Dune to be directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049)

Definitely has that Star Wars epic ness to it (helped by the fact a major Star Wars actor is in it). Looks like a winner and needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

 

I'd rather see Prisoners than any of those, but I don't think the earlier work would be better indication than Sicario and Arrival of what we can expect from Dune.

 

Prisoners is pretty good IMO, worth a watch.

 

Also makes you wonder if Villeneuve directed the Star Wars sequels, how spectacular those could have been. I've heard that he wasn't interested (and probably for good reason, given Disney's involvement). But still, the missed opportunity there is heartbreaking considering the disjointed mess fans got instead.

 

The usual tug-of-war(s) seem to have been going on:
DPs and scriptwriters come and go, directors come and go...

Still, it's a Hollywood budget-cruncher production, so while I would love to imagine something that isn't slavishly designed toward demographics/ratings/money and past Sci-Fi , I am not holding my breath until I see it.
I read the books years ago; they do present a universe that has the potential to be well removed from the usual, with interesting characters. The past two tries both had their moments, even with all the limitations.
I still would have wanted Jodorowsky to do it instead. Even a grand failure from him could potentially have been so much fun.

But that's just me

 

I agree with you somewhat in that I would like a bit more genuine weirdness in films like this. Or maybe just more humanity. Blockbusters increasingly betray the fact that they've been processed through a computer to make everything polished and perfect looking, which is something I find difficult to connect with. I realize that's a product of a lot of different factors and I'm probably in the minority.

Does anyone else sense the teen romance angle on this getting a pretty strong push? That could be wise financially as it gets the 25 and under crowd into theatres (see what that did for Titanic), and the Chalamet/Zendaya pairing could be box office magic. I just wonder how it's going to affect the overall narrative, which is unwieldy under any circumstances. Maybe it will help streamline it.

 

No, me too. Watch the movie called Jodorowsky's Dune if you haven't seen it yet. It's a documentary window into the mind of Jodorowsky, how he works, what the movie would have looked like, what he went through assembling a cast, artists, the "vision" he had as it were.

Nothing against Villeneuve as a straightup style film-maker but my 1st choice to have tried to make this new version would have been Nicholas Winding Refn. He actually "saw" Jodorowsky's vision of the movie (see this documentary to understand what I mean) and think he would have done it justice with his own radical artistic way of film-making, would have taken the audience on the same kind of trip Jodorowsky was attempting. Of course good luck getting funding to do it that way (artistically instead of commercially).

 

Re: Solaris: "Does anyone else sense the teen romance angle on this getting a pretty strong push?"

Sadly, and perhaps predictably, yes. In the trailer, the "windswept hair/haunted gaze" is in full effect, much as in so many other films. Zendaya ain't there for her seasoned acting chops...

This is partly why I am afraid that, despite all the promised intentions, it will become boilerplate.

C.

 

Like they didn't embellish the love story between Arwen and Aragorn in the LOTR movies.

Of course they're going to play up the relationship between Paul and Chani. It's the easiest way to get back their $200 million investment in this flick: appeal to as wide of an audience as possible.

 

Are folks really comparing Villeneuve and Jackson? Villeneuve can actually conceive of relationships between people and understands how to get the right performance out of his actors to pay that off. Jackson directs video games.

I can certainly understand the concerns of the above posts because I also cringed when I saw Zendaya, Brolin and Momoa, but think about it. They have the proper essence to portray those characters and as you point out, it's agents, producers and negotiators in Hollyweird who have the power and budget to make this film possible. We'll have to wait and see if Villeneuve can get the proper performances out of the actors, but it bodes better than anything I saw in the six Tolkein-related atrocities from Jackson. If that's the point of comparison, I think we're in great shape. We have a much better director and frankly better source material.

 

If all the Jackson Jackson movies are relegated to "video games" I feel sorry for you.

 

Eh? The 'teen romance' is a very important part of the book so I don't get why folk are moaning - unless they just like to moan...

 

Legolas surfing down the stairs on a shield and counting arrows as he a engages in a "death score" constest with Gimli that is supposed to qualify as humor?

Hobbits floating down the river in what was a serene passage of the book, which Jackson turns into raging rapids, adds an elf battle with Uruk-hai and Hobbits bouncing in their barrels, and arrows turned into a hand-to-hand combat weapon. Ridiculous.

Nearly every scene downplayed character relationships for low-brow humor or video-game type production.

 

Legolas and Gimli did keep track of kills in the book too, FYI. Although I don't disagree with much else in your post. The CGI action sequences came off as really over the top for me much of the time.

 

The thing that bothered me most about those God-awful Jackson direct LOTR movies was how totally low brained Hollywierd the directing choices were, especially in regards to smothering everything in awful orchestral soundtrack scores of musical cures designed to drive home what type of emotion an audience was supposed to be feeling for practically every scene (fear, awestruck, sad, mad, danger, happiness, frolicky, triumph, puzzlement, whatever).

 

That’s exactly what happened. Lynch didn’t have final cut and all the narration was added later.

 

I am so looking forward to seeing this movie, based on the trailer that came out last week. Seeing Villeneuve's Bladerunner 2049 on the big IMAX screen was very special, and I can tell from the recent Dune trailer that this movie will be like that. Even if the story and execution suck, the production design and visuals should be great eye candy.

But I wonder how this will do at the box office. Add to that the day and date release on HBO Max. Dune has its big fans, but it's a cerebral story, not a popcorn action flick that your typical moviegoer will see (like a Marvel movie). Villeneuve's Bladerunner 2049 was a beautiful and great movie, based off something that had its big fans. But even that only made $32.7 million domestic in its opening weekend and never more than $100 million domestic ultimately.

It doesn't affect me personally how well a movie does at the box office, except Dune needs to do well enough so they can make another one to finish the first book, and hopefully continue into the next book.

 

Hans Zimmer has really outdone himself with this project, especially given the fact that he created brand new instruments from scratch. Am SO picking up the ATMOS mix!!!!

Three Dune Soundtracks Incoming From Hans Zimmer

 

You get a home organ, depress all the stops and hit a random "chord" every five seconds . . .

The sound mix for BLADE RUNNER 2049 was excruciating. Like Christopher Nolan's movies, it varied between painfully loud and incomprehensible.

 

The article does mention these releases are digital only so we can hope the film will be successful enough so that WaterTower Music will consider physical releases. This is music that's made to be heard in Multichannel.

For the time being, only 2 tracks are available in Stereo on HDTracks in 48/24.

 

Running time: 2 Hours 35 Minutes

 

Considering it's for half of the book, it's not bad. The two films covering the first book should bring this to 5 hours +

 

Great news!

 

The only things that have my interest is that is Villeneuve and Zimmer. the story is so long ago for me and the screen version was such a disaster that, even though I was very immersed in the books back then, I doubt I'd pony up for it if not for those two.

 

I can't think of any modern film director other than Villeneuve that I would want directing this film. He is perfect. He made the most intelligent first contact film ever and BR 2049 looks amazing and really honoured and enhanced the source material.

It's also reassuring to see the cast and that it hasn't been ruined by by lots of pointless gender and race swaps. I think the makers seem to have respect for the source material.

And what a cast! Fantastic. Chalamat hasn't done much for me yet in the films I have seen but he looks like he will flourish under a great director.

I think fans of the book and general sci-fi fans will love this. My only concern is that it will be too good a film to appeal to the masses who think Tom Cruise films and Fast and Furious films are great so may struggle to make a profit.