Dune 2018 (19,20,21...)
- Thread starter wayoung
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Fenring is described as "a small man, weak-looking. The face was weaselish with overlarge dark eyes. There was gray at the temples."
Steve Buscemi?
Steve Buscemi?
Robert Carlyle?
Even though he's by far my favourite supporting character, I still think a movie adaptation is going to struggle to find a way to include Fenring in a meaningful way.
One possible solution is to have him a the sole representative (to the audience, at least) of the Emperor and his machinations. By that I mean to not have Shaddam show up at all until right at the end. Have him more of a presence than a character. Bonus points if he's a *really* recognisable veteran actor (think Harrison Ford level of recognition), but has exactly zero lines even when he does appear.
Honestly though, even that function would probably be better filled by Irulan, since her role would be in desperate need of expanding and her BG training and her status as a Corrino means she could easily fill the role served by both Fenring & his wife in the book.
One of my favourite scenes in the book is when Fenring abruptly drops the foppish aristocrat act and immediately puts the Baron on the back-foot.
One possible solution is to have him a the sole representative (to the audience, at least) of the Emperor and his machinations. By that I mean to not have Shaddam show up at all until right at the end. Have him more of a presence than a character. Bonus points if he's a *really* recognisable veteran actor (think Harrison Ford level of recognition), but has exactly zero lines even when he does appear.
Honestly though, even that function would probably be better filled by Irulan, since her role would be in desperate need of expanding and her BG training and her status as a Corrino means she could easily fill the role served by both Fenring & his wife in the book.
That's actually a very good choice, though not so much for his appearance but for his ability to play both an idiosyncratic (in a Peter Lorre kind of way), seemingly not all there character AND a laser focused and subtly menacing character. Most importantly though, is the ability to switch from one to the other without missing a beat.
One of my favourite scenes in the book is when Fenring abruptly drops the foppish aristocrat act and immediately puts the Baron on the back-foot.
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Problem for the character of Iruland is she has almost no role in the Dune so I don't see any benefit to expanding the role.- it's not until the next two novels come along she plays a bigger role.
In the novel Irulan was a constant presence for the reader since it was she that was recounting the entire story. That's why the Lynch movie used her for the intro and why the mini-series expanded her role. Without that, she just randomly appears at the end of the story to be married off to Paul. That makes her appear to be little more than a prop and it's really doing the character a disservice.
Also, the fact that she plays a more central role in later instalments is *exactly* why she needs to be better established in the first movie. This is an age of franchises after all and one must always be mindful of the larger picture.
Irulan is kinda like one of the narrators, in universe. Many chapters begin with quotes from her book(s), "In My Father's House" being the one whose title I recall. I've forgotten if she's the only one, or if there are other characters that arguably deserve that status too.
been a while but I'm pretty sure that she's the only "chronicler"
I skimmed through the preview on Amazon and also saw "The Manual of Muad'Dib" "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries", "A Child's History of Muad'Dib", and "Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis". There might be more, I stopped once they started repeating.
Pretty sure *all* the chapters do and most of them are indeed from her personal writings, biographies, histories and the like (they even reference her being in the process writing these in later books.) I think a few quotes might be from the BG handbook or the OC bible, but the implication is still that Irulan selected them for context and tone setting.
So yeah, in a very real way, Irulan is the lens through which the story of Dune as we know it is given life. That makes her by far one of the most important characters from the book (far more so than the likes of Fenring) and as such she deserves to be very present in the movie too. I mean, she's basically Frank Herbert talking directly to the audience.
Yeah, on flipping through one of my copies now, I see that if there are any quotes that are not from Irulan, they are few and far between. I had forgotten that. There are multiple books of hers "quoted" too.
Good question. Just got down the other two books from the trilogy. Other authors getting quoted, not sure how many are still from Irulan on just a quick flip-through, beyond one I found of hers in Messiah, but hers are clearly now few and far between. The first quote in Children comes from Duncan Idaho.
They did that with her in the mini-series, though, and it was done well enough, to my mind. Especially her training part. It was less shocking when she shows up at the end.
It might be possible to have Fenring as the Harkonnen side, and Irulan to do the Dune side (briefly).
It's a while since I read the books but I wonder if there's any material in the sequels or even the Herbert Jr-Anderson prequels that could be incorporated into the Villeneuve script to help flesh out characters like Irulan? Especially as Brian Herbert seems to have an exec prod role on the film (along with Anderson?)
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I hope the Weirding Way doesn't come off as kung-fu in the desert as Lynch feared. If they can render something akin to the skills that Leto II demonstrated at the end of the Children of Dune TV series, that should work ok, especially if scaled up to hundreds or thousands of Fremen,
http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Weirding_Way
Soooo.... kung-fu in the desert. In rubber suits. Sped up about 30-40 percent. With normal speed explosions, sand and lasers going off at the same time.
Yeah, I'd have probably gone with sonic guns too.
Yeah, I'd have probably gone with sonic guns too.
Not sure about DM, but CoD at least seems to imply that the "author" is Farad'n Corrino (aka: Harq al-Ada.)
From then on I think it's probably either one (or many?) of the Duncan Gholas, or even Leto II himself (even the ones that take place after his death.)
I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this question since this thread is about a new Dune movie and not the novels, but I'm asking it here anyway: do I need to read Frank Herbert's Dune novels before reading Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune?
The reason I'm asking is that I eventually want to read all of Dune, but would like to separate Brian and Kevin's stuff from Frank's because of the differences in writing style.
The reason I'm asking is that I eventually want to read all of Dune, but would like to separate Brian and Kevin's stuff from Frank's because of the differences in writing style.
