@Maxhirez @Fremen Just wanted to move our discussion of this great movie out of the intro thread! I’ve been combing the youtubes for these behind the scenes videos and found some really cool ones, but none with new shots of the translator staff I’m making so far. I’m really stoked that Villeneuve is making the movie, he’s got a great aesthetic and I loved Arrival so I can’t wait to see what he does with Dune. I’ll always love the 1984 movie but I think it’s strengths are in visuals, production design, direction, and acting but that the script/writing wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for. The stuff I’ve seen come out of the production so far is really encouraging.
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I’m quite excited about the fact that they’re taking two movies to tell the first Dune story, which hopefully will let them show more and tell less than Lynch’s version. The art direction and casting on the 84 version were masterful though. They just had to rush through so much of it. (While you’re looking there’s a hilarious clip of Sir Patrick talking about the day he met Sting.) Another thing I’m psyched about is the casting of Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho. My parents and sister probably would have been at various inter-school events with him. So much of the story in the Dune universe happens in the God Emperor, Heretics and Chapterhouse years, where Duncan turns out to be the hero in so far as there is one. I don’t think Momoa will stay ghola-youthful for the 24 years it would take to film the entire epic though.
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I saw the Patrick Stewart clip, really enjoyed it. In the post-Hobbit movie days I’m always a bit wary of books being split into multiple movies, but I agree it’s too much for one standard length movie.
I’m particularly hoping we will get more of Paul’s internal struggle - trying to guide people towards a future that he survives into and doesn’t lead to a Jihad. That’s always been one of my favorite parts is his internal struggle as he realizes the personal cost of his Prescience.
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This popped up on an image search. Had to share here!
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Hahaha! At least if you buy one you don’t have to come pick it up…
traveling…without moving…
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This song from Deadsy is about Dune 
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I can’t say I’m enthusiastic about this film. Bladerunner 2 was good. But I tried to rewatch it and got so bored. The first film I can watch purely for the music and the setting, which somehow is better than the sequel.
Ryan gosling was perfect for the role of a replicant detective.
I need to say all that because the new Dune film, from the little I’ve seen, the costume design of the still suits is wrong. I wish the costume designers of Valerian were used instead. Flawed as that movie was, it was a visual delight.
This leaves me feeling cold. Besides that, there’s some questionable casting choices. Why change Liet Kynes to a woman? He’ll always be Max von Sydow in my mind.
This is the Duncan Idaho I think of, and the one I remember as the accountant master of Ginaz, lol. “here are our current stocks of spice. You may notice that we harvested less than the day before. The Emperor will demand a shipment in 3 days time.”
I’ve heard it said before that the concepts and practicality of having actors in hot rubber costumes in a baking desert is why Dune would be better suited for an animé adaptation. If that were so, my hope is that it’d be in the style of Ulysses 31 (minus the dreadful disco soundtrack) and I really hope the art style would borrow from the Dune game by Cryo. My avatar is one of the fremen you meet early on in the game.
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Dune is one of my favourite films, it’s got everything it it! Arrival was a great film too, again, one I actually paid money for. It’s optimistic and a sort of inspiration for me in these times.
I wish that someone would do a Culture film (Ian M Banks), use of weapons would be a good source book.
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@Fremen I understand the trepidation, when you’re really attached to a book or movie like Dune, it’s hard to come at a new version without comparing it to the prior versions. There is no getting around the fact that Dune is a very difficult book to translate into a movie. From the 3rd person omniscient perspective and frequent interior monologues to the highly original setting and the learning curve that comes with that, there are a lot of narrative and technical challenges.
I didn’t see the second bladerunner movie, so my opinion of Villeneuve is based only on Arrival. And frankly, I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather make a version of Dune. It’s clear that he has a deep love of the original book, a great grasp of visuals, good instincts for actors. I don’t know that anyone else who is capable of making this movie who is also a fan of the material.
The stillsuits do look weird, but I’m giving them a pass on that personally since my ideas of what a still suit should be is so based in the David Lynch movie. And those suits were each handmade - suspect they did not have the budget for that. Anyhow the books talk extensively about all the adjustments in the fit that need to be made after getting into them, I suspect that the new suits are actually truer to the books.
