Dune being adapted again

[Queequeg]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982560.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1

IIRC this is one of the more generally approved of books on Languish, and was wondering about what people thought the remake might be like.

Its an interesting time to make it.  In the aftermath of 9/11 I think there will be a temptation to play up either the differences between the Fremen and say the Taliban, or play them up as thoughtless killing machines. 

Personally, I don't really know if it is possible to do it as one movie.  It is really , really hard, even the TV series had to remove one of my favorite sequences (Duncan Idaho talks to a Fremen right before he is killed as he watches a Fremen ornithopter crash into a Sardukar troop transport, and is totally flabbergasted by the Fremen remarking that the Sardaukar are "good fighters", though the Imperials end up being slaughtered anyway).  I'd have the first part go from Caladan to the crash in the desert, with the second being Paul's "Fremenizing". 

Any cast suggestions? I'd love to see Peter O'Toole as the Padishah Shaddam IV and Omar Shariff as Stilgar, but Omar is too old and too rich to do it.  I can't think of a good Paul; needs to look young, be short, be a little boyish looking, as opposed to the rigid, manly handsomeness of his father. 

[Razgovory]

I do not approve of it!

[MadImmortalMan]

I think the Lynch version suffered primarily because they tried to do it as one movie. When I first saw it as a kid, I hadn't read the book yet. Without that, it made no sense at all. Just too much stuff left out.

The tv adaptation was far better for this. You could actually understand the significance of the Sardukar being on Arrakis and the political undertones were far more visible. You got an idea of the timeframes involved instead of making it look like it all happened in a couple weeks.

I don't suppose Ferrer can come back as the Emperor.  Christopher Lee could do a good job, IMO. Irulan should be Morena Baccarin--she just has that bearing. They can dye her hair if necessary. Or maybe Alicia Witt as a crazy tribute to the past.

This chick looks like Chani to me:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004825/

But I dunno if she's got the skills. The has the Zohan working against her.

[Queequeg]

Chriqui is tiny and speaks with an American accent.  I had Nurgul Yesilicay in mind.  Though I'm afraid she might be a bit old.

Ideally, I'd prefer to have no native English speakers as Fremen.  So maybe Irrfan Khan as Stilgar, Shohreh Aghdashloo as the Fremen maid, etc....I think Turks in particular would be appropriate as the Fremen are a weird mixture of Japanese and most kinds of Muslim thrown onto a single planet and mixed and evolved for 10,000 years.  You'd end up with some weird, interesting looking people. 

[DontSayBanana]

Meh. IMO, they all fall short because Hollywood's got this obnoxious fixation on making there be "The Good Guys" and "The Bad Guys." The Dune books (the original Frank Herberts, anyway) were awesome in the way there were no good guys (with a possible exception for Duncan Idaho). The Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrin Houses all wanted Arrakis simply for the leverage. Hell, Muad'Dib even despises himself as a lab rat of the Bene Gesserit.

I tend to dislike the adaptations because the book's supposed to be morally ambiguous, but that'll never make it onto the screen.

[Queequeg]

I always thought that Leto I was as upstanding a character as you find in the Universe, even if he seems a bit blind to his betrayal by Huey and the trap set by the Emperor.   Also, while the Fremen certainly aren't the good guys, they seem admirable. 

Interestingly there are  lot of parallels to be made with the latter bits of the Shahnameh which deal with the Arab conquest.  The Persians represent a fascinating culture, but they're dressed up in gold and diamonds and plate male armor while the Arabs are practically naked.  It is hard not to root a little for the Arabs. 

[katmai]

Ideally, I'd prefer to have no native English speakers as Fremen.  So maybe Irrfan Khan as Stilgar, Shohreh Aghdashloo as the Fremen maid, etc....I think Turks in particular would be appropriate as the Fremen are a weird mixture of Japanese and most kinds of Muslim thrown onto a single planet and mixed and evolved for 10,000 years.  You'd end up with some weird, interesting looking people.

Good luck seeing that on screen, maybe if some Turkish producer gains the rights  somewhere down the line

[Queequeg]

Good luck seeing that on screen, maybe if some Turkish producer gains the rights  somewhere down the line

I don't see how they'd get off casting a bunch of Dutch Americans as Fremen this time, to be honest.  And I really think Nurgel would be perfect, even if it is a one in a million shot. 

[DisturbedPervert]

Good luck seeing that on screen, maybe if some Turkish producer gains the rights  somewhere down the line

The Turks did do a good job with Star Wars. 

[Razgovory]

I always thought that Leto I was as upstanding a character as you find in the Universe, even if he seems a bit blind to his betrayal by Huey and the trap set by the Emperor.   Also, while the Fremen certainly aren't the good guys, they seem admirable. 

Interestingly there are  lot of parallels to be made with the latter bits of the Shahnameh which deal with the Arab conquest.  The Persians represent a fascinating culture, but they're dressed up in gold and diamonds and plate male armor while the Arabs are practically naked.  It is hard not to root a little for the Arabs.

Not that hard.  I never root for the arabs.

[DontSayBanana]

I always thought that Leto I was as upstanding a character as you find in the Universe, even if he seems a bit blind to his betrayal by Huey and the trap set by the Emperor.

Duncan fills that role of "as upstanding a character as you find;" Leto views his status as a kind of acting role that he has to play. With Leto, he can be pretty vicious, but it's all about playing the role with him- he sees the House aristocracy as a set of characters to be portrayed, and he's blind to the betrayal because it "breaks character" for Huey and Shaddam; notice he has no problems with absorbing Vladimir Harkonnen's role in the trap.

[Queequeg]

Viscious but mostly towards his enemies, which appear to have been few and well led.  He saved spice miner's lives for no reason other than that they were going to die when he could have gotten in his first big load of spice.  IIRC, Liet-Kynes, another mostly sympathetic character, becomes a loyal Atredies man pretty quickly.

[MadImmortalMan]

Another terrific Irulan would be Natalie Dormer. And Jeremy Northam (sticking with the Tudors cast) would be a great Gurney. Daniel Craig or Clive Owen for Duncan.



Seriously though, in today's climate, how can a movie in which the "good" guys are leading a guerrilla jihad possibly be made without injecting moral ambiguity into it? In some ways, this might be the best time to do it. In '84 everything was black and white, the shining city vs the evil empire. And Lynch's flick turned it all into that. Now, I doubt anyone would even attempt to go that way.

[DontSayBanana]

Viscious but mostly towards his enemies, which appear to have been few and well led.  He saved spice miner's lives for no reason other than that they were going to die when he could have gotten in his first big load of spice.  IIRC, Liet-Kynes, another mostly sympathetic character, becomes a loyal Atredies man pretty quickly.

And? He pretty much says himself that it was a calculated move: that load of spice would come in once, while the men could bring it in again and again. He uses his "magnanimity" the way that Shaddam uses his "brutality:" as long as he keeps up the image, people fall over themselves to do what he wants once they hear what his opinion might be.

[KRonn]

Could be interesting. I also was glad that I read the books before seeing the movie; made much more sense to me since I could piece things together a lot better. There was so much to the books that it's hard to bring it out in a movie.