Dune Production is In Trouble

[Admiral_Young]

I've had a bad feeling about this project since it was first announced a year or two ago and I don't think it will ever get off the ground. We've had no casting news from it and now it seems they're running out of time before the rights revert. I read a few months ago Josh Zetumer's treatment for the film (he wrote the first draft of the script which was reportedly a whopping 175 pages) and combined the characters of Gurney and Duncan together. I hated it if only for that reason. The concept art for the Berg production was released a few months ago as well and looked horrible. I really don't think this movie will be made. I'd much prefer an adaption of "God Emperor of Dune" which is my favorite book and something that was about to happen at SyFy but they axed the project when they told John Harrision they didn't have the budget for another film.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Dune...rel-No-Longer-Attached-As-Director-21636.html

 

[theenglish]

Honestly, do we really need another Dune? I love the novel series up to and including God Emperor.

I was fine with the miniseries a few years ago. I don't think this is really possible to do justice to as a movie. The basic story of Dune is not what makes it a great novel. When you remove all the politics and subtleties of the story, which you need to do in order to make a movie, you end up with what is at heart only a mediocre story.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think Paramount wanted another science fiction epic adaption of their own to mirror "Lord of the Rings" and they worked pretty hard to get the rights from the Herbert foundation. I think those rights expire at the end of this or next year. I personally was looking forward to this until I read that treatment, it was pretty bad. I don't think we need another adaption of it, as I said I'd prefer an adaption of "God Emperor of Dune".

 

[theenglish]

I think Paramount wanted another science fiction epic adaption of their own to mirror "Lord of the Rings" and they worked pretty hard to get the rights from the Herbert foundation. I think those rights expire at the end of this or next year. I personally was looking forward to this until I read that treatment, it was pretty bad. I don't think we need another adaption of it, as I said I'd prefer an adaption of "God Emperor of Dune".

What appeals to me about God Emperor is that it would have the potential to be a political/philosophical Science Fiction movie and not just another action adventure piece.

 

[FordSVT]

^Unfortunately, a "political/philosophical" science fiction movie is just about the last thing that would sell enough tickets to justify the huge price-tag a movie like this would need to command.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Which is what I believe forced SyFy to cancel it.

 

[theenglish]

^Unfortunately, a "political/philosophical" science fiction movie is just about the last thing that would sell enough tickets to justify the huge price-tag a movie like this would need to command.

I disagree--although any studio would believe your assumption--I think this movie can be done on a "reasonable" budget and I think that if it were a good movie it could do well.

The problem is that it would work much better as an "indy" movie than a big budget movie.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Let it die. I can't imagine there's a HUGE demand to see it. And there are probably other more film franchise friendly material out there.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Most likely wasn't any demand at all, that doesn't mean studios won't decide to make these things over and over again.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Most likely wasn't any demand at all, that doesn't mean studios won't decide to make these things over and over again.

Oh, sure.

But, I feel like they could've gotten something more feature film friendly, like the Lensmen books (I'm just thinking of the first thing...) It's action, sci-fi, not SO known that people would have expectations....

If they really want a sci-fi franchise, there's lots of material out there.

 

[theenglish]

Most likely wasn't any demand at all, that doesn't mean studios won't decide to make these things over and over again.

Oh, sure.

But, I feel like they could've gotten something more feature film friendly, like the Lensmen books (I'm just thinking of the first thing...) It's action, sci-fi, not SO known that people would have expectations....

If they really want a sci-fi franchise, there's lots of material out there.

Or, better yet, why not just produce an original story with original characters?

 

[Admiral_Young]

^That'd be too hard.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Most likely wasn't any demand at all, that doesn't mean studios won't decide to make these things over and over again.

Oh, sure.

But, I feel like they could've gotten something more feature film friendly, like the Lensmen books (I'm just thinking of the first thing...) It's action, sci-fi, not SO known that people would have expectations....

If they really want a sci-fi franchise, there's lots of material out there.

Or, better yet, why not just produce an original story with original characters?

In my opinion Hollywood does too much of its own stuff when it comes to sci-fi and has left so much of the world of sci-fi literature untouched. That includes short stories.

About this new possible Dune movie....I'm currently on Heretics of Dune and now think that I'd prefer they get past the first book, as we've seen that, twice. Though of course they're not going to jump ahead and make a God Emperor of Dune movie. It's just a dream I have.

