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Calling all Dune fans: Legendary Entertainment acquires film and TV rights to Dune

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    Calling all Dune fans: Legendary Entertainment acquires film and TV rights to Dune

    This news is actually a couple months old, but I can't believe this flew under my radar for so long:

    http://variety.com/2016/film/news/le...rt-1201923648/

    Apparently Legendary came to an agreement with the Herbert estate to develop a film franchise of the Dune novels after years of any new filming attempts being left in development hell.

    I've loved Dune since I was a freshman in high school and have been praying for a new film adaptation. I got my hopes up a few years ago when Paramount attempted a reboot of Lynch's film, but that ended up coming to moot. Any Dune fans on the forum? What are your thoughts and what do you hope to see in a new Dune film or TV series?

    #2
    I thought the David Lynch movie had a fascinating take on the overall feel of the Dune universe. I really liked what they did with it, thought it gave the movie a 'real' feel, real soul to the universe it was depicting. But the movie failed MISERABLY at actually telling the story.

    Contrarily, I thought the Sci Fi Channel miniseries from a while back did a pretty solid (albeit not perfect) job of telling the novel's story--but it lacked a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, which made the whole thing feel a bit flat and lifeless.

    I don't know if I want another movie. I'm not convinced that Dune's story can be told in a mere two hours. But it might be nice to see a fresh take on it in miniseries format.

    (I'm speaking only about the first novel here, not the sequels)



    On another note, it's funny that this thread should come up today. I've been thinking about doing a fresh re-read of the series lately. Maybe this is a sign?
    "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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      #3
      I felt that the 2000 miniseries was a better adaptation than Lynch's from a storytelling standpoint as well. What largely bogged it down was that it operated on a shoestring budget, but considering that it was a made-for-tv production at the tail end of the 90s it was probably the best they could get.

      I've always felt that any new film adaptation would do better to split the first book into three separate movies. The book itself is already split into three parts with the first dealing with the fall of the Atreides, the second the rise of Muad'dib, and the third the triumph of the Atreides over the Harkonnens and Corrinos. The 2000 miniseries took this route and I think that helped contribute to its success in telling a more complete story.

      And epic films longer than the standard two hours is more common nowadays than in the past. So if the first Dune is divided into three films of about two and a half to three hours length, you could get a decent screen adaptation without the whole thing being rushed.

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        #4
        I like the miniseries as well, tough to pull off in a film format unless you get Peter Jackson to do a Tolkien(ish) trilogy or something...
        sigpic

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          #5
          Hopefully they talk to Jodorowsky and talk to him about directing the series haha

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            #6
            I'm not certain if I want to see another remake, though that's probably what will happen.

            Considering that almost none of the characters from the first three novels appear in the later ones, I'd rather they just did films based on books 4-6. Get James McAvoy to voice the God-Emperor and some good-looking guy as Duncan and you're set.

            As for my overall thoughts on the series: less and less interesting as the story went on. There's many interesting ideas, but I think relatable characters was always a problem for Frank. Once we got to books 5 and 6, I was really struggling to care because I didn't feel like I knew anybody involved, even Duncan was an enigma. I like Frank's point(Don't promote heroes, think for yourself) and I like how the scope of the story is bigger with every book, but it just became one weird twist after another and the endless philosophical pondering from every character grew old VERY fast.

            I'm very fond of the Brian Herbert/KJA books, as they were the first Dune novels I read and I prefer their writing style. There's a lot of charm and character in those books that I felt was sorely missing in Frank's work. The House trilogy in particular is fantastic, and the currently unfinished Heroes Of Dune series is really good as well. The only books I have to take issue with are their sequels, which came off as bad fanfiction(never forget the "Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach").
            "I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care... or why it should be necessary to prove it at all."

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              #7
              Originally posted by Spimman View Post
              I like the miniseries as well, tough to pull off in a film format unless you get Peter Jackson to do a Tolkien(ish) trilogy or something...
              That'd be pretty wild. Hell of a financial gamble, though.
              "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by rushy View Post

                As for my overall thoughts on the series: less and less interesting as the story went on. There's many interesting ideas, but I think relatable characters was always a problem for Frank. Once we got to books 5 and 6, I was really struggling to care because I didn't feel like I knew anybody involved, even Duncan was an enigma. I like Frank's point(Don't promote heroes, think for yourself) and I like how the scope of the story is bigger with every book, but it just became one weird twist after another and the endless philosophical pondering from every character grew old VERY fast.

                I'm very fond of the Brian Herbert/KJA books, as they were the first Dune novels I read and I prefer their writing style. There's a lot of charm and character in those books that I felt was sorely missing in Frank's work. The House trilogy in particular is fantastic, and the currently unfinished Heroes Of Dune series is really good as well. The only books I have to take issue with are their sequels, which came off as bad fanfiction(never forget the "Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach").
                I get your point there. Pretty much after God Emperor the stories do become more philosophically/politically driven rather than character driven. I don't think they'd have much trouble adapting the first three or four books where there's enough character drama to carry the audiences' interests. If they decide to go for the latter books they'd have to do some tweaking to make the characters more appealing to a general audience while keeping the core of the story intact.

                And I agree the last two after Chapterhouse were rubbish. I highly doubted that was the direction Frank wanted to take the series.

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                  #9
                  Confirmed: Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) will be directing the new Dune film.
                  "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                    #10
                    The only film I've seen directed by Villeneuve was Arrival and I thought it was pretty cool how he played with the audience's perception of time in that movie. I'm looking forward to seeing how he's handled Blade Runner 2049.

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