A thread about the Denis Villeneuve-helmed reboot of DUNE

holy shit, I had it playing in the background a while ago and in the back of my mind I thought, is that a slowed down spooky Pink Floyd cover, can't be, seems too on the nose even for one of these epic event films. And then just now I got to watch it properly all the through and, yep, slowed down spooky Pink Floyd.

xxps Maybe I'm Wrong About Dune!
I should probably try rereading it; my only memories are junior high school ones.

i (29) read dune for the first time this summer and liked it a lot!

guild navigators aren't even in the book - not that I wouldn't love to see them.

im not much of a reader of sci fi, had always been dune-curious but had been scared off by ppl saying its super dense, super boring, etc, but i dunno i got caught up in it and found it pretty fun

it is super dense, but that's part of the charm. i love how herbert refuses to hold your hand even as he throws all these weird terms and characters at you for the first couple hundred pages. and i don't think it's boring, it's just that the plot is a bit oblique and is secondary to the world-building.

how any of this will translate onto the silver screen is anyone's guess

guild navigators are in the second book

sorry

i recently managed to score a dune encyclopedia (pb, berkley 1984) ... i've been meaning to reread the first four (five and six are objectively bad) again with the encyclopedia at the ready but never got around to it. this might be the time.

also i'm excited for this because why the hell not

wow rare find! I've been looking for that for a while but copies on ebay are too costly.

holy shit! is it because of the movie? mine was like $40 at a brick and mortar

no it has been costly for a while - it's the only Dune adjacent book out of print (and will remain so) since Brian H de-canonized it.

dang didn’t realize it was such a score ... last I checked on internet most copies were in the $50 range

i like the cool british edition with the cotton candy pink and blue cover but the one i got matches my paperbacks which is cool too

actually i only paid $35, the receipt is still in it!

and look at the bookmark that fell out when i flipped through it

https://i.postimg.cc/fTk4xm88/72-F91981-9-B2-A-4-E7-E-B6-A4-DA75507-EF2-E7.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/4xhr0Zkt/1-F3-ED44-C-E539-43-BC-A6-D0-A526777-BB628.jpg

i mean ... that explains it right? my copy is cursed :(

lmao

I should have held on to my copy of that -- fun slumgullion of random stuff. I especially liked the entry on Gamont, an actually truly funny bit.

Anyway, scene by scene breakdown:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/breaking-down-the-spice-worms-and-pain-boxes-in-dunes-1844676132

There is, admittedly, a truth here:

I tried explaining the plot of DUNE and DUNE MESSIAH to my wife recently while she was driving and she said if I didn't stop she would pull over

— Jordan Hoffman (@jhoffman) September 9, 2020

jeeze, Brian Herbert having dominion over Dune canon is like putting Jared Kushner in charge. I tried to read one of his prequels and it was the worst cringe fanfic I’ve ever slogged through.

I loved the Dune Encyclopedia as a kid, but don't have it anymore.

My sci-fi nerd cousin dragged me to the Lynch movie when were 10 and I did not dig it; I finally read it in my very late 30s and liked it more than I expected. Not enough to read any of the others but enough to read this thread

xps

If Herbert wrote it today, the 1965 novel would be at least three fat volumes. It's dense with characters and incidents he could have developed at far greater length (I suppose his recognition of what he'd left on the table prompted the sequels). It's fast-paced in a typical 1960s SF style, a bit disjointed like most fixups from magazine stories, but it kept surprising me and making me want to know and see more. Unfortunately the sequels didn't scratch that itch -- I read Dune Messiah and wasn't inclined to go farther.

I wasn't expecting that trailer to look so much like the Lynch film!

Repeating my reservations from elsewhere:

- Zimmer makes terrible movie music, I don’t trust him not to fuck this up even if what we’ve heard so far is pretty OK (for Zimmer).

- Everything on the screen could be recreated using three of the pages from my Benjamin Moore fan deck, namely the cold browns

- Chalamet’s not a total wimp, but is he up to this? His voice definitely isn’t in the same league as MacLachlan’s. I got expectations, man.

- the ornithopters and the shields don’t look weird enough. Dune is weird. Arrakis is weird.

The last two points are key for me. Still I appreciate the ornithopters looking strange enough.

Strangely, nothing about milking cats

https://www.scribd.com/doc/38049415/Dune-Encyclopedia

the ornithopters and the shields don’t look weird enough. Dune is weird. Arrakis is weird.

Yes, the designs are achingly tasteful and subdued. Not seeing much of a visual personality in that trailer.

I've read Dune two or three times (but not in the last 10 years) but never any of the other books - are any of them worth checking out?

perhaps perversely -- hi there! -- my favourite as a teen was dune messiah: possibly somewhat swayed by bruce pennington's cover art (also it had way less windy lectures on ecology and grown-up alia was hott and badd) (spoilers)

https://i.imgur.com/Mzwtjuh.jpg

Bruce Pennington is the best!

Count me as another ILXOR who first read and enjoyed Dune when they were in their 40s Just read this snippet on Facebook - Frank Herbert OTM!

When Frank Herbert was in Australia for a science fiction convention in Adelaide in 1981, he was asked who he thought should handle the movie soundtrack for any adaptation of DUNE. His reply, Tangerine Dream.

That cover makes me want this film to have Guardians Of The Galaxy style colour.

Also sack Zimmer obv, shoulda gone with Laurel Halo or OPN

see upthread for best pink floyd options

Messiah is one of the worst for me, but it has the heaviest lifting to do and sets up a lot of the rest in a pretty thankless task. God Emperor definitely my favourite after the first.

i will strongly rep for the first four, but the last two are, as i said, objectively bad

we should do a book club! i haven’t started and flaked out on one of those for awhile!

does anyone know who did the Berkley medallion covers? those are the ones that influence how I picture dune in my head the most ... oddly I can find no credit in the books themselves, just an illegible signature on the cover of “children” (leto and ghanima’s shadow is pointing at it)

http://i.redd.it/0g3w46o54ylz.jpg

Wikipedia says Pennington but I don’t think that’s right

Pennington is the mod, more colorful covers; those (at lease the top level ones, not certain about the bottom three) are Vincent Di Fate.
http://vincentdifate.com/

(i am trying to snag y'all a pdf of dune encyclopedia btw)

ah yes i can read the signature now. i thought it was "ed tate" at first but it's clearly "di fate"

the berkley trade covers are awesome too, they can be fit together to form a big image

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/af125/kwisatz-haderach/Cieszyn/Picture606_resize.jpg

apparently they are rare as fuck. i don't know if i've ever seen one IRL.

actually i should specify: the first three are quite rare, the last three are not so rare

just thinking about 0PN doing the score instead makes me a bit sad, that would have been a great way to fold in some unobtrusive weirdness

though his safdie brother scores are not exactly unobstrusive

uncut melange

colin stetson ftw imo

i will strongly rep for the first four, but the last two are, as i said, objectively bad

In ways that makes the Encyclopedia the perfect capper if you stop there.

Oh for the innocence of my youth when I really had no idea AT ALL in God Emperor what Herbert was getting at with the 'Fish Speakers.'

... do tell? what do you think he was getting at?

Watched the trailer, was completely unmoved. I think Marvel Phases 1-3 completely burned me out on big budget SF spectacle. Give me Agnès Varda collecting heart-shaped potatoes.

got some sad news for you

Lynch's images and visual design are far sexier than what I've seen aboit this thing to date.

Yeah, Lynch's isn't like the greatest thing ever but it's astoundingly faithful to the general thrust of the book while adding a sheen of that beautiful weirdness David is famous for.

This doesn't feel necessary.