Denis Villeneuve's Dune

Ah, I was coming here to say that. My reaction was "...Uh?"

I mean, I know Walken is probably very familiar with serious roles, but this is a big role that's against his usual type. Shaddam is supposed to project authority and power enough that he's the ruler of humanity for a reason, so Walken can't really be goofy at all.

I mean, he did a pretty good job with that exact same sort of role as Louie from the Jungle Book remake.

Walken has played plenty of serious roles. He just enjoys lampooning himself a lot so some people forget it.

And now I can imagine him going "You're talking to my Sardaukar all wrong! Do it again, and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron!"

I recall at the time thinking that naming the Emperor Shaddam is really on the nose since dropping the h gives you..Saddam

I would have to look it up to see if Saddam Hussein was in power when Dune was being written, but I'm fairly certain that the name "Saddam" is used by quite a few people other than that particular one.

Walken and Pugh are solid choices for their respective characters, but hot damn Austin Butler seems like he'll be a good Feyd-Rautha. Just based on his role as Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood he strikes a nice balance between "pretty boy" and "off-putting" that Feyd needs.

Who is Florence Pugh playing? Irulan? Edit: According to Wikipedia, yes. And Butler looks great for Feyd-Rautha. Great choices all around.

Edited by Fighteer on May 12th 2022 at 3:47:26 PM

Right,but Saddam Hussein is immediately who comes to mind,Dune was punlished in 1965 and Saddam seized power 1979 hmmm

Edited by Ultimatum on May 12th 2022 at 7:48:22 PM

Who knows, maybe Walken will follow the "friendly neighborhood emperor" vibe of Lynch’s version.

Walken being in a Dune adaptation at all is some Hilarious in Hindsight fodder with regard to "Weapon of Choice".

So, what, Frank Herbert looked into the future and named the main villain of Dune after someone who would become infamous thirty years later? I guess he must have had his own supply of spice.

Remember that he intentionally used a lot of Arabic culture in the story, along with Greek culture. It's hardly an accident that things have Arabic or Arabic-sounding names.

Umm... okay. I felt Shaddam IV was more of a pompous, out-of-touch ruler in the Lynch film. His portrayal was fine, or at least good enough.

Edited by Fighteer on May 12th 2022 at 4:08:20 AM

Isn't that against his characterization, though? Even if he was defeated and forced to give up the throne, Shaddam was still a very capable and respected figure.

> So, what, Frank Herbert looked into the future and named the main villain of Dune after someone who would become infamous thirty years later?

you could say Frank used his prescience abilities...

edit:you said something similar,meh.

Edited by Ultimatum on May 12th 2022 at 8:11:18 AM

Mmmmm... the thing about the book is that it doesn't dwell extensively on Shaddam. I think that this is intentional, but he doesn't appear on-page until the very end, when his forces land on Arrakis to "deal with" the Fremen revolt. Everything else is characters talking about him, and the impression that is granted by this is that, while he's very powerful, he has become decadent and complacent.

His decadence is not like the Baron's, feasting and fornicating, but he has become too accustomed to using treachery as a tool of statecraft and has allowed his Sardaukar legions to lose their fighting edge by offering them comforts and treating them like royalty. When it comes to a head-on confrontation with a foe who can't be bought off or assassinated, he is a paper tiger.

Even so, the combined forces of the Imperium at Arrakis greatly outmatch the Fremen. His real problem, and the key to Paul's victory, is that his power is maintained by the Spacer's Guild, and Paul has them by the throat with his threat to destroy the spice. If the Guild refuses to allow troops to land, Shaddam IV has nothing to back up his threats.

In other words, Paul beats him at politics, and this works because Shaddam has become complacent about his political supremacy.

Edited by Fighteer on May 12th 2022 at 4:15:28 AM

That's a better option than portraying him as some goofy weirdo.

Christopher Walken is going to be in it? Now that I gotta see.

Man, that's great. A podcast I follow were even joking about Walken playing the emperor a few weeks ago.

Shaddam IV isn't the doofus Brian makes him out to be in the prequels, but yeah, he's not a particularly competent ruler. Hence him ending the thousands year-old Corrino dynasty; shouldn't have been as petty and paranoid as he was.

Christoper Walkin in Dune?

Of course, he knows that if you walk without rhythm, you won't attract a worm.

Seriously, he brings a gravitas to the role and he gots the actin' chops.

I woulda gone with Laurence Fishburne but I'll go with this.

RUMINT is that Austin Butler will be Feyd for the second film.

I thought they would cast younger since Shaddam is described as Older Than They Look (perhaps not to the extent of the book’s “40 is the new 70”, but around 50s so he can believably look like Florence Pugh’s dad) but wizened ol’ Walken works as well. Maybe they will do the other movie route of claiming he is 200.

Edited by Synchronicity on May 12th 2022 at 11:40:33 AM

> Shaddam IV isn't the doofus Brian makes him out to be in the prequels,

we don't talk about Brian's Dune books!

As someone who has read the Dune prequels...yeah, don't talk about them.

I'm sure Walken is a competent actor, it's just, everything I've ever seen him in he's really cranked up the Walkenness to 100%. Is there something he's been in where he's closer to Shaddam and less Max Shrek?

Reading books again,and a thought occurred to me

- I'm really interested in how they'll depict the steersmen ,they're seriously alien despite being mutated humans.

Good question. The depiction in the Lynch film is fairly book-accurate, derived from the descriptions in Dune Messiah. Navigators are not described in detail in the first Dune book, although their representatives look fairly human aside from the deep-blue spice eyes that they conceal with contact lenses.

Edited by Fighteer on May 13th 2022 at 2:44:42 PM