I learned today for the first time that a remake of the awesome book (and decidedly less awesome early 80s movie) Dune is being made, and is currently in post-production with a release date of December 18, 2020.
The cast includes many I don't know, but the ones I do know seem excellent for their roles. It's damn near a Marvel reunion...
Jason Mamoa as Duncan Idaho (the swordmaster of House Atreides)
Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck (weaponsmaster of House Atreides, played memorably (and surprisingly) by Patrick Stewart in the original movie
Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen
Dave Bautista (better known as Drax the Destroyer) as "Beast" Rabban, the nephew of Harkonnen
This film is also only going to cover the first half of the book, which is good. It's really not possible to cover the whole thing in one 2 or 3 hour movie.
Anyway -- I love the book and a really good film would be great. What say you about all this news? Or am I just the last to known (as would be typical, to be honest!) [Reply]
Yeah, I get that as well. I found the hand to hand combat choreography lacking, for sure. The addition of LASER WEAPONS was a head scratcher, as the books make it a point to describe WHY those are not/cannot be used.
Spoiler!
When a beam weapon meets a shield, an atomic explosion occurs. Even a personal shield will cause a massive blast that would flatten a city, never mind one on a SHIP (Momoa escaping in a chopter)
Originally Posted by HC_Chief:
Yeah, I get that as well. I found the hand to hand combat choreography lacking, for sure. The addition of LASER WEAPONS was a head scratcher, as the books make it a point to describe WHY those are not/cannot be used.
Spoiler!
When a beam weapon meets a shield, an atomic explosion occurs. Even a personal shield will cause a massive blast that would flatten a city, never mind one on a SHIP (Momoa escaping in a chopter)
The use of beam/lazers is my biggest problem with the movie. Totally wrong. [Reply]
Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider:
The use of beam/lazers is my biggest problem with the movie. Totally wrong.
Yeah, another data point that makes me think there was production interference. i.e. only way to get funding and "green light" was to "like totally add more 'splosions and Star Wars stuff, because that's what moviegoers want, per the focus groups..." [Reply]
In the book, the bulk of the surviving Atreides forces retreated to a cave, and the Harkonnens, having successfully anticipated the move, specifically constructed ancient artillery pieces and used them to destroy the entrance and seal them in.
No lasers.
Yeah, it's annoying. But it's also 2021 Hollywood, and this is the best we're going to get. [Reply]
I hate pretty much all modern Hollywood crap...but I gotta say I enjoyed this. Some scenes really dragged on too long, but overall it was enjoyable. I will watch the next one. [Reply]
I was somewhat surprised at how many scenes were untouched straight out of the source material.
And even breaking this into two films, there is just so so much to cover. I think they did as good of a job as they could have with the time they had. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
I was somewhat surprised at how many scenes were untouched straight out of the source material.
And even breaking this into two films, there is just so so much to cover. I think they did as good of a job as they could have with the time they had.
Some of it was untouched. But some of it was, and for no good reason. I found it really annoying, for example, that the Baron killed Yueh and not Piter. What was the point of changing that? Alas, we'll never know. Frankly the Lynch abomination handled that scene better and more accurately. [Reply]
So I tried to watch this movie and it was just too slow; fell asleep after about 45 minutes. The guy that told me to watch it had read the books and told me maybe that's why he enjoyed it.
So I started reading the first book - I like it. Sorta GOT meets Star Wars. It takes the palace intrigue of GOT with the clear 'good guy/bad guy' setup in Star Wars. There's really very little moral ambiguity here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Some of it was untouched. But some of it was, and for no good reason. I found it really annoying, for example, that the Baron killed Yueh and not Piter. What was the point of changing that? Alas, we'll never know. Frankly the Lynch abomination handled that scene better and more accurately.
Clumsy attempt to make Baron Harkonnen more eviler(sic).
