Legendary buys film and tv rights to Dune [movie] Dune 2021

[Isgrimnur]

Denis Villeneuve Has Seen What You're Saying About the Dune Popcorn Buckets

“I don’t want to make stupid jokes right now that will I regret tomorrow morning. But I will say this,” Villeneuve recently told the New York Times when asked about the bucket. “When I saw it, I went, “Hoooooly smokes.” What the [expletive]!? At the same time, it created a lot of fun online. So maybe it’s positive? It’s some kind of … impressive design.”

Villeneuve was quick to stress that at no point was he involved in the design process for the bucket, but fellow interviewee and Dune star Timothée Chalamet did at least feel sympathetic for whichever poor person did before it got exposed to the dread inevitability of the internet. “I can’t tell if someone is at home right now going, ‘My design worked perfectly and everyone’s talking about it,’” Chalamet joked, “or if someone’s brutally offended by the response.”

[Holman]

Who's seeing DUNE2 first? (I believe it was Lagom last time, since he lives in an enlightened country where movies come early.)

I have tickets for Saturday afternoon.

[Holman]

I just watched part one again, and it dawned on me that so much of what I loved about it was that (IMHO) it got the look and feel of the world so perfectly right.

Of course a sequel will be continuing that same look and feel, so the sense of surprise at it will no longer apply. I wonder what will impress us most about part two.

[hitbyambulance]

Who's seeing DUNE2 first? (I believe it was Lagom last time, since he lives in an enlightened country where movies come early.)

I have tickets for Saturday afternoon.

bought tickets for Thursday, Feb 29 at 3pm at SIFF Downtown (formerly Cinerama) in Seattle.. i realize pretty much _no one else_ i know will be able to make this showing, but it's the very first one and it still had decent seats available.

[Holman]

bought tickets for Thursday, Feb 29 at 3pm at SIFF Downtown (formerly Cinerama) in Seattle.. i realize pretty much _no one else_ i know will be able to make this showing, but it's the very first one and it still had decent seats available.

Congrats! I hope it's awesome.

I'll be avoiding this thread between Thursday and Saturday so that I can go in without preconceptions.

[Hyena]

Is it streaming anywhere? For some reason I remember it being available on Prime or some other streaming service relatively soon after release.

[disarm]

The first part is available on Netflix and Max right now

[Hyena]

Yeah, I remember the Max streaming now, thanks. Can't wait for part 2.

[pr0ner]

Note that Part One leaves Netflix today and will only be available on Max after that.

[pr0ner]

Also, I somehow nabbed a pretty decent ticket a few minutes ago to see Part 2 in IMAX this evening at 6:45!

[hitbyambulance]

that was Pretty Good. starting to feel Villaneuve can do no wrong.

all you Chiani casting criticizers might change your mind by the end.

Spoiler:

that was heartbreaking…

bring on Dune: Messiah!

(also: Furiosa trailer before film)

[Torfish]

Saw it last night. Imax. Pretty darn good, if not great. I need to see it again. I thought the second half was best. High production value in every category.

Yeah, that Furiosa trailer was great! The Godzilla King Kong trailer showed me that it will be terrible.

[disarm]

I rewatched Part One last night (with my 9yo son for his first time), and we're going to see Part Two this afternoon. I wasn't sure what my son would think because Part One is a bit of a slow burn, but he did get pulled into the story despite the slow pace. I showed him the final trailer for Part Two and he's super excited to see how it ends.

IMAX is sold out at the times we can make it, but we will be seeing it in the Cinemark XD theater. Will post with impressions this evening...

[Montag]

I give it the full 8 tentacles! If you like the first, you will love the 2nd.

that was Pretty Good. starting to feel Villaneuve can do no wrong.

all you Chiani casting criticizers might change your mind by the end.

Spoiler:

that was heartbreaking…

bring on Dune: Messiah!

(also: Furiosa trailer before film)

Spoiler:

I agree. Zendaya was excellent. I get Alia being delayed for later and avoiding the ~ 8 year old killing her grandfather. I did not like the idea of Chani being jilted at the end vs the book. Despite my opinion of this, I thought the change was implemented well. Paul and Chani had a son in the first book that was killed by the sardaukar. How will the change affect the next movie? I am pleased with the change to Jessica. I thought she was portrayed too weakly. She was much stronger in the 2nd movie - but much more Machiavellian.

