Duck and Cover

Peter Berg is now off the Dune project, so thankfully we won't be seeing some horrible action movie with Abercrombie and Fitch models.

The search, however, has run into two issues: 1) they’re looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don’t want anything resembling the crap effects of the ‘84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a preexisting passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project. Right now, Paramount is shopping the script to two directors: They like Neill Blompkamp (District 9), who has the right vision, but the frontrunner, at the moment, is Neil Marshall (The Descent), who was sent the script early this month. However, despite the enthusiasm of producer, Kevin Misher (Public Enemies), the studio is somewhat tepid on Marshall, uncertain about handing over a $175 million film with franchise potential to a somewhat unknown director whose only hit was the modestly successful The Descent.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=60443

Sick.

Here's hoping Blomkamp gets it

As long as it has alien eating Nigerians in it, I'll be happy.

Fuck 'em both, it's Jodorowsky's turn.

Isn't Blokamp a 007 vilain?

Peter Berg had some shit movies so I'm glad hes not on it anymore but they are making it sound like they want some top class director to do it but your not going to get a top class director who would want to do it. Dune could make a pretty cool movie but the material is just kind of hard to transition to film without hitting a bunch of stuff that could mess it up. The TV series was okay but it was too long and etc.

I know, I somehow get the feeling that as flawed as the Lynch version is, it'll never be topped. It's hard to pack a novel of that heft into a 2 hour movie without it devolving into a superficial action movie like it sounds Berg had in mind. (what's Berg's finest hour anyway, Great White Hype?)

I like Lynch's version, I could nitpick it all day, but it got somethings spot on like the casting, music, and art direction. And it has style and the edgy darkness of Dune.
Besides, it's the only movie we're ever going to see that Herbert himself was involved with. So anything from this point forward is going to be an interpretation, and if that's the case give, then just give Jodorowsky a sheet of acid and a green light. W00t!

I hoped that the success of LoTR would encourage some studio to see that the technology is available and the market is there for investing in doing a big-budget version of these epic series that can be commercially and critically succesful.
But they'll fuck it up.

I shudder to think what would happen if his son and some Hollywood fatcat would come up with if they collaborated.


The thing that will doom a Dune movie, is that to do it right, you need big bucks backing it. And the big bucks are going to want another LoTR/Star Wars cross promotional blockbuster. It would have to be PG-13 and marketable on McDonald's promo glasses and merchandising deals with WalMart. And for a book that thematically revolves around drugs, sex, commerce, theology, war, environmentalism, colonialism, evolution, messianic prophecies and all that good shit would get nuetered for maximum market penetration.


Yet IIRC, the Lynch movie largely avoided this. I do vaguely remember a Marvel comics adaptation of the movie that was released simultaneously, but I can't recall any other mass market merchandising.

At least it won't be an anime.

Cimmerian Nights wrote: Isn't Blokamp a 007 vilain?

Blofeld

Cimmerian Nights wrote:I know, I somehow get the feeling that as flawed as the Lynch version is, it'll never be topped.

I still think it was, in style, scope, acting, and pretty much everything, but the SciFi miniseries. That miniseries remains one of my favorite films of all time.

Miniseries =/= film.

I couldn't bring my self to finish watching the miniseries. It wasn't so bad, it's just a TV miniseries - meaning it suffered from having a TV miniseries budget and TV miniseries quality.
They got props for cramming everything in, but it comes off real draggy, mainly because the first book itself is draggy. The casting really sucked too, the guy playing the Baron wasn't menacing at all, he came off too queer. THe art direction and costuming sucked (everyone in the future must waer a silly hat!) Susan Sarandon and Hurt are good, but miscast here.

Compare that to Kyle MacLaughlin, Jurgen Prochnow, Max Von Sydow, Patric Stewart, Jose Ferrer, Sting, Xian Phillips, Brad Dourif, Sean Young, Virginia Madsen, the guy that played the Baron, Stilgar, Rabban (can't remember their names) that was a fucking ensemble.
David Lynch.
Toto soundtrack.
Typically overblown Dino DeLaurentis production.

The effects haven't all aged well, and the presentation of the voice can be silly.

I don't know the one thing I liked about the characters in the miniseries is that the bene gesserits didn't look like bald headed freaks like they did in the lynch film.