Denis Villeneuve's Dune

It is an interesting choice, and I agree that Kynes' gender has no relevance to his role in the book, so it's a place where a change is at least reasonable.

Eh, as long as Liet-Kynes still moves the plot along, I'm okay with that. I wonder who Chani's father would be in this adaptation. Conservation of detail may have her father be Stilgar in the movie - I'm okay with that.^note SF movies ask a lot of the average moviegoer. That's why a lot of characters in movie stories tend to be related or know each other - it's easier for Joe and Jane Six Pack to keep track of the characters without a chart

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho is a waste. Duncan is only there so he can be...if you read the books or saw the Sci-Fi channel films, ya know.

Agreed on Duncan. He becomes very important later in the series, but a standalone Dune film won't explore that at all.

He could serve the role of guy you think is going to be a major character, because he's played by a big name actor and seems to be built up for an important role, but then gets an unceremonious death to indicate "No one is safe."

For a Sacrificial Lion I would go with Ryan Reynolds or Paul Rudd as Duncan is supposed to be Paul's friend, around the same age late teens to early twenty-ish. Duncan isn't a BAMF - he's more of an elite soldier who's pals with Paul and later Stilgar. Both actors can play a wide range of ages and are recognized and friendly enough for the audience to go OGM when Duncan is killed.

Side note: How did I know that the Ghost in the Shell (2017) live action film was going to be a Turkey? They were showing a "sizzle reel" of their special effects in some theaters to drum up publicity. Several reviewers who saw it said that the "sizzle reel" was good but were still holding out to see the film. And we all know how that turned out.

Kudos to Denis Villeneuve for NOT doing that. The trailer looks great and I can wait for the film.

Stupid pandemic, I wish I could kick COIVD right in the capsid.

Edited by TairaMai on Nov 22nd 2020 at 1:08:31 PM

Duncan is not around Paul's age, they are 27~ years apart.

The distance between Momoa and Chalamet is a decade less.

Yeah, isn't Paul supposed to be 15 or something at the start of the book? Duncan is supposed to be a veteran soldier.

Okay, I'm going off the 80's movie. Still Jason Momoa is wasted as Duncan. But at least he wasn't Jamis....

I'm not sure where you're getting this idea that Momoa is wasted in the role.

If he gives a good performance, that's the opposite of a waste, yes?

I want to see more of him as he's a great actor and Duncan is just in the first book to be killed. Any actor could play him there are tons of Chronically Killed Actor types. Then again, I can see your point. The direct is going for an All-Star Cast and did pick an actor with the talent for a major role in a minor role. No Deadpool2-sytle "Okay no more speaking lines for you" in this movie!

You could say the same thing about half the cast, though.

Touting one's horn about "predicting" that Ghost in Shell was gonna be shit is like touting your horn at predicting that water is wet.

Everyone knew it was going to be shit based on "Hollywood adaptation of an anime" "Cast a white person in the main role"

GITS looked good at first. But the warning sign (aside from the casting) was the sizzle reel nonsense.

Dune is in a genre where clueless studio execs seem to think that the SFX the be-all end-all. Hence some films get endless trailers as if to say "Look at the pretty effects!".

I have a good feeling about this film because that's not the approach to the marketing.

That the casting is very diverse is a very good sign, but there are still ways for a studio to screw with a film.

Edited by TairaMai on Dec 7th 2020 at 1:42:25 PM

Yet the Japanese were fine with Scarlet Johansen as Kusanagi.

And Paul isn't portrayed by a 15 year old because there are very few child actors around that could handle such an emotionally heavy story as Dune. Chalamet's done well at roles of young nobles being thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

Edited by theLibrarian on Nov 23rd 2020 at 9:25:01 AM

Villeneuve's got a pretty good track record himself.

I'm just amazed that the studio isn't trying to meddle - the Lynch film had Executive Meddling and Lynch doing things because he thought that's what the studio wanted. He was so burned that he went to indie films for a while.

The Sci-fi films were limited by budget (their Paul was also an annoying little brat).

I'm glad that the studio is letting Villeneuve use lots of SFX and not screw with it ("It's and action flick!", "It's a popcorn movie!" or my favorite "It's too cerebral, so we had to make changes to make it relatable.").

I can't help but wonder if the release gets delayed further, something that's highly probable given the state of the pandemic, if the studio will get cold feet and meddle more. I sure hope not.

Well they delayed it by a whole year. Hopefully it won't have to be delayed again.

At this point, the movie is just completely done and it's likely past final edit. If the delays were related to the movie itself, that might be a risk, but since WB is very clearly banking on it being a big deal, they probably won't touch it at this point.

Not to mention that prequel series they're still making for HBO Max. They're not gonna want to accidentally break the continuity there.

@Librarian, there is a bloody difference between what Asians in Asia get from their media and Asians/Asian-Americans in the Western world, particularly America, where the movie was being made.

Asians in Asia don't really care because they're already plenty represented in their own media. The Japanese see Japanese people play Japanese characters all the damn time in their shows and movies. They wouldn't care because it's not a problem to them.

Japanese or Japanese-Americans in America? Not so much. That's the problem.

Edited by fredhot16 on Nov 25th 2020 at 8:15:16 AM

Every 2021 movie from WB, including Dune, will be coming to both HBO Max AND theaters!

Legendary Pictures is sending legal letters to WB regarding the HBO plan, because Warner Bros never advise or consulted with them before pivoting the entire business plan.

Warner Media: We're going to largely pivot our entire business towards streaming, everyone will be totally on-board with this.

Most of the rest of Hollywood: The f*** we are!

Warner Media: Oh.

I mean. We don't have a clue how much longer the pandemic will last, but then streaming movies probably doesn't print nearly as much money as releasing them in theaters would.

Plus, it's a pretty dick move to not even give your partners a heads up about the plan beforehand.

Plus asking streaming customers to shell out more money to watch movies is already a very shaky slope.

TargetmasterJoe - JMS of Babylon 5 fame said the Warner Brothers - back in The '90s - was run as a series of competing businesses. It was thought that have each division "compete" with each other would equal profit. The result was that the spin-off Series/Crusade got Screwed by the Network. Ask any wrestling fan about Wrestling/WCW, you may want to sit down for that one tho.

WB screwing with Legendary Pictures doesn't surprise me. Streaming is the future, but that doesn't give WB license to be dicks about it.

"Creative accounting" and shady deals are nothing new in Hollywood:

JMS said that his residuals for Murder, She Wrote shrank to pennies on the dollar when USA Network started to run the series. Realizing that they owned the show and USA network, charging themselves so to speak, they reduced JMS's residual checks to 32 cents..