[disarm]

Just got back and really enjoyed it...easily one of the better movies I've seen in a while. Some people may be getting tired of Zendaya because she's the "it girl" of the moment and showing up everywhere, but I think she and Chalamet both play their roles perfectly. As someone who has never read the books, I'm happy with where the story goes and will be there on opening day for the next one if the studio lets it happen.

[Holman]

I've just come from my first viewing of DUNE Part Two. I thought it was excellent.

Detailed impressions below:

Spoiler:

I hope you like scenes with Fremen in them, because there are a *lot* of scenes with Fremen in them. This movie is probably 85% people in stillsuits.

A whole lot is compressed in comparison with the book, as of course it must be. A lot of Herbert's writing involves characters gradually realizing and coming to terms with things. Here it's all much faster.

Chani is a much stronger character here--she's Fedaykin, even--and Zendaya pulls it off.

Jessica is much more sinister and manipulative than in the book. She thoroughly embraces the Bene Gesserit toolkit not just to survive but to actively scheme for Paul's ascension to power.

The above works well to establish a direct triangle between Jessica (a manipulator), Stilgar (a true believer), and Chani (a skeptic), all of them competing for Paul's soul. Chani's skepticism has no place in the book that I recall, but I think it's a good addition.

Despite my misgivings when I heard the casting news, Christopher Walken is very good as the emperor. I only noticed one point where he seemed to deliver a line Walkenesquely. Irulan's expanded role also works well.

Austin Butler is great as Feyd-Rautha. He's cold and chilling, basically an anti-Sting, and it works. In his vocal presence he seems to imitate Baron Skarsgard.

Lynch's DUNE suffered criticism for excessive use of thought-voiceovers. This movie does a little of that as well, although much of it is disguised as one-sided internal dialogue between Jessica and awakened fetal Alia.

Villeneuve makes it very clear that Paul's rule will be monstrous for most of the human universe. Herbert hinted at it in the first book, but we only really feel it in Book 2. This makes for a more downbeat ending to the film, as we actually see the Fremen warriors taking off in the ships that will begin Paul's Jihad. I think Villeneuve is preparing us for his DUNE MESSIAH and making sure that we don't experience its beginning as some kind of weird heel-turn. Paul is much, much colder here, especially after he takes the Water of Life.

Speaking of all that, Chalamet is a credible warrior here. He's still kind of a twink, but he handles the fights and action scenes well, and he has a commanding presence when he needs to. (Paul is only 17 or 18 at the end of the book when he becomes Emperor. Chalamet is 28.)

Paul's first son isn't in the movie, and he doesn't need to be. The destruction of Sietch Tabr by the Harkonnens does a better job of portraying tragedy and loss here.

I did wish for some things in the book that weren't included:
--Guild representatives in the final scene being directly threatened with the end of spice production.
--The whole Thufir-Hawat-under-Harkonnen-control plot. (We don't see Thufir at all.)
--Count Hasimir Fenrig. (He could easily have been the Emperor's representative who comes to Caladan in Part One, especially as that would have been paralleled by his and Lady Margot Fenrig's visit to Giedi Prime.)

Most of all, Part One affected me more, but (obviously) because it first presented this coherent and thorough presentation of the novel I loved so much. This movie was a completion of that story and that vision.

[Archinerd]

Loved it.

The things cut in this movie don't bother me as much as they did in the first... although there are a few characters that just kind of disappear between the movies.
My only real criticism is that I think the Harkonnen are too brutal. I Yes, they're the baddies, but I think if they had been humanized just a bit, they would have been even scarier, and more believable.

Spoiler:

Nearly every single servant or attendant standing next to one in a scene is guaranteed to have their neck snapped or slit. I don't remember them being so casually violent in the book to their own servants and troops. It also undercuts the whole bit about Jessica being the Baron's daughter, as she's nothing like him.

Oh, and the architecture nerd in me really enjoyed the use of Carlo Scarpa's Brion Tomb as the filming location for the Padishah Emperor's house.

[Holman]

My only real criticism is that I think the Harkonnen are too brutal. I Yes, they're the baddies, but I think if they had been humanized just a bit, they would have been even scarier, and more believable.

Spoiler:

Nearly every single servant or attendant standing next to one in a scene is guaranteed to have their neck snapped or slit. I don't remember them being so casually violent in the book to their own servants and troops. It also undercuts the whole bit about Jessica being the Baron's daughter, as she's nothing like him.

Good point!

