The concept for the Sci-Fi Channel version was to take the sets and costume designs of the David Lynch version (which were the best parts of the earlier movie) but use the fact that they didn’t have to compress it into a two hour film to make a better product (basically make the awesome longer movie Miller suggests David Lynch’s version was a trailer for).
Seems like a great idea, but IMHO it didn’t work. Their budget was too small (they seemed to want to save money by not hiring any extras, I recall laughing out loud when the mighty Harkonen army attacks the Atredies compound, and its shown as two guys chasing a third up some stairs door), CGI wasn’t good enough at that point to make up the difference, the acting was poor. Also they made Paul a whiny teenager, which is about as far from his character in the book (or Lynch film) as is imaginable, and in general made the characters more openly human then in the first film or book.
Both movies are watchable (as was the Sci-Fi Children of Dune), and I actually really liked the Lynch picture despite its flaws, but I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who hadn’t already read and liked the books.
I thought it was pretty common. Next natural step for an actor. One movie of his I can highly recommend is an action movie called The Rundown. It’s got the Rock and Christopher Walken.
An unjustly overlook film. It consists almost entirely of The Rock smacking the shit out of Stifler from American Pie. Which means it’s pretty much the perfect movie, as far as I’m concerned.
When I first saw that movie there was a scene that made me wonder why the Fremen would choose such a garish desert-themed mural like the tackiest of all Kebab restaurants. Then I realized that it was a matte painting and the scene was supposed to take place outdoors.
Peter Berg is thought to be one of the up-and-coming great directors. His work on Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom was very good. He’s got the blockbuster Hancock coming this summer which should show us what his chops are for an SFX action movie. Dune, assuming it happens, will be quite the test.
Count me among those who love this description. Most of the most glaring problems I had with the movie can be attributed to the way the shoehorned critical plot elements into extremely short and unrealistic scenarios. They’d have been better off simply not showing them and describing them in exposition or narration than showing them so poorly. I challenge anyone to watch the scene where Stilgar challenges Jessica and Paul and she bests him with what amounts to stepping behind him quickly. Its simply one of the worst acted, worst directed and conceived scenes I have ever seen put to film.
I think Dune might work as limited HBO series, sort of like what they did with Rome. So much of the Dune book is in the politics and the internal monologues that it could benefit from the long character development that happens in a HBO production. This story doesn’t need to be a huge budget SFX film since relatively little of the action of the book describes it. The battle scenes in the book mostly happen “off camera” and like Rome could be left to explanation instead of visually showing it. If they could devise a way to portray all the internal monologues that wasn’t horribly clunky they could put together a pretty interesting series.
Ah, I didn’t realize you were talking about a new upcoming Dune project. Might be interesting.
Of course, one problem to making a new Dune movie is that whether the director wants them to or not, its going to be impossible to make a movie where Arab-types throw of the shackles of their foreign, manipulative, imperialistic, oil/spice addicted overlords and then conquer the universe in a cruel five year jihad without people drawing…well, certain politically undesirable parallels.
I read somewhere that David Lynch didn’t want to include the Bene Gesserit prana-bindu/Weirding Way style of unarmed martial arts for fear it would turn the films combat scenes into straight up chopsocky so we get the Weirding Modules instead.
I read the books in my late teens and overall I felt the look of the film was exactly what I saw in my head while reading them.
But don’t get me started about the way Lynch ruined the ending :rolleyes: !
I liked both the movie releases. The first one had scenes cut out for television and it took years before the full version made it to the VCR. I bought it on DVD when it first came out for a high price, and it was transfered as a recording of a projection. I was pissed with that quality issue. It had a bug or piece of lint on the screen at least once.
From the Baron’s doctor’s lips. You are so beautiful, my Baron. Your skin - love to me. Your diseases - lovingly cared for for all eternity!
Interesting. I can understand why he would have wanted to avoid some kung-fu movie parallels here but I don’t quite understand why he felt that the modules would somehow be considered an improvement, especially with how clumsily they were implemented.
For the modern film, I almost envision the Weirding Way as being similar to what Neo and the Agents were able to do in The Matrix.
Another stylistic choice that I didn’t dig was what he did with the Guild Navigators. In the book they are never really described and they never make any appearances and I think that the way they were visualized in the movie was just bad. The SFx and puppeteering was pretty ugly and shabby. It was weak in comparison to what they managed for the Star Wars sequels around the same time. The mystery of what the Navigators were was part of the charm of the book and their distance from the events of the book was important. By bringing them in as being essentially mob bosses demanding their protection money lost the subtlety. Why he felt the need to turn them into giant floating slugs instead of mutated humans is almost comical.
ETA: One more thing! Are you telling me that they couldn’t find a couple fat guys to cast as the Baron and Beast Rabban? The latex fatsuit was really the way to go?
I like how the Weirding Way was handled in the miniseries - no Matrix-style freezing, Paul just blurs when he fights. Fairly simple FX to do, I imagine.
The only nice things about the Lynch movie, for me, were the stillsuit and worm designs. Otherwise, I preferred the costume designs in the miniseries (The Saudaukar’s giant berets were awesome!), and the general faithfulness to the books. No heartplugs!
Pull out your HeartPlugs
Let them shine wherever you go
Let them make a Happy Glow
For Harkonnens to see!
Pull out your HeartPlugs
In the middle of a David Lynch Dream
Don’t wake me up to soon
What’s the name of the Mouse in the Moon?
Mu’ad Dib
Pull out your Heart Plugs now
Pull out your Heart Plugs …nowwwwwwwwwwww![/sings]
I thought it was made clear, I guess it depends on what version you saw, that the guild had been transformed by the spice, kind of like what Muad’ Dib’s son goes through in the Dune series, but at a mundane level. Also, wasn’t Herbert on set and approved of all of Lynch’s changes? I think I read that in the Wiki (too bored to check). Anyway, I liked the Lynch version the most, though I still see signs for improvement. Isn’t there supposed to be some 3 (or 4) hour version coming out?
I read the original 3 novels and God Emperor. I saw the Lynch version in its original theatrical release and a longer version on DVD. I saw both the Sci-Fi series.
Overall, I found the Lynch version most entertaining despite the incredible suckitude of the weirding modules. I loved the exuberant over-the-top evil of the Harkonnens. The first novel is about different groups of scheming, manipulative scumbags fighting for control of the galactic swag. The later books just expanded a little on it. Despite that, they were the most bloodless, effete scumbags evah. The Lynch Harkonnens brought much needed animation and zest to the proceedings.
it isn’t possible to make a really faithful adaptation of the novels since the novels are mostly scheming and brooding, brooding and scheming. Hours and hours of that make for a poor cinematic experience.
