Dune Universe Thread

Sigmapolis · May 13, 2022

Few other casting notes besides Walken as Shaddam I didn't see here...

Austin Butler will be Feyd-Rautha. He's about to be Elvis in Elvis.

I most remember him as Tex from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood --

And Florence Pugh will be Princess Irulan. She has a bit of history with Timmy --

(From Little Women, where their characters ended up married.)

SCNCY · May 13, 2022

Sigmapolis said:
Few other casting notes besides Walken as Shaddam I didn't see here...

Austin Butler will be Feyd-Rautha. He's about to be Elvis in Elvis.

I most remember him as Tex from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood --

View attachment 98760

And Florence Pugh will be Princess Irulan. She has a bit of history with Timmy --

View attachment 98761

(From Little Women, where their characters ended up married.)

I think Anya Taylor-Joy would be another good choice.

Triggermv · May 13, 2022

Sigmapolis said:
Few other casting notes besides Walken as Shaddam I didn't see here...

Austin Butler will be Feyd-Rautha. He's about to be Elvis in Elvis.

I most remember him as Tex from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood --

View attachment 98760

And Florence Pugh will be Princess Irulan. She has a bit of history with Timmy --

View attachment 98761

(From Little Women, where their characters ended up married.)

I like both those other castings

JeanValette · May 13, 2022

Triggermv said:
You are correct, Alia is going to be a tough tough cast. Having a 4-year-old with the intelligence and smarts of a 40-year-old is inherently a hard task. They pretty much are going to have to go with an older girl who looks much younger than she is. The closest comparison with that level of wit was Mckenna Grace when she was younger. Alia is pretty similar to Mckenna's role in The Gifted.

Yep, best case scenario, they fudge the timeframe a bit and have an older actress playing Alia. Hopefully finding someone like Bella Ramsey (Lyanna Mormont) from Game of Thrones.

Sigmapolis · May 13, 2022

SCNCY said:
I think Anya Taylor-Joy would be another good choice.

I was hoping for Liam Neeson, Tom Holland, and Elle Fanning.

The three they have are all good choices, though.

I thought Anya Taylor-Joy was just a model who decided to try acting originally but she's impressed me in the few things I've seen her in. There's an otherworldliness about her that would have been strong as Irulan -- somebody expected to be passive and pretty but is actually quite shrewd and conniving in her own right.

She was great in The Northman.

Triggermv · May 13, 2022

Dune Part 2 can't come soon enough

Clark · May 13, 2022

The question with Dune is can you make the Arrakis/Fremen parts just as entertaining as the Atreides vs the Harkonens/emperor part.

They didn't in the first movie as the first part of that movie was much better than the last hour or so (IMO).

I presume the end of the second movie will match up with the end of the first book, which should be amazing. My concern is the first hour or so could be rough.

Triggermv · May 13, 2022

Clark said:
The question with Dune is can you make the Arrakis/Fremen parts just as entertaining as the Atreides vs the Harkonens/emperor part.

They didn't in the first movie as the first part of that movie was much better than the last hour or so (IMO).

I presume the end of the second movie will match up with the end of the first book, which should be amazing. My concern is the first hour or so could be rough.

I'm excited to finally see on the screen the final battle between the two sides. The book essentially jumps from the very start of the battle immediately to the end without elaborating about everything that happened in the middle, so it is all left to your imagination. I wanna see how Denis visualizes it.

Sigmapolis · May 13, 2022

Clark said:
The question with Dune is can you make the Arrakis/Fremen parts just as entertaining as the Atreides vs the Harkonens/emperor part.

They didn't in the first movie as the first part of that movie was much better than the last hour or so (IMO).

I presume the end of the second movie will match up with the end of the first book, which should be amazing. My concern is the first hour or so could be rough.

I don't know if "rough" is the right word, but the stuff up to and around the Spice Orgy is going to be weird.

They have plenty to do in the meantime, though -- introduce and develop the Corrino characters (the Emperor and Irulan), update us on Imperial politics in the years after the defeat of the Atreides, they have to introduce and develop Feyd-Rautha as the "evil twin"/foil to Paul, and they have to update us on Thufir and Gurney.

All that *before* the Battle of Arrakeen and the final duel.

HFCS · May 13, 2022

Sigmapolis said:
Few other casting notes besides Walken as Shaddam I didn't see here...

