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New Dune Movie Coming Your Way

April 4, 2008 · 2 Comments

It has been confirmed that Paramount has obtained rights from the Frank Herbert estate to produce Dune for the Big Screen. Who cares about the director or producers of this re-incarnation? There is not even a script yet. DuneHowever, the production staff are promising that this film will be the most faithful of the Dune productions.

I have seen the 1984 original, and it was awful. The novel was merely a guideline, with too much intrigue and modus operandi for the screenwriters. And so fans were subject to watered-down and popularized versions of the defining characters. I won’t even address the presentation of the “Weirding Way”. Blech!

Then the Sci-Fi Channel make a 6-hour mini-series of Dune in 2000.  While superior to the original big-screen production in almost every way, it still lacked the abiding sense of history that the novel captured so well. Also, the portrayal of Paul Atreides was over-the-top. As the actor made the transition from Paul to Muad’Dib, delivery was erratic and the character became less admirable and less believable.

So, while I look forward to the new production of Dune, I also realized that for a screenplay to be faithful to a novel is a huge undertaking. There will be disappointment. However, being the sci-fi and movie geek that I am, my wife will drag me to the theatre to see it. And I will happily comply.

(BTW, we own all of the Frank Herbert Dune series in hardback books. We even own the prequels, as written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The prequels are pretty good, providing details to the immense history only hinted at in the original Dune series.)

Categories: geek · sci-fi
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