A response:

Spoiler:

In Part One we saw Harkonnen servants who didn't seem so terrified. I remember being struck by the presence of the Baron's female attendants seeming gentle and mild. At the time, this felt like a real shift from Lynch's Harkonnens.

Maybe the shift to absolute cruelty reflects the crisis of the Fremen insurgency and its threat to spice production?

[Zaxxon]

Just sat down for my showing…

[hitbyambulance]

My only real criticism is that I think the Harkonnen are too brutal. I Yes, they're the baddies, but I think if they had been humanized just a bit, they would have been even scarier, and more believable.

Spoiler:

Nearly every single servant or attendant standing next to one in a scene is guaranteed to have their neck snapped or slit. I don't remember them being so casually violent in the book to their own servants and troops. It also undercuts the whole bit about Jessica being the Baron's daughter, as she's nothing like him.

Good point!

A response:

Spoiler:

In Part One we saw Harkonnen servants who didn't seem so terrified. I remember being struck by the presence of the Baron's female attendants seeming gentle and mild. At the time, this felt like a real shift from Lynch's Harkonnens.

Maybe the shift to absolute cruelty reflects the crisis of the Fremen insurgency and its threat to spice production?

Spoiler:

i also thought it was over the top, but that seems to be Villaneuve's thing - see Blade Runner 2049 also

[hitbyambulance]

any word on ticket sales this weekend

[Zarathud]

Harkonnens were cruel and decadent throughout. There are interesting contrasts between the Atraides ideal, the Harkonnen reality, and Paul’s galactic jihad. It gets played up in Part Two. The real horrors are after Part Three.

[hepcat]

any word on ticket sales this weekend

81 million, I believe. Biggest opening since Taylor Swift’s concert movie. Odds of a third movie are good if box office is the only hurdle.

Edit: that’s domestic. Global box office is 178.5 million. Not too shabby.

[Holman]

any word on ticket sales this weekend

81 million, I believe. Biggest opening since Taylor Swift’s concert movie. Odds of a third movie are good if box office is the only hurdle.

Edit: that’s domestic. Global box office is 178.5 million. Not too shabby.

Yeah. I think the consensus is that Barbie, Oppenheimer, Taylor, and Dune have saved the theatrical movie business.

[AWS260]

We caught Part 2 yesterday, after some searching to find a theater with non-shitty seats available. What an accomplishment. The ending achieves a weird combination of triumphant and deeply disquieting that I've never experienced before.

[Zaxxon]

weird combination of triumphant and deeply disquieting

Great description.

[hepcat]

Saw it on Saturday and I'm finally ready to air my thoughts.

Villeneuve is one of the best directors working right now. He has proven that he respects the material he makes. I'm an unabashed fan boy of Guillermo del Toro and that's because he loves movies and he loves horror, the two things he's known for, and it shines through in his movies. Villeneuve gives me that same feel. He respects and loves what he's doing, it seems. That's the kind of thing that separates a Michael Bay from a really good director. It doesn't hurt that he has the eye of a true artist when it comes to framing his shot.

As for the movie itself.

Spoiler:

I'm torn on whether or not Villeneuve creating two camps within the Fremen, with one being the southern fundamentalist believers and the other being skeptics/non believers, is genius or too heavy handed. The former because it makes it clear that Paul is dangerous right from the get go (and creates a tie in to our current political clime in some ways); whereas in the books it was a more subtle realization that came to fruition mostly in the second book and on. The latter because it deviates a bit from the source in favor of a more heavy handed narrative process.

I also still get confused over the use of weaponry in this franchise. I know the all powerful death ray that shows up now and again can't be used against shields because it would cause a nuclear explosion, but they do use it from time to time. They also use those clever magnetic mines too. You'd think with those tools, the Fremen wouldn't need to get themselves into as much close combat as they do when attacking harvesters and troops. Although that might just be a personal code of honor thing with the Fremen.

I also wholeheartedly agree with Archinerd on the subject of the high mortality rate of water bearers and other personal servants on Geidi Prime. It was a little too over the top, if you ask me. Once would have been enough to establish that the Harkonnen were just awful people. But I suppose it may also have been featured as a way to show the growing frustration of the Baron and his family as they saw their spice production being slowed to a trickle by the Fremen.

My favorite scene in the movie was the final moments of the Baron as he lay dying on the steps to the throne. Instead of using his dying breath to plead for his family's continued rule of Arrakis or whatever, he instead spent those moments trying to crawl to the throne.

