seeing how she starts getting more of a role in Children of Dune there's no harm making her more important to start with.
I sadly suspect we won't get the Villeneuve or big-screen CoD. But Julie Cox who played Irulan was one of the best things in both SF miniseries (along with James McAvoy in CoD)
I don't know, I think these days the main reason any big studio is willing to bankroll such a huge project like Dune (in Hollywood terms, a remake of a notoriously panned 80's flop) is because of the franchise potential. For me a very compelling "Exhibit B" is the casting of Jason Momoa as Duncan. He's very much in the leading man phase of his career right now; not so much of a supporting character actor. So his interest makes more sense considering Duncan is a fairly minor and short lived character in the first book, if there's at least half an eye towards this being a recurring role where his character increasingly takes centre stage and in addition, will allow him to show off some range as each of Duncan's incarnations are very different characters. That said, I suspect both the semi-collapse and scattershot restart of the WB's DC franchise, and the utter stillbirth that was Universal's "Dark Universe" has made most studios more cautions about over-committing to these massive multi picture franchises right out of the gate (at lest one would hope so.) So I'm not saying there's active plans or set of scripts for Dune Messiah & Children of Dune ready to go or anything, but I think if this does well (critically and/or financially) then let's just say that I doubt that the studio is blind to the franchise potential here. Whether Villeneuve would still be on-board is something of an open question and I think depends on how much of a fan he is of the material that he'd be willing to commit to what would probably amount to the best part of a decade of his career to it when all's said and done.
I couldn't agree more. The 'studio franchise' potential is extraordinary (22 novels not including original? And excluding other meta-media sources). But I don't think the Kevin Feige level of passion uber-producer is there. This is my (sad) suspicion. Villeneuve's Dune film (hopefully 2-parter) will look and be great, and get great/good/decent reviews. And the prohibitive production cost will force rights owner back to streaming service, where time and less pressure can allow sequels - and possibly prequels - to grow and flourish. So many of us have said (even before GoT) this is where Dune belongs. I hope a streaming broadcaster will commit to it, and avoid the LoTR-series problems