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.

[Jeff V]

So the first half of the story made it to Amazon Prime. Very much by-the-book without being outrageous like Lynch. However, like Lynch, there seems to be a presumption the audience has read the book. Wife didn't even pretend to watch it, but I'm sure she'd hammer me with questions throughout.

Maybe in another couple of years the rest of the movie will appear.

[hepcat]

Dune part deux is on Max right now. I'll help you sign up for a free trial and you can watch it. Barring that, I'll send you the 4 bucks to rent it on Amazon so you can stop complaining about it being two parts.

As for knowing the books to understand the story? I mean, my 80 year old mother understand the gist of the story.

[Zarathud]

I remember getting a Dune coloring book from my cool Aunt, along with the original Dune board game. The Coloring Book made the story pretty clear. The cards were in a perforated sheet, and unfortunately I lost a few over time.

[hepcat]

I thought Villeneuve creating a division in the Fremen between zealots and non zealots was a stroke of genius. With one small change, he immediately created a connection with modern day audiences that have grown up in a world that has seen its fair share of religious wars.

[Holman]

I thought Villeneuve creating a division in the Fremen between zealots and non zealots was a stroke of genius. With one small change, he immediately created a connection with modern day audiences that have grown up in a world that has seen its fair share of religious wars.

He also avoided the term "jihad," which in Herbert is (at least at first) a positive term for his protagonists' holy war.

[Punisher]

Dune part deux is on Max right now. I'll help you sign up for a free trial and you can watch it. Barring that, I'll send you the 4 bucks to rent it on Amazon so you can stop complaining about it being two parts.

As for knowing the books to understand the story? I mean, my 80 year old mother understand the gist of the story.

Isn't it supposed to be 3 parts though?

[hepcat]

The two films cover the entirety of the first book. You don’t need to read the second book to understand the first.

[Punisher]

Ok. But aren't they making additional parts already?

[hepcat]

They’re still making Star Wars and Star Trek content. That doesn’t mean those franchises are unfinished.

Villaneuve could have stopped with the first book and it would have still been complete in my eyes. Don’t forget that Herbert wrote more than just two Dune books too. And they’re NOT making those into movies. So if you’re waiting for some moment in time when everything pertaining to Dune is on film to call it complete, you’re gonna need the Bene Tleilax to create you a Ghola.

[Punisher]

I mean it's being designed as a trilogy not a twoogy.
Like part 2 ends unresolved and you need part 3 to complete the story?

[hepcat]

Nope, it was designed as two films…done. But critical and financial success was so great he decided to do one more. You can safely ignore JeffV’s complaints that you can’t watch the first one because they’re not finished.

[Punisher]

Nope, it was designed as two films…done. But critical and financial success was so great he decided to do one more. You can safely ignore JeffV’s complaints that you can’t watch the first one because they’re not finished.

Fair enough. It's the main reason I was waiting.

[hepcat]

I get it. I refuse to watch any Harry Potter films until they finish those.

[Holman]

I mean it's being designed as a trilogy not a twoogy.
Like part 2 ends unresolved and you need part 3 to complete the story?

The first novel is DUNE. Villeneuve has now filmed this novel as two movies (DUNE Part 1 and DUNE Part 2)

The first sequel novel is DUNE MESSIAH. Villeneuve is doing this one now as a single movie, which makes sense because it's a shorter and tighter story.

Frank Herbert (author of the DUNE novels) wrote six Dune books in chronological sequence. If someone were to make more movies in order, they would follow the first two with CHILDREN OF DUNE, GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, HERETICS OF DUNE, and CHAPTERHOUSE DUNE. It's hard to imagine most of these being made into movies.

Brian Herbert (Frank's son and heir to the IP) has written (with partners) many Dune books jumping back and forth in the chronology, but he is a bad writer and is better ignored.

[Punisher]

So we can watch the 2 out and it's mostly a complete story and not a cliffhanger ending?

[hepcat]

I mean, it leaves off the same way the first book does. Like all the Star Wars films (to name just one franchise of many that has multiple stories), there’s obviously more to come.

[Punisher]

Right, but there's a huge difference between end of Empire and the end of Return.
Empire was a true cliffhanger. Return ended pretty much all of the loose threads. There were also no current plans for more movies other than the vaugue trilogy of trilities that Lucas had.
That's the difference I'm referring to.

[hepcat]

Okay, here's the point I should have made clear:

Did you see each Star Wars film upon release? Or did you wait until the entire series of films were out (or at least the original trilogy) before you watched them? Did you do the same for The Lord of the Rings trilogy? The Matrix films?

If not and you saw them on release, I don't understand what we're discussing. Watch Dune 1 and 2. They're amazing.

If you did wait until all the Star Wars original trilogy, Matrix films and the Lord of the Rings movies were all done and out before you watched them, then wait another 4 or 5 years (maybe longer) until Villeneuve finishes the film adaptation of the second book.

My original intent of poking fun at JeffV over this claim that Dune was committing some cardinal sin because it was supposedly released unfinished (i.e. told its full story across two films) was because he was completely overlooking the simple fact that this is common place, and has been since the first time Og sat down with a chisel and a stone tablet to write the adventures of Moog: The Recalcitrant Neanderthal (side note: THAT series went downhill after they introduced the concept of midi-chlorians).

[Punisher]

I understand your point, but I didn't make it clear.
That was in the before times.
In the now times, I would need to see something like dune back to back. Other movies vary and it depends on how heavy they are.
Ex. I did wait until I could see both Jokers back to bback to be safe.
Popcorn, check your brain at the door stuff isn't too bad. They are movies where you just need to remember vauge plot points. Beetlejuice is a good example. I remember the basics of the plot. When I saw the 2nd one it wasn't bad but I completely forgot about the 2 ghosts in the attic in the original until the movie was almost done. It wasn't super important to the new plot but it hit me hard when I remembered and started wondering what happened to them. (I still don't know). I still enjoyed the movie though.

[hepcat]

If it's a memory issue in trying to remember who is who and what happened in any capacity from film to film within a franchise, then I would say you probably want to just binge watch movies going forward. That's the safer bet in the long run. That or rewatch the previous ones before each new entry.

[Punisher]

I really only worry about heavy movies with complicated plots and such.
If star wars was released now I could probably watch it as it was released. There just aren't a lot of details I would need to remember from film to film.
Same with the Marvel movies. Just need a vague understanding of each one.
From what I remember of the original dune movie there were a lot of important plot points. Spreading it over 2 movies meand I need by closer attention to it.
If you say that the 2nd movie doesn't end in a cliffhanger then we can watch it and hope that if/when the 3rd drops i don't need to remember too many details or if it's really far away I'll wait for streaming and watch all 3 at once.

[TheMix]

It's definitely not a cliffhanger. There is obvious setup for the next movie (book), but the story being told in the first two movies wraps up sufficiently. I never read the second book, however, so I don't know how many of the characters carry over. Or how important it will be to thoroughly know all the events of the first book. If there is a strong dependency, then you may be better off waiting. That said, the current two movies are superb; and I doubt that you'd mind having to rewatch them some time in the future.

[hepcat]

If it's a film franchise I love, I almost always rewatch the prior movie(sometimes movieS) before seeing the new ones. Just makes it more enjoyable for me.