The lasers were the worst deviation, IMO. The books go into great detail as to why beam weapons cannot be used. They just threw that shit out the window, cuz "lasers are super kewl, yo!" [Reply]
Yeah, Duncan evading the lasers from the capitol ships looked awesome on the big screen, but it totally flew in the face of the source material. Now that I'm thinking about it, weren't there troops using beam weapons as well? I remember the part in the book that talked about the atomic explosion from a beam weapon hitting a shield.... [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
I'll have to give that a look. It was always (and still is) Orson Welles that I picture in my mind's eye as the Baron. His size and rumbling voice fit the character perfectly. I always pictured a 60's era Ernest Borgnine as Halleck.
When it comes to Leto and Paul, I always thought they should be portrayed by the same actor. Even back in the 70's and 80's, this would have been easy enough to pull off with a little makeup and platform shoes to give Leto a little height difference, since they really don't share that many scenes together. In the book, when Gurney first encounters a transformed Paul in the desert his appearance is described as a ghost image of Leto. Chalamet looks nothing like Oscar, just as MacLachlan looked nothing like Prochnow.
Oh well. I was not consulted.
Just reading it now, at one point Leto thinks to himself when discussing Jessica that she 'brings a regal beauty back to the Atreides line...I'm glad Paul took after her"
If that was the line they focused on, I think it's really good casting. I LOVE Rebecca Ferguson and man she's just a perfect proxy for my mind's eye impression of Lady Jessica. And Chalamet has that same sort of angular, lithe look that she has, along with the darker features of Isaacs.
I'm excited to watch the movie all the way through after finishing the book, I think I'll like it a fair amount more. Though I do agree with you that Brolin is far too athletic and normal looking to be Gurney. Especially with Paul's lines as soon as they get to Arrakis that Gurney is clearly aged and they're putting a lot of faith in the actions of an old man.
Brolin is still youthful and powerful. At least 1/3 of the way through the book, that's not how he's portrayed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
So I tried to watch this movie and it was just too slow; fell asleep after about 45 minutes. The guy that told me to watch it had read the books and told me maybe that's why he enjoyed it.
So I started reading the first book - I like it. Sorta GOT meets Star Wars. It takes the palace intrigue of GOT with the clear 'good guy/bad guy' setup in Star Wars. There's really very little moral ambiguity here.
Dune is pretty classic Hero's Journey.
The complexities of a hero/messiah complex are dealt with in later Dune material. You'll dig it. (Just don't expect Frazod to speak of it glowingly). [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
Dune is pretty classic Hero's Journey.
The complexities of a hero/messiah complex are dealt with in later Dune material. You'll dig it. (Just don't expect Frazod to speak of it glowingly).
So... what books in the universe are a must read? I got Dune after watching the movie but now I'm wondering where I should go next and no one online seems to agree on what books in the series to read. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
Yeah, Duncan evading the lasers from the capitol ships looked awesome on the big screen, but it totally flew in the face of the source material. Now that I'm thinking about it, weren't there troops using beam weapons as well? I remember the part in the book that talked about the atomic explosion from a beam weapon hitting a shield....
Yep, atomic detonation when a beam meets shield. Cannot use beam weapons when shields are in use...at all. Even personal shields, as sported by the Atreides, would result in a massive detonation that would level a city. Due to this the Harkonnens had to use "ancient weaponry" to assault the city (artillery) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
So... what books in the universe are a must read? I got Dune after watching the movie but now I'm wondering where I should go next and no one online seems to agree on what books in the series to read.
I would start by finishing the trilogy. Maybe read Paul of Dune and The Winds of dune in between dune (Paul) dune messiah (winds) and children of dune.
If you like those, there’s a second series beyond them, written by Frank Herbert, then another series beyond that, written by his son from Dad’s notes.
And if you really like it all, there is prequel stuff worth checking out. There’s a trilogy that deals with the lead up to the butler Ian jihad, as well as House Atreides-House Harlingen - House Corrino, which lead up to the events of Dune. [Reply]