That 2020 DUNE film

[Funkworks]

Here’s the trailer for Asimov’s ‘Foundation’.

I'll have to look into that one as well. Despite having known about these sci-fi epics for a long time, I never could find the time to read them. But with well-made films, I have no excuse.

 

[Louis Wu]

Oh, you must read all three (or seven) Foundation books, as well as all three (or nine) Dune books.

 

[SecondRow]

Pink Floyd was going to be involved in the soundtrack a movie that never was.



Answer to mikec's question in post #18, but I forgot to quote.

Jodorowsky’s Dune would have been batshit insanity, and supposedly 14 hours long in its original draft. I wish it had been made.

 

[Funkworks]

Oh, you must read all three (or seven) Foundation books, as well as all three (or nine) Dune books.

The reason I haven't read Asimov's Foundation is because I was lured by Asimov's nonfiction and have been hanging out there ever since. So you can blame Asimov.

 

[neil_w]

I read the Foundation series a loooooong time ago, and really loved it, particularly when it rotated around and linked up with the Robots series. Dunno how well it holds up to today though.

Best to read them in order written. Start with Foundation, read through to Foundation and Earth, then go back and read Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire (or start with the earlier Robot books if desired, but definitely Dawn and Empire. Finish off if desired with Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, although I didn't enjoy those two as much.

I am very much looking forward to the TV series, just on principle.

 

[user 13]

I'm cautiously optimistic after seeing the trailer.
But, I'm not thrilled that Villeneuve directed it. I think he completely missed the point with
BladeRunner 2049.
I hope he realizes that Dune is about people and their motives/scheming not just visuals and tech.

 

[prfesser]

I think I'll skip this one. The first version, with Sting, was a travesty. They handed out sheets of terminology when you entered.

TV miniseries was quite decent IMHO. Could it be improved upon? Probably. Enough to make the new version worth seeing? Nah.

 

[Louis Wu]

I think I'll skip this one. The first version, with Sting, was a travesty. They handed out sheets of terminology when you entered.

Same with the book. It has an immense glossary

 

[stealth6]

My favorite scene was with Patrick Stewart (Gurney?) playing a string and the Atreidis hosting deVries?

Interesting thing about "that instrument".......

Lynch was obviously trying to add something that exotic, mysterious, otherwordly, and/or just plain "strange". But in fact the instrument was at the time (and still is) a fully established instrument. It's called the Chapman Stick, and you've likely heard it on any number of recordings (some of the more well known ones are by Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and others). It's essentially a guitar/bass hybrid that is played mostly by tapping the strings (similar to what Eddie Van Halen became famous for doing in his solos). Lynch added a couple of bits to it to make it seem more "alien" or "futuristic", but anyone who knows the instrument would recognize it immediately. There are actually quite a lot of players.

There's even a more evolved variation around called the War Guitar.

Here's a little sample of one of the more well known players (Tony Levin) talking about the instrument:



s6

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

If a spice trader doesn’t say “Many machines on Ix. New machines”, it’s just gonna suck.

 

[RobertH3]

Dune: ecology and SF mix that IMO, like Lovecraft and others, just won't transfer to the big screen successfully. It is a stunningly good novel above and beyond the category of SF. The 6 book Frank Herbert series is about people but more about human effects on a fictional ecosystem. Even well-planned, results are not predictable. Look around and if you are a child of the 1960's especially, see how much the landscape has changed.

Peter Jackson got LOTR to transfer successfully but that's because it could be done. Tolkien wrote it kind of like Beowulf, as a verbally transmitted story that had been written down. He did make a great movie out of the books that almost everyone liked - again, a verbal story.

There are some works that just cannot be popularized because they rely on the mind's eye for mental special effects. Will watch it though.

Cheers / Robert

 

[Scott Hala]

I preferred The White Plague.

That was a great book!

 

[Scott Hala]

I saw the trailer last evening. 'thopers look more like dragonflies than birds. Baded on the Ralph McQuarrie illustrations, the 1984 move was closer to the point than what I saw in the trailer.

 

[samb]

Jodorowsky’s Dune would have been batshit insanity, and supposedly 14 hours long in its original draft. I wish it had been made.

Bats__ insanity for a pretty insane book I think. 14 hours might be enough to get everybody’s favorite scenes in there. The tech was not a main point for me so they can make the ‘thopters whatever they want. When I first read the book in 1974 I envisioned something from a Roger Dean Yes album cover.
Our English teacher, Mr Harper, said this book and Stranger in a Strange Land were big parts of the hippie manifesto. He was a great teacher and an OG beatnik.

