Reply With QuoteOne of my fave films!
Maybe the earth contains some of that spice after all:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23360907
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
One of my fave films!
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
....always thought that technology sounded feasible! I'm still searching for the spice so I can bend space tho'.
Paul.
Cheers Tony - will get it sent to my Kindle immediately!Originally Posted by learningtofly
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Agreed
I'm usually not a sci-fi reader ( a fan of Iain Banks rather than Iain M Banks) but this book really is execellent.
As I was reading it I pondered whether a certain Mr Lucas had also enjoyed it
Agree with it being one of the greatest sci fi epic ever written.
However I would recommend you stick to Dune 1 and 2, at least for a while. They are really the best part of the epic
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Stilsuits indeed. I read Dune in my early teens and 30 years later it is still far and away my favourite sci-fi novel.
First book is great, tails off a bit after that.
I enjoyed the film, but I think the SyFy channel adaptation was better.
my favourite book series and read then all many times, so when do i get my stillsuit?
We'll need them soon if this heat continues. I agree with the other posters, the first book was the best and the film was pretty good too.
I think David Lynch's film was severely cut leaving us with a mere taste of what could have been. There is a sort of recreation of the film Lynch planned which is a collage of story boards and narration which is fascinating to watch. I think in years to come Lynch's version of Dune may be viewed as an unfinished classic alongside films like 'The Magnificent Ambersons'. It's a shame that it was never really finished. I also think that it was very influential and had echoes in the look of the Alpha Centaurians in 'Babylon 5' and the look of Naboo in the Star Wars prequels.
I bought a copy in a sale in HMV maybe 10 years ago in the mistaken belief that it actually was a director's cut of the original. I may well be the only person in the world who still has one. It's a weird DVD to watch because from my recollection the vast majority of it consists of stills from the story boards and a narration so it might be be more likely to be of interest to a film buff than something you'd really want to commit over two hours to. But if you'd really like to see it, drop me a PM and I'll send it down to you.
Thanks for posting this.
For some reason, the line 'Usul no longer needs the weirding module' has remained in my head for years.
I might revisit the book, too.
I'm not normally a fan of that kind of thing, but I love both the book and the film. The book is rightly acknowledged as a classic - the depth of the world than Frank Herbert created is incredibly detailed, ahead of it's time, and the background stuff in the appendices is both a superb "what if" of what a society might be after a technological runaway, as well as essential to make sense of the story itself. The spiritual mumbo-jumbo, actually makes quite a bit of sense in the context of the backstory. With the film, it's just not possible convey this, and it ends up being pretty impenetrable. It also doesn't help that a lot of the exposition is in the thoughts of the characters - which often comes across as cheesey. The film is great fun though - the production designs are beautiful (esp in HD), there's a superb cast, and the dialogue's got a certain camp appeal. The directors cut is slightly better from what I recall, as is the mini-series, but the truth is that Dune is probably best considered "unfilmable".
Never really got on with the sequels though. I think I just read 2 and 3, then gave up.
I read the trilogy on my commute to work in the summer of 1983 and thought it was epic. I was quite glad to reach the end though!
I was incredibly disappointed when I watched the film a couple of years later though; there's just not enough time in a film to even start to cover everything. Maybe if they'd made a series of four or five films it could have worked, particularly these days with plenty of CGI!
Trilogy? Think again...
Dune (usually in 2 books, 1 & 2), Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune... And that is before his son Brian took over with 2 more trilogies and Heroes of Dune...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
That's kind, thank you.
I always regarded the original trilogy as Dune (definitely a single novel), Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune. It kind of went downhill from Dune onwards, though, and the later books held little interest for me. Dune itself stands on its own merit, and further reading is not required in my view.
book 3 is a bit of a letdown but the rest up to 6 (after which his son took over) are just as good , the timescales involved in the books and the amount of detail given of the worlds and everything in them still amazes me to this day.
the only one ive not read is 'the science of dune' - which looks in a scientific way at some of the technologies in the books.
the only other series that comes close imo is the fantasy 'magician ' series by raymond feist and the spin off 'daughter of the empire' series .
ive actually used a slightly modified version of the litany against fear when teaching a self help module for anxiety/panic attack as a form of distraction technique.
Last edited by pugster; 19th July 2013 at 08:38.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who think its a butchered masterpiece.
If you're interested, its worth researching the unmade Alejandro Jodorowsky version. The production design was to have been by HR Giger (google "Giger's Dune", his concept art is freely available), Moebius and Dan O'Bannon all whom ended up on Ridley Scott's Alien. Music was to be by Pink Floyd and Stockhausen. Jodorowsky was planning on casting Orson Welles who i think would have made a great Baron Harkonnen.
Incidentally Jodorowsky is utterly bonkers, considerably more so than the now pedestrian David Lynch.
Thanks I'll look it up. I have a book on the design of the original 'Alien' film and it shows some of the designs for 'Dune' by Moebius, Giger and also Chris Foss in that. It's always interesting to see the amount of effort by some very talented people that is put into the preproduction of a film which doesn't always see the light of day. I have a suspicion that some of the Dune designs ended up in Alien, particularly Moebius' designs for the Spacesuits and hardware.