Austin Butler will be Feyd-Rautha. He's about to be Elvis in Elvis.

I most remember him as Tex from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood --

View attachment 98760

And Florence Pugh will be Princess Irulan. She has a bit of history with Timmy --

View attachment 98761

(From Little Women, where their characters ended up married.)

A young Virginia Madsen as Irulan in the 80s movie giving an outline of the world is maybe the coolest part of that movie in some ways. I think it's also kind of helpful to watch a clip of it for anybody who was slightly confused about basic plot of last year's new movie.

My wife is in apparel design and she took me to this Louis Vuitton exhibit maybe 7 years ago where we were in a large dark black room and it was just a huge video screen of that clip from 84 Dune and all these clothes on display, like they used that clip as just some sort of mood/setting for the exhibit. It was wild and I think I was the only person there who even knew what Dune was or where the clip was from.

Sigmapolis · May 13, 2022

HFCS said:
A young Virginia Madsen as Irulan in the 80s movie giving an outline of the world is maybe the coolest part of that movie in some ways. I think it's also kind of helpful to watch a clip of it for anybody who was slightly confused about basic plot of last year's new movie.

My wife is in apparel design and she took me to this Louis Vuitton exhibit maybe 7 years ago where we were in a large dark black room and it was just a huge video screen of that clip from 84 Dune and all these clothes on display, like they used that clip as just some sort of mood/setting for the exhibit. It was wild and I think I was the only person there who even knew what Dune was or where the clip was from.

The Lynch film will always conflict me. It has some very high points, but also some very low ones.

Irulan's opening monologue is definitely one of those high points, though.

-- starts with an intense closeup of the heterochromia in her eyes before zooming out
-- weird synth riff that quickly becomes an otherworldly soundscape
-- the perfect opening line from the novel... "A beginning is a very delicate time."
-- that slow, almost hypnotizing delivery from Madsen
-- the ornate hairstyle and costume right out of an Elizabethan drama
-- and a bit of humor and her sly smirk with the "I forget to tell you..." encore

Lynch definitely went awry later, but that is a very strong start.

CascadeClone · May 13, 2022

JeanValette said:
I agree, I suppose my image more closely matches the 80's one with Jose Ferrer. The padishah emperor is more of a intelligent but not wise type of guy, there is going to be an aura of nobility which Walken doesn't exude.

When he was younger and could exude that insidious evil like he used to, maybe. Walken so old now, and kinda has a meme vibe about him now, i dont see him as emperor.

HFCS · May 13, 2022

Sigmapolis said:
The Lynch film will always conflict me. It has some very high points, but also some very low ones.

Irulan's opening monologue is definitely one of those high points, though.

-- starts with an intense closeup of the heterochromia in her eyes before zooming out
-- weird synth riff that quickly becomes an otherworldly soundscape
-- the perfect opening line from the novel... "A beginning is a very delicate time."
-- that slow, almost hypnotizing delivery from Madsen
-- the ornate hairstyle and costume right out of an Elizabethan drama
-- and a bit of humor and her sly smirk with the "I forget to tell you..." encore

Lynch definitely went awry later, but that is a very strong start.

The exhibit I was at was freaking cool. Every 10 minutes that would play and just being in a dark room with only the pieces of clothing lit up and her voice. I was totally shocked because I kind of felt like I was being dragged along to something I had no interest in and then surprised with this sci fi experience of something I'm a huge nerd about.

I think the costume/set design in general was also amazing, accurate to the novel but a work of art on its own. I thought it was incredible in the new movie too, but if I had to think "favorite costume design in any movie", 84 Dune comes to mind along with Coppola's dracula and a handful of others. Obviously someone at LV thought it was cool who was running that exhibit.

I like the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary, but I think it's a little overzealous dismissing some of that stuff. I love all those sketches and Moebius is one of my favorite artists, but some of it would have been worse and less accurate to the novel than what we got in the two actual real movies.

HFCS · May 13, 2022

CascadeClone said:
When he was younger and could exude that insidious evil like he used to, maybe. Walken so old now, and kinda has a meme vibe about him now, i dont see him as emperor.

Yeah, I can't think of another actor who was creepy/scary for first half of his career, then almost exclusively funny/goofy for second half. At least not to that extreme. He was almost exclusively one, then almost exclusively the other.

I think he can pull it off, it's not like they cast Will Ferrel or somebody. I don't just burst out laughing at the sight of his face.