Denis Villeneuve's Dune

My guess is they didn’t want to cram everything into the first trailer. Doing Dune without Spice is to put it mildly, impossible.

I feel like I'll be posting some of my infamous essays on Dune's plot in this topic, like I have in the literature subforum. I'm ready!

The Navigators aren't really that important to the first novel. Two of them do appear, but right at the end and they're just described as fat. The one on the ship to Arrakis doesn't show up at all, and while there is a bit about Paul musing about what it might look like, he never sees it.

If they don't show up directly and it's just their presence that's felt, that's actually pretty book accurate. Especially since the two at the end are literally just there and don't actually do anything.

Jessica and The Spice are definitely going to be in the movie, the former has been cast, and both of them are so integral to the plot that it's literally impossible to cut them out.

I'm pretty sure I saw a glimpse of the scene where Leto rescues the Fremen from the Harvester.

Yes, the harvester rescue scene is clearly in the trailer.

The Navigators' Guild may not be overly present in the first book, but it's essential to understanding the politics driving the importance of Arrakis and the attack on House Atreides. One reason why Leto I feels safe on Arrakis is that the Guild by policy refuses to transport military forces. The fact that it does, and that Imperial Sardaukar are siding with the Harkonnens, is a huge reveal as to who's behind the act of war.

I feel like it's crucial to establish why the Emperor hates the Atreides and just how exceptional the attack is.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 10th 2020 at 12:17:12 PM

Jessica is very clearly in the trailer, though not for very long.

Weren't those Sardaukar doing the weird slow airdrop, or were those just normal Harkonnen troops?

Anyway, yeah, there's no way they could make the movie without the spice, and no reason to suspect they would either. The trailer demonstrated the blue eyes, they mentioned seeing the future, there was a brief glimpse of the harvester, and of course Shai-Hulud.

This trailer was just focusing on the simple political stuff: Noble power plays, Paul is going to lose everything, etc. They can bring up the spice in later trailers, and even if they don't I wouldn't be worried.

Yes, those definitely looked like Sardaukar to me. I also saw Harkonnen troops... having Dave Bautista playing Baron Harkonnen, as it appears, is going to be incredibly weird.

Edit: Oh, he's playing Rabban! I get it. That makes more sense. Skarsgard is playing the Baron, in just that one tiny glimpse. I thought I recognized him.

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho? I... okay. We'll see how that works. Who else...?

• Liet-Kynes is recast as a female role. That'll give some folks apoplexy.
• Not sure my brain will accept Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck. Patrick Stewart is too ingrained.
• Oooh... some unfortunate implications in casting a black actor for Jamis. Let's hope that doesn't fall flat.

This is one heck of a cast.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 10th 2020 at 1:30:20 PM

I thought he was going to be played by stellan skarsgard.

Yeah, I fixed it. So far I'm only seeing black actors cast as Fremen or as third parties affiliated with the Fremen who die in the story. Are we sure that isn't going to be problematic?

Edit: Frank Herbert makes virtually no mention of racial attributes in the books that I can recall, but one thing I know for certain is that the Fremen have origins in Arabic culture, if not ethnicity.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 10th 2020 at 1:32:32 PM

Given that there are people of color from the other groups (Momoa, Isaac) and that brown people in general are playing Fremen and not just black people, I dont think it's a big deal.

Especially since we only know about big name characters. There could very well be white extras among the Fremen.

I don't know. Paul among the Fremen is awfully Mighty Whitey even for the time when Dune was written, messiah or no. Oh well. I'll keep an open mind about it.

Just saw the trailer and I really enjoyed it! I never read the book before, but this movie looks pretty interesting and it seems to have a Star Wars vibe to it, although maybe that's just me.

Might be since star wars was inspired a lot by dune which came first.

I'm pretty sure that all those shimmering particles in that shot of the sand going through Paul's hand were melange. Plus I think that woman in the black dress in the trailer (not the veiled one) was supposed to be Jessica.

Jessica is in the trailer (Briefly), and she's played by Rebecca Ferguson. You see her most clearly during the line "My father rules a whole planet"

Navigators not being seen would be true to the book, where no one sees navigators. You'd see guild representatives. Spice is also in the trailer, it's the red stuff mixed in with the sand when he grabs a handful.

The one big missing thing is no one has been cast as Feyd-Rautha. Baustita is Glossu Rabban. So I assume the two Harkonnen nephews have been merged.

Edited by Ghilz on Sep 10th 2020 at 7:35:01 AM

The miniseries gave a brief shot of Navigators on the trip to Arrakis, which I liked, but it's not actually necessary for the plot. And even the representatives only showed up at the very end of the book, right?

Beware of sandworms: Dune trailer gives us our first look at an epic world: Director Denis Villeneuve's adaptation provokes mixed reactions among Ars staffers.

I'm getting Neo vibes from this lead as Paul. What a dull performance.

Casting any minority as Fremen will be iffy, considering what they do at the end of the book, but it doesn't look like any group is homogeneous, so... could be worse?

There's a truism about heroic stories: The Hero is always the least interesting character. Let's hope he gets some more emotional dynamics in.

Minorities as Fremen? Oof. As if they weren't coded Arab enough.

Not very subtle. Then again, Frank Herbert wasn't very subtle about it either.

IIRC, and it's been a few years, they first appear when the Atreides move to Arrakis from Caladan, and it's where we get the explanation about space travel, Navigators, and Spice.

They show up again at the very end where they basically flex on the Emperor at Paul's threat after their collaboration is brought up.

They really dont do much in the story. Like, they are an important presence, but not a major cause of actions or moving the plot.

Muslim friend of mine noticed that the trailer uses the word "Crusade", not "Jihad". He thinks it's probably a wise choice (his words).

Edited by Ghilz on Sep 10th 2020 at 7:42:37 AM

That last Arab staffer suggested a remake should focus more on the female characters instead. The implication being that this is Yet Another Male Messiah Story.

That's the entire book. Heck, the entire franchise really, is about these people who are The Chosen One because of quirks of breeding.