 

[SecondRow]

Bats__ insanity for a pretty insane book I think. 14 hours might be enough to get everybody’s favorite scenes in there.

I looked at the cast list again and my god....Dalí as the emporer, fat Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, Gloria Swanson as the reverend mother, Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha (why singers?), and Hervé Villechaize as Gurney Halleck (!!!). With Floyd doing the soundtrack and Giger the visuals, this movie would have answered the question “is it possible to trip without doing any drugs?”

 

[JamesS]

“is it possible to trip without doing any drugs?”

Have you seen any of Jodorowsky's other films - El Topo or The Holy Mountain?

 

[PBic]

I will definitely see the new version of Dune. My first thought was to go back and re-read the book. But if I do that, I won’t be watching the new film, I’ll be critiquing it. I’m going in semi-cold, and will hopefully enjoy it. I’m really hoping Stellan Skarsgård can erase the 1984 version’s memory of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

 

[Scott Hala]

Here's Ars Technica's write up about the trailer.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020...amet-is-the-chosen-one-in-first-dune-trailer/

 

[SecondRow]

Have you seen any of Jodorowsky's other films - El Topo or The Holy Mountain?

I saw The Holy Mountain in college years ago. I don’t remember much now because of the, uh, “medication“ I was on at the time.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

My first thought was to go back and re-read the book. But if I do that, I won’t be watching the new film, I’ll be critiquing it.

If you're thinking about both watching a movie and reading the book its based on, watch the movie first. The book will have depths of detail that can't fit in the movie, so if you do it in the other order you'll probably feel like the movie has been scaled back (because it has). Not just for Dune, this is true for almost any book. A normal movie really only has enough time to cover the content of a short novella.

I learned this from Silence Of The Lambs. Watched the movie, thought "that was better than I expected". Then read the book and also thought "that was better than I expected". If I'd done it in the other order I wouldn't have enjoyed the movie nearly as much.

 

[neil_w]

If you're thinking about both watching a movie and reading the book its based on, watch the movie first.

This is generally good advice. In this case, having read the book 40 years ago, I feel like having just a dim memory of it is perfect preparation. It'll be the same for the Foundation series when that arrives.

Movies often are forced to become somewhat separate works, to be judged on their own. Comparing them against the books is rough, particularly when the books are long, detailed, and complex, like Dune.

 

[Collan Fraser]

i just hope that unlike the makers of the mini series, these guys actually read the book and watched all the previous versions, so much that was right in the first movie got changed in the mini series although they fixed a few things from the first one. i was left with the over all impression that I had not read the same book lol (guild navigators DON'T look like naked birds) that ruined it for me.

 

[Funkworks]

i just hope that unlike the makers of the mini series, these guys actually read the book and watched all the previous versions ...

Many actors and directors say they were fans of the original series when they end up actually playing Spider-Man, Batwoman and Scoobie-Doo. It seems to be the same in this case: https://www.ign.com/articles/dune-movie-message-meaning-themes-explained

 

[Joekeyo]

you seen any of Jodorowsky's other films - El Topo or The Holy Mountain?

I started to watch The Holy Mountain but I had to stop watching because it was so disturbing. Trippy? Perhaps, but in a bad sort of way. On a par with "Eraserhead".

 

[SecondRow]

Dune’s been pushed back to late 2021.

 

[heada]

Dune’s been pushed back to late 2021.

With the Bond movie and now Dune delayed, the only remaining movie I've heard could still be released in 2020 in some Disney movie. If that gets delayed too, then I envision nearly all theaters closing permanently.

 

[Funkworks]

I wonder if drive-in theatres can make a serious come-back. I understand their survival is usually dependent on food sales, but maybe the business model can be adjusted.

Incidentally, the last time I went to a drive-in theatre was for Apollo 13 shortly after it was released.

 

[Scott Hala]

Regal Cinemas announced yesterday that they were shutting down operations nationwide on Thursday. This year just get more and more jacked up.

 

[Funkworks]

So I guess now they're planning to release it October 2021 on both HBO Max and theaters.
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/frank-herbert-son-dune-set-visit-dazzled-1234602509/

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

My wife and I watched the 80’s version again a couple months ago when we were getting excited about the new version. Neither one of us had seen it years, decades probably. Wow. Way cheesier than I remembered. The Cheese must flow!