Dune (2020)

Drakain said:

This god damned thread is making me want to read Dune again. It's right there... on my shelf... 8 feet away... taunting me

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How about you go read the fucking book.

It is a title that always seems just a bit more relevant today than whenever i last read it.

This movie was always going to be a challenge, as evidenced by the Lynch abomination and the accurate but boring Sci Fi channel miniseries.

In 2017 America, it is not possible to make this movie. The Fremen are literally and explicitly descended from Muslim slaves in the far future. Their culture is directly tied to modern Arabian Muslim culture. I just dont see how anyone could faihtfully capture this while threading the needle between "muslim apologist" and "islamophobia".

Greatest sci fi series of all time, and would make an amazing movie, but I dont see how its possible here and now.

Ok, no.. there isnt a problem in depicting people of muslim decent in a film. Even 'muslim slave descendants'. If they make them all one dimensional thugs constantly raping or murdering for no reason, suicide bombing a children's orphanage, or flying a plane into a skyscraper.. then yes some people will get pissed.
But, there heritage itself is not a problem for anyone except the knee jerk alt rightists that think the SJWs will jump all over it.

On an unrelated note, its been like 15-20 years since i read the book. Ive seen the movie on TV more recently, and i thought the weirding modules (the things shooting his name) WAS in the book? I remember his name becoming a 'killing word' and paul pulling off similar things himself, plus the demonstration of him destroying the rock in front of the fremen.. am i just mixing the movie in with my memories of the book?

Looks like its a movie thing:

Weirding Module

"The Weirding Module is introduced into the Dune movie to replace the Bene Gesserit martial art referred to by the Fremen as the Weirding Way. "

And the left will love Muad'Dib's Jihad

Enzee said:

Ok, no.. there isnt a problem in depicting people of muslim decent in a film. Even 'muslim slave descendants'. If they make them all one dimensional thugs constantly raping or murdering for no reason, suicide bombing a children's orphanage, or flying a plane into a skyscraper.. then yes some people will get pissed.
But, there heritage itself is not a problem for anyone except the knee jerk alt rightists that think the SJWs will jump all over it.

On an unrelated note, its been like 15-20 years since i read the book. Ive seen the movie on TV more recently, and i thought the weirding modules (the things shooting his name) WAS in the book? I remember his name becoming a 'killing word' and paul pulling off similar things himself, plus the demonstration of him destroying the rock in front of the fremen.. am i just mixing the movie in with my memories of the book?

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Theyre descendants of muslim slaves. Their culture is directly modeled in some ways after Arabian Muslim culture. They start a galaxy-wide Jihad that kills billions. Theyre the good guys of the book.

I do not see how you faithfully capture the book Fremen and avoid muslim apologist or islamophobia labels.

And yeah, you appear to have movie memories mixed with book memories. Everything you mention was only in the movie.

Ahh, the weirding WAY. Paul teaches them that, ok. I knew he taught them 'Weirding something' and demonstrated it for them.

Also, obviously we rename 'Muad'Dib's Jihad' to 'Muad'dib's Murder and Mayhem Movement' and we're good to go. Call me, Hollywood, I got more where that came from.

I'd be happy to see it done well, but it's almost scary how the book never ceases to be relevant. I'd love to eventually see the God Emperor in a movie, but honestly the sequels feel a bit more fit for the big screen. Fuck I still have the Litanny against fear memorised. The tidbits of wisdom sprinkled between the chapters were absolutelly awesome.

I don't know if it is necessarilly politically unviable, it has a lot less to do with Islam/muslims and more to do with Paul seeing that stability leads to stagnation, therefore burning down half the universe, but even those ideas aren't all that explicit. It's one of the few books which dealt better with grand ideas while keeping characters interesting enough, which is where any adaption will fail, either the ideas are there and movie becomes dry, or you rewrite it and lose the grand schemes that made it such a staple.

Enzee said:

Ok, no.. there isnt a problem in depicting people of muslim decent in a film. Even 'muslim slave descendants'. If they make them all one dimensional thugs constantly raping or murdering for no reason, suicide bombing a children's orphanage, or flying a plane into a skyscraper.. then yes some people will get pissed.

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So make it inaccurate to real life?

That director's take on Dune as 'Star Wars for adults' is about as far the fuck away from what Dune is as you can possibly be. Like read the damn books, man. All 4 million pages. Then tell me it is some kind of adult space opera with fancy do gooders and shiny princesses.

That comparison triggers me. I am triggered.

Well Lucas did ask David Lynch to direct RotJ. I love Villeneuve's work but he's more likely to just piss off both Star Wars fans and Dune fans simultaneously with statements like that.

And if he would have, Kyle McLachlan would have ended up inexplicably replacing Mark Hamill through force magic and the emperor would have been a mean face in a floating ball. And it would have been awesome.

Royal said:

Well Lucas did ask David Lynch to direct RotJ. I love Villeneuve's work but he's more likely to just piss off both Star Wars fans and Dune fans simultaneously with statements like that.

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That's the kind of statement you make when try to pitch your movie to producers. I think since 2049 Villeneuve is having issues developping its Dune project since Blade Runner didn't sell good and cost a lot of money. This plus Dune being known for being a potential development hell (Jodorowskys got never made and Lynchs was a typical nightmare production wise) isn't playing in favor of Villeneuve. There's even rumors about Villeneuve's Dune going the TV show way if he's not in capacity to produce it to theaters.

I still want to see some filmmaker try and make Heretics or Chapterhouse. I consider this series to be one of if not the best work of philosophical fiction in the 20th century. But when half the readers don't get it, trying to make films is tough. You end up bringing the boom boom or weirding ways. Even his kid was so fucking retarded his conclusion to the series was a duel and Leto riding a Fucking worm through the Machine city.

Fucks sake they should of woke baby Leto up and ended the first book with him desperately asking "Why did you wait so long? They are coming". God I hate Herbert the Younger.

Bondurant said:

There's even rumors about Villeneuve's Dune going the TV show way if he's not in capacity to produce it to theaters.

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Yeah when 2049 failed to deliver on the money end everyone started to surmise future problems for him getting anything with obvious big budget requirements made again. He might have to go through TV to demonstrate he can make something for which there is sufficient demand to justify the money that gets put out for it. It sucks that such a good director would have to turn to that but TV isn't the mark of shame it was even 10 years ago. A lot of what would have been mid budget projects in the film business have fled to television and streaming because of studios becoming increasingly reluctant to fund them. This would hopefully be more than that but Netflix, Amazon, and now Apple are certainly throwing a lot of money around for original content. Maybe one of them will give it a whirl.

I'd rather Dune get the series treatment on a premium cable or streaming channel. The cinematic universe model fails more than it succeeds and with Dunes history I see it being the later. However, if you give the masses something they can talk about at work on a weekly basis like Got, you have a better shot.