The cast does look super good, and it's good that they're not trying to cram all of Dune into one movie (I think the book lends itself well to being split for an adaption, actually - it's split into three parts, so there's a pretty logical cut-off point for doing two films)... but, it's hard for me to get excited for this if it's not gonna cover Dune Messiah, as well. Without going past the first book, I feel like it's kind of easy to either intentionally or unintentionally turn it into a typical hero's journey/good guy levels up to lvl. 99 and defeats all of his enemies type of story, which is, like, the exact opposite of what the series is actually about (eg., some of its themes being that prescience sucks and humanity should be extremely wary of messiahs). The first book does reference
the jihad and the atrocities Paul's leadership leads to, and I expect the movie to cover this in Paul's visions, as the book does
but, I wonder how likely is is that the powers that be will let a big budget Hollywood movie really lean into a subversive ending.
Also, not to be a weirdo, but - and this is my own personal hangup - even though I really like Dune, I'm actually kind of indifferent to an adaption, because I like not having my mental image of it influenced by a movie in the way that the Lord of the Rings movies have completely overridden however I picture stuff in my head when I read the re-read the books. Like, I love the LotR movies, but I totally can't picture the characters any other way now.
In any case, I'm honestly still pretty surprised this is happening (like truly happening and not being in eternal limbo). Even beyond it necessarily being a hugely expensive affair, I thought a Dune film adaption would be far off due to how many Islamic terms it borrows.
I'm thinking that if you start just focused on two films, you're not overselling something where the audience may not deliver massive financial returns (Blade Runner 2049). If it's a massive success, I can see it being very likely to move past the first book, but I'd rather it deliver hard on the initial promise than risk overcommitting.
Additionally, given that my little brother has never really been overly fond of the LotR films for the exact reason that they don't match the way he's always envisioned them, I totally get ya. Especially when something bleeds so heavily into the widely distributed public version of a story, it gets harder to keep associations to how you might've pictured it before.
I feel like (while very different in ways) Denis Villeneuve & Guillermo Del Toro both have a really particular ability to carry out particulars of a vision that they're passionate about, and have a deep love of fiction. Legendary seems to be a good fit for that sort of thing, given their catalogue of films. The two of them have a roundtable discussion with some other filmmakers that's really interesting if you've got some time to check it out: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...reative-fears-going-a-deep-dark-place-1065228
I want this to work, BUT I also believe it will require rewriting a lot of the story to make it work; I've read Dune, sorta watched the David Lynch film (tried to watch it, it was so slow and fuck boring and weird), watched a pretty good miniseries adaptation, but they were all... lacking. Including the book, mind you; it's not a straightforward Hero's Journey lvl book, but it meanders a lot in politics, philosophy, world building, etc. The best Dune story experience I had was the 1992 video game, which mixed an adventure game with exploration and strategy, mixing a number of genres (inventing some while it was at it) into a compelling storyline with a huge amount of atmosphere. etc. Dune 2 then went on to invent or at least popularize the RTS genre.
Anyway, tl;dr it has potential but it needs to not be as weird for the big screen; that is, they need to spell shit out, have a prologue where they explain it's the far future, post-computer / post-AI society, yadda yadda yadda. They're probably also going to omit the word "jihad", because you know, reasons.
something something Captain Basch of Dalmast..chian...? Also who is Piter de Vries and why are stereotypical Dutch names still so common 20.000 or so years in the future
Something something 101 Dastmalchians...? His character is a Mentat (people computers because computers are outlawed), who was previously played by Brad Dourif in the David Lynch film.
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
It does look good and I'm hopefull, but maybe Dune is just one of those books that cannot be adapted to the big screen, or at least cannot be adapted well.
I think it would work better as a 20 part Game of Thrones style TV series, given how much world building/content there is in the book.
It felt like homework/an encyclopedia at points. I've only read the first book, how good are the sequels?
His character is a Mentat (people computers because computers are outlawed), who was previously played by Brad Dourif in the David Lynch film.