I really liked Butler's Feyd. He was more calculating than he was psychotic. I mean, yes, he's psychotic. But he's cunning as well. And Butler did a great job of showing that with the way he carried himself.

I think my highest praise should be reserved for something that many directors aren't able to do well, and that's pacing. Villeneuve makes Paul and every character earn the end to their stories. He doesn't rush them to their conclusions. Well, the conclusions that are in the first book, of course.

[Archinerd]

Despite my criticism of how the Harkonnens are portrayed, I want to see it again, preferably Back to back w) the first. And I want a 3rd movie too.

I'm particularly looking forward to;

Spoiler:

the weirdness of Duncan the Ghola, and fingers crossed for a chair dog.

[Zaxxon]

[hepcat]

in regards to that meme

Spoiler:

he basically DID stop breathing after taking the water of life though. so he's got an out when it comes to the prenup with Chani.

[hitbyambulance]

genius or too heavy handed

i think it can be (and probably is) both. Villaneuve did not only empathize some plot lines and de-empathize others, he did not hesitate to interject some of his own 'connect-the-plot' into the narrative to both carve out a defined narrative arc and, it should be said, to insert some 'contemporary' interpretation (some of which was subtle, some of which, not so much).

the fact that he managed to pull off this 'tampering' and still create a satisfying overall effect while remaining true to the source material is the mark of a good director, i think.

[Zaxxon]

in regards to that meme

Spoiler:

he basically DID stop breathing after taking the water of life though. so he's got an out when it comes to the prenup with Chani.

IIRC,

Spoiler:

he made the promise again just before The Speech, so that out is no longer valid.

[hepcat]

IDIOT! He could have been cruisin' for black toothed, Geidi Prime babes without a care in the world if he'd just friggin' think before opening his mouth.

the fact that he managed to pull off this 'tampering' and still create a satisfying overall effect while remaining true to the source material is the mark of a good director, i think.

As I wrote, Villeneuve is one of the best directors working right now. I can't wait to see what he does next. I wasn't a fan of Sicario or Prisoner, but I think that was primarily because I didn't really think the scripts were as good as critics made them out to be. But then he did Arrival and Bladerunner 2049 and knocked it out of the park.

[Holman]

I'm particularly looking forward to;

Spoiler:

the weirdness of Duncan the Ghola, and fingers crossed for a chair dog.

Spoiler:

Are there chairdogs in DUNE MESSIAH? I thought they first appeared much later in the series.

But seeing Jason Momoa as Hayt would be great, especially because the ghola's personality is somewhat different from Duncan Prime's.

[hepcat]

I tried making a chair dog out of two Dobermans and some twine.

Let’s just say their will never be little hepcats now.

[Pyperkub]

Do they actually complete the story of the first book (the only worthwhile book, IMHO)?

I did see rumors awhile back that they might take 3 movies to finish it, and I've been holding out to watch my 4k Bluray version of 1, until 2 came out and completed the story.

[Holman]

Do they actually complete the story of the first book (the only worthwhile book, IMHO)?

I did see rumors awhile back that they might take 3 movies to finish it, and I've been holding out to watch my 4k Bluray version of 1, until 2 came out and completed the story.

DUNE Parts 1 and 2 complete the first book, and the final few minutes actually suggest the events that readers only learn as backstory in the start of the second book.

Three movies is the plan, but Movie 3 is all of Book 2 (which is significantly shorter than Book 1).

[Pyperkub]

Thanks. I read the first 50-75 pages of book 2 (maybe 30-50% - it was an 80's paperback with dense text) and bounced off.

[Archinerd]

I'm particularly looking forward to;

Spoiler:

the weirdness of Duncan the Ghola, and fingers crossed for a chair dog.

Spoiler:

Are there chairdogs in DUNE MESSIAH? I thought they first appeared much later in the series.

But seeing Jason Momoa as Hayt would be great, especially because the ghola's personality is somewhat different from Duncan Prime's.

Yeah, I don't actually remember on the c.d.'s.

[Redfive]

any word on ticket sales this weekend

81 million, I believe. Biggest opening since Taylor Swift’s concert movie. Odds of a third movie are good if box office is the only hurdle.

Edit: that’s domestic. Global box office is 178.5 million. Not too shabby.

Yeah. I think the consensus is that Barbie, Oppenheimer, Taylor, and Dune have saved the theatrical movie business.

Top Gun: Maverick would like a word.

Saw D2 yesterday and found it spectacular. Essential to see it in a theater for the full effect.