I think that Lynch's vision had a separate aesthetic than Giger, Foss and Moebius, particularly in the use of a more baroque and roccoco style for the spaceships and the period feel of the uniforms and costumes, particularly when you consider that the alternative was a sort of tupperware and airfix aesthetic in the Star Wars films and industrial grime in Alien. I think that the sequence when the Guild of Navigators bend space is a startling evocation of space travel that is only bettered by '2001', but then I've always been a fan of Brian Eno. It's a shame that the genre has sunk into turgid realism rather than progressing in a more evocative or abstract way. I'm not holding my breath for any film version of 'Hyperion'...
Ah.
http://www.hitfix.com/motion-capture...assic-hyperion
I had not thought of Dune for many years......
OMG. Next you'll be telling me that Joe Pasquale is doing the adaptation for 'Blood Meridian'. I mean why not, he's not a writer either...
It is excellent and one of six in the saga. I believe his son has carried it on, though with what success I don't know. Herbert stopped writing after his wife died.
Funnily enough, I'm not really sure Lynch was neccessarily the best choice, even if he had been given free-run without studio interference - I like (most of) his films, but his strength is in making the everyday world wierd and unsettling. I'm not sure who would have been a better choice though - most of the usual action directors would have turned it into a Star Wars-alike and cut even more of the background story.
Although interesting, I'm not convinced Giger's style of production design would have suited the Dune Universe - this is where I think Lynch & co got it bang-on - the whole point is that society has done a full circle and gone through ultra hi-tech, back around to a kind of space-age feudalism. The ornate interiors and elegant costumes are very well chosen IMO. Other than the slightly dated SFX, Dune looks fantastic, and hasn't dated like some films of that era.
Ah, Locutus of Borg's first outing!
I'd never noticed the similarity before.
Caro & Jeunet could make it interesting if given free reins
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Read the post title. Thought your house was on fire and you'd missed an 'i' out.
Instead it's even weirder.....
Maybe Terry Gilliam?
I think that Giger is so identified with the Alien series of films that it might be difficult to think of his designs in other contexts. However, I suppose he could have contributed to design of the worm. From my recollection the planned Dune film would have been in production before Alien, so had Dune been successful Giger may not have worked on Alien or it may not have been made at all. Now there's a thought. I do think though that the success of Alien and Star Wars have had a significant impact on what is accepted as a future aesthetic. Dune is a credible and at least as likely alternative to that. However, if the present is anything to go by I have a horrible feeling though that the future will be stained aluminium and concrete and guano stained glass mixed with Dutch Barn Vernacular.
Now that's an inspired choice.
Agree 100% the movie was terrible the books (especially Dune) are classics.
I was blown away by the original trilogy when I read it in my teen years. It was the first time I realized that great science fiction is just plain great fiction. I re-read the first three books recently and still enjoyed it.
Rick
I loved the books. While the film had a lot going for it I did not like the way they changed some of the story. The TV series was much better as they had more time (291 minutes) to explore the book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frank-Herber...I1A5MIWUNI7E1D
And I thought that the follow up - Children of Dune - was much better. Starring Susan Sarandon, Alice Krige, Ian McNeice, Steven Berkoff, Alex Newman and a young James McAvoy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Dun...=IB55PW3QHC96B
I confess to lusting after Francesca Annis....even if she was Paul's mother!
Considering the film was cut to bits, I still enjoyed it.
Paul.
One of my favourite films and books, its odd how certain things stick with you, some utter nonsense like the phrase "he is the Kwisatz Haderach"
Thank you forum for making me dust off the DVD, I'm going to watch it tonight.
I think I still have the Japanese DVD with the other cut of the film stashed on a bookshelf somewhere... A bit of a mishmash though as some scenes are just reused multiple times in the movie.. Always liked dune though.. Cool but odd.
Yes, the dialogue is enjoyably ridiculous! A bit like a lot of sci-fi/fantasy - it tends to read better than it's heard.
I was thinking a European as well. Besson would be another who is creative, and "big-thinking" enough to recreate the Dune universe - a long as he resisted the temptation to camp it up.
I actually think Zack Snyder would do a great job e.g. with Watchmen he treated the source material with respect.
The thing that has stuck with me most from that film is Sting in his shreddies.
Funny to see this thread, I noticed Dune on a couple of book shelves over the weekend and felt quite nostalgic, it had a very special atmosphere.
I've wondered how it would read to a new audience now, in a post 9/11 world - all that hiding out in caves speaking cod Arabic and plotting to destroy the evil empire...
Spot on.
Dune series gets a bit weird after Children of Dune but still worth reading.
Interesting you bring up Raymond E. Feist as I agree the Magician series is superb. I actually started randomly with Daughter of the Empire and then flipped back through the portal to the start.
It's a worn phrase but one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. ;-)
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