 

[Kegg]

And I often think I'm alone in the God Emperor of Dune love. The novel is pretty much antithetical to what Hollywood would want from a big budget Dune adaptation, of course, so my estimated date for it being filmed is never.

Realistically I don't think we'll get a film that tops David Lynch's; and that's not even as someone trying to defend Lynch's film as a good movie... it's just a movie willing to take some risks and be a trifle weird in its presentation of this alien environment. Berg's concept was definitely dire (I believe he used the word 'muscular'), but then I heard some vague talk about getting a new director - which is good - and now silence - yeah, less so.

Also, last I heard, Joe Michael Straczynski was writing a film adaptation of Lensman... but I haven't heard squat from that producton in a while either. Lensman lends itself well to Hollywood's purposes, though, certainly.

As far as Hollywood producing original stories and characters, man I wish they did that more often oh hello Avatar didn't see you come in.... Yeah. It's a base they got covered.

 

[Reverend]

Honestly, I prefer Heratics and Chapterhouse over God Emperor. Partly because I can never recall the sequence of events (despite having read it twice) which leaves me with the impression that not very much actually happens, but mostly because Miles Teg rocks.

I can understand why so few are willing to attempt to adapt GEoD. Though now the technology is finally there that they could pull off Leto's worm body convincingly, it'd still be horrendously expensive as it's in practically every scene. Also, from a marketing standpoint alone I can see it being difficult to sell the idea of a love between a dashing hero, a beautiful woman...and Jabba the Hutt. On paper it works, but on screen...probably not so much.

As for this latest production, I was excited back when Berg was director (having just watched The Kingdom at the time) but watching Hancock rather dulled that enthusiasm. Since he dropped it, it's been pretty clear there's been no evidence of anyone at the project's tiller. If there's one thing that's an absolute MUST for a Dune adaptation it's a strong leader with a VERY firm grip on what they want to achive and how they intend to approach the material.

To do it right they'd need the likes of David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson or James Cameron (yes I know Scott almost took a shot at Dune before ending up on Alien.) By that I mean a director with a firm grounding in the effects side but also for characterization AND a near obsessive attention to detail. I'm not saying those are the only directors that can do it, just that they posses the qualities that would be needed to pull it off.

 

[Nardpuncher]

One of the problems with the Lynch movie was , in my opinion, trying to tell too much of the story...trying to get in all that's in the first book.
This lead to many of the characters being a mouthpiece of exposition, including their inner dialogs.
The miniseries had more time to slowly get the story out.
I think a new movie would perhaps have to be streamlined and focus on creating an entertaining film that would inevitably be less complex than the book.
I even agree that a new movie should merge Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho as a previous poster said he'd heard.

 

[Cutter John]

Meh. Plenty of other good SF series out there in need of adapting.

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly I'm not surprised. A Dune remake was first announced three years ago, and in that time the only real developments were announcing a director, then announcing a replacement director.

I had mixed feeling about a remake anyway. The mini from 2000 is the definitive adaptation of Dune, so I wonder if this would really be necessary. I'm enough of a Dune fan that I would check it out anyway, but then you have the problem that Dune really is a complex novel to adapt. So much so, that a two or three hour movie isn't really enough time to properly serve the story. That's the primary problem the Lynch movie had. The Dune novels need six hour minis to properly tell the story.

And as for the rumour that Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck were going to be combined as one character, why and how? Both the Lynch movie and the 200 mini managed to keep them as seperate characters and indeed they are unique characters with their own fates in the novel and subsequent sequels which would be difficult to pull off if they were one. This screams to me of filling the quota requiring a film adaptation to take two of the original novel's characters and merge them into one.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Why not just do Chapterhouse and Heretics? GED is too cerebral for most audiences anyways.

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm not surprised at all. I didn't have any faith in this when I didn't hear any good news for years. I don't think you can do just one film and have it make sense and do Dune justice, anyway. Three movies would have probably worked, though.

As far as combining Duncan and Gurney, that's ridiculous. Duncan becomes the most important character in the series and Gurney Halleck is one of my favorite characters. And I'm still upset no adaptation has done justice to Yueh or Thufir Hawat.