As for Liet Kynes, Max von Syndow was great. I don’t mind male/female substitutions like this as long as it doesn’t explicitly conflict with the rest of the universe. Liet, after all, didn’t have much screen time in the David Lynch film. As long as the actor has a strong, commanding presence I think the male/female switch will not affect the rest of the story at all.
This is all a long way of saying I’m giving the movie the benefit of the doubt for now, considering this is really the best situation for a Dune remake we are likely to get this generation.
But let’s meetup here after the movie comes out and we’ll nitpick it hard 
My biggest concern is since they decided to make the fremen people of color (good choice in my book) and keep Paul white, it makes the theme of the White Savior really painfully obvious in this new version, and frankly that’s a troupe we don’t need right now. But you can’t fix that without changing really fundamentals of the book, which would not be appropriate.
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I don’t think that’s what’s going on here though-after all Stilgar is Javier Bardem. I think Chani was cast in such a way as to convey the book’s sense of her exotic-ness to Paul, and so Liet (her dad-or mom now) had to make sense. Jamie and Harrah are of color on IMDb, and Shaddat Mapes isn’t listed, so My take is that the Fremen are a diverse group.
What’s more important than casting to me is conveying Herbert’s story well. Paul couldn’t make it rain with his godlike yell in the book like in the Lynch version, and the Syfy version was so ham-handed and budget-constrained with a color palette like the leftovers from Lynch. I’ll give Villeneuve he benefit of the doubt too, but at this rate whether that takes place in a theater or even this year is something we’ll see I guess.
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Each chapter, as a seperate animated piece, in the style of 80’s animation. Cg animation has the uncanny Valley feel to it and can a story about a post AI world really be done with CG imagery?
I say animé, I think that’d be best for the fight scenes. The animators will have a hard time depicting shield fighting and that would work well with some CG. I think the boxy oil blur effect in the lynch movie was great and I hope that and the sound effects would be preserved.
I don’t have faith in the current crop of filmmakers. I was optimistic about the new star wars and saw the first one, it was just a new hope but worse.
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I share your feelings about the new Star Wars movies (the sequels). The ones I have liked best have been the stand-alone movies like Rogue One, which also had it’s problems. People need to stop casting Forest Whittaker in Sci-Fi movies, anyone who has been in Battlefield Earth should not be in another Sci Fi movie. I’m looking at you John Travolta.
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I’d watch that, but I have my doubts that an anime shop would be interested. It doesn’t seem like their thing. Still we can cross our fingers. That Duncan looks like the guy from Babylon 5.
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I know right? I sometimes wonder if the hair stylist for the centauri was a fan.
I doubt any studio would be interested in doing it unless a lot of money was put into it. If I were a rich man you better believe I’d commission that. Then more focus could be put onto Count Hasimir Fenring and Lady Margot. In the prequel they feature prominently as they built the Palace which house Atradies moves into.
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So I bet you’re thinking…
“I didn’t know Max was a mentat, that his lips are stained red from sapho!” And you’d be wrong. My allergies have been so bad lately that I’ve become an almost total mouth-breather at times, which has lead to some nasty irritation around my mouth.
Dumb story, this morning my wife said she was convinced that it was a staph infection, which began the dumbest domestic nuclear cascade ever. The bottom lip had become swole when a pustule turned into one of those ultra painful pimples right on the edge of a lip, and I went to a telemedicine doctor. He looked at a picture, the video chat, and my med list and told me to go to the emergency room. He thought I had pulmonary edema.
The ER doctor confirmed that I do not. She set me up with some prednisone and antibiotics and sent me on my way.
And that’s how I once went to the emergency room for chapped lips.
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Dude that sucks. He was probably worried about something called angioedema if you are on an ace inhibitor, which has the potential to kill you by swelling up your windpipe. But you clearly dont have that. Sorry you had to go through that. Modern medicine is super defensive because getting sued sucks balls. Even if you did nothing wrong.
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Oh-yes, you’re right-it was angio- not pulmonary. It was a long, stupid day though. As of 3:00 am it feels a little better but the prednisone might be messing with my sleep patterns…
Try eating quails eggs. They are good for hay-fever
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Friend told me to watch the Mandalorian and I have to say I’m very impressed from this low budget offering.
Still dreaming about a Dune Anime, but a low budget live action about someone on the prison planet of Salusa Secundus rising up the ranks of the Sardukar would be entertaining.
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