Legendary buys film and tv rights to Dune [movie] Dune 2021

[hepcat]

Patrick Duffy WISHES he had pecs like mine.

[Isgrimnur]

Are they stored in formaldehyde, alcohol, or the freezer?

[hepcat]

[Holman]

This weekend I finally got around to watching Villeneuve's SICARIO for the first time.

Obviouisly the genre here is different from DUNE, but I was really struck by the similarities in style. Lingering shots of barren Mexican desert seen from aircraft could just as easily be Arrakis from an ornithopter, and Villeneuve's camera treats Juarez the same way it treats Arrakeen. Even the way tense scenes between characters are presented in bare rooms with low light is similar.

And of course Josh Brolin, while not the "same" character, hits very similar notes in both movies.

[hepcat]

My only problem with Sicario was with the writing. I really think Taylor Sheridan is an overrated scriptwriter, which sucks as he's writing pretty much everything that shows up on Paramount Plus/CBS these days.

Other than that, Villeneuve's eye for detail really does show the world a promising director with real vision. It wasn't until Bladerunner 2049 though that I took notice of his work. I went back and watched Sicario and The Prisoner after that. I realized shortly after that he had directed Arrival too, which I had seen in the theater prior to Bladerunner 2049.

I hate to tell someone to stick with one genre, but I kind of hope he DOES stick to science fiction. He's just so damn good at it.

[Holman]

I hate to tell someone to stick with one genre, but I kind of hope he DOES stick to science fiction. He's just so damn good at it.

Is he still doing Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA?

[hepcat]

It still has an an IMDB page but who knows how it will work out.

[Holman]

So... anyone watching DUNE: PROPHECY?

Is this where we discuss it, or does it need its own thread?

I've watched the first 15 minutes. It's doing its best to imitate Villeneuve's visual style, although the callbacks to Brian Herbert's version of the Butlerian Jihad (or "great machine war," whatever) seem more TERMINATOR than DUNE.

Reserving judgment for a time.

[El Guapo]

So... anyone watching DUNE: PROPHECY?

Is this where we discuss it, or does it need its own thread?

I've watched the first 15 minutes. It's doing its best to imitate Villeneuve's visual style, although the callbacks to Brian Herbert's version of the Butlerian Jihad (or "great machine war," whatever) seem more TERMINATOR than DUNE.

Reserving judgment for a time.

I was just debating that. Feels like it should have its own thread?

I watched it last night. Hadn't seen or read much about it so went in pretty clean. I liked it so far - story was pretty engaging. Also not to be crude, but the princess was pretty hot.

The only thing that was bugging me a small amount was the classic prequel thing of the universe feeling a little too familiar for something set so long ago. It's 10,000 years before the events of Dune and the same imperial family is on the throne and the great houses (that we see so far) are all exactly the same? I suppose part of the Dune story is the Bene Gesserit and others intentionally managing long-term history so maybe that's mainly a reflection of that, but would help if they changed at least a few things here and there.

[hepcat]

Also not to be crude, but the princess was pretty hot.

[naednek]

I'm watching DUNE 2 scene by scene on MAX today,

Is there a different way to watch movie?

[Holman]

I'm watching DUNE 2 scene by scene on MAX today,

Is there a different way to watch movie?

I take notes, man.

(Not really.)

[Zarathud]

All very intentional.

In Dune, the galaxy is stagnant due to spice and the Great Houses. The end of the Machine War led to the control of the Great Houses who were players (Brian’s prequels). The Bene Gesserit aim to usher in a new age with their prophet. That culminates in Dune, but the seeds were planted generations earlier.

[hepcat]

In Dune, the galaxy is stagnant due to spice and the Great Houses. The end of the Machine War led to the control of the Great Houses who were players (Brian’s prequels).

Yes, but we'd like official explanations, not fan fiction crap.

[Holman]

I'm trying to remember where, but I do think it's mentioned in Frank Herbert material that the Atreides/Harkonnen feud goes back to the (space) Battle of Corrin, when House Corrino took the throne. At that battle, So-and-So Atreides accused Somebody Harkonnen of cowardice. This was 10,000 or so years before Paul Atreides, so, yeah, the stagnation is canonical and is that thick.

In fact, one of the first Brian Herberty moments in DUNE: PROPHECY is in the first minutes, when this rift at the Battle of Corrin is transformed into an event in the Machine War.

I guess I'll start a thread for the new series.

[Zarathud]

Yes, but the tensions went earlier. Atraides was once a machine’s pet human delivery boy before turning traitor, while Harkonnen led the fight against the robots from an early stage.

[Holman]

Yes, but the tensions went earlier. Atraides was once a machine’s pet human delivery boy before turning traitor, while Harkonnen led the fight against the robots from an early stage.

Hepcat was asking for Frank Herbert canon, not Brian.

When I've read DUNE, I've always come away with the sense that the Butlerian Jihad was a revolt against a (human) culture that relied far too much on "thinking machines," not one against an actual Skynet computer that controlled everything. The scenario was more Luddite rebellion than TERMINATOR war.

The rejection of "machines in the likeness of a human mind" always struck me as a religious/spiritual response to an ever more industrialized, bureaucratized society in which people themselves were treated as cogs in a machine. (Herbert was writing in the 1960s, after all.) This seemed much more in line with his human-spirit-driven (and Jungian) ethos than a straight-up robot overlord scenario would be. It also gave him a neat excuse to do far-future SF with a Byzantine/medieval feel.

Did Frank H ever actually write anything that suggested a war primarily *against* robots? I don't recall anything, and I remember rolling my eyes when I saw Brian Herbert making the Butlerian Jihad revolt against thinking machines so painfully literal.