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Fansite Guest Blog: Can We Get a Good Dune Movie?
Posted 08.03.10 by reelz
We've been following the new Dune movie from the Robert Pattinson casting rumors to the director change to a new script and 3-D. Although the Frank Herbert's book has already had a big-screen debut, a Sci-Fi mini-series, and many other adaptations, the new director, Pierre Morel has his own vision.
To find out more about what movie fans hope to see this time, we went directly to the experts. For this first Dune guest blog, Mark from Dune - Behind The Scenes answers some of our questions, including "What went wrong with David Lynch's movie?" and "Who would you like to see cast?"
Pierre Morel has said that he plans to make a movie that is faithful to the original novel by Frank Herbert. Can this be done?
A faithful adaptation — yes, certainly. A complete and thorough conversion — no! The original novel is around 600 pages long, and squeezing that into a single movie without having to lose, alter, or combine elements would be impossible. Pierre Morel has the advantage that today's movies can be closer to 3 hours, rather than the 2 hours 17 minutes that {David} Lynch was tied to, and we have seen that Peter Jackson was able to bring the Lord of the Rings movies to the screen in a faithful, if not 100% precise, adaptation of Tolkien's novels in that running time.
What happened with the Lynch movie?
Where do you want to start?!? He was contractually obliged to turn in a movie no longer than 137 minutes, as any longer than that and the cinemas wouldn't be able to squeeze as many showing in a day. So while Lynch's script did an amazing job of compressing the novel into a 136 page filming script, even much of that ended up on the cutting room floor. This leaves a film that spends much of the first 20 minutes trying to explain the Universe, including Irulan's introduction and the "Secret Report" that were not even in his script, and then once Paul and Jessica escape into the desert (which was the end of Lynch's original script — with the remaining plot to be in a second film) we are left with basically a series of montages, short scenes, and Irulan's voice over until the final confrontation with the Emperor.
Lynch has stated that he lost control over the movie, giving in over decisions, bit by bit, piece by piece, until the movie was no longer his.
The ending upset many fans, rain on Arrakis would kill the Sandworms, and is in fact a crucial storyline in Herbert's sequels to Dune. Lynch was contracted to do 2 sequel films, but it appears that it was felt they needed a "real" ending, perhaps realizing that the movie wouldn't be successful enough to support them. The rain doesn't appear in any of the scripts.
Was the Sci-Fi series a better interpretation?
It was more like the book, but I enjoy Lynch's film over the mini-series, which to me felt like a stage play in parts. The Children of Dune miniseries was much better, and benefited greatly from the increased power of Computer Graphics since the 2000 miniseries was created. Hopefully today's SFX house can create an even better Arrakis/Sandworms.
Are there scenes that are integral to the story that were not covered in either prior production?
The role of Count Hasimir Fenring was missing completely from Lynch's movie, and although he was in the 2000 miniseries the role as "an almost Kwisatz Haderach" — a failure of the Bene Gesserit breeding program — is still missing.
Are there standout actors that are perfect for certain roles?
A tough one! I think Zooey Deschanel has the elfin features for Chani (Zooey Deschanel was even in the movie Elf).
Julianne Moore certainly has the red hair for Lady Jessica, and has the authority to carry that major role.
James McAvoy would seem a great choice for Paul Atreides, although he played Leto Atreides in the Children of Dune miniseries.
Some cameos from the original Dune movie would cool — Patrick Stewart as Liet Kynes perhaps?
Next Showing: Dune is set for release in 2012