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Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 06 May 2017 23:35
by WolfgangMercury
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As ridiculous and pointless as it is, with Villeneuve's new Dune adaption slated to actually occur, why don't we have fan-cast the new movie?
I hope that they pick relative unknowns for the younger characters, and maybe go with Shakespearean actors for some of the older characters, as Dune is very influenced by the works of the Bard.

My Picks:

Cate Blanchett - Jessica
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Her features just scream Lady Jessica to me. She has proven that she can play characters with an almost ethereal, mythic power (Galadriel), as well as more down-to-earth humans plagued by internal struggle. (Blue Jasmine) Both of these traits are eminently present in the character of Jessica.

Liam Neeson - The Duke Leto
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Again, he fits the book's description of the hawk nosed Duke, besides not being Greek, and has a tendency to play moral figures.

Ian McNiece - The Baron Harkonnen
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This guy has already played the Baron, and, for me at least, he defined the role. He needs to be brought back to do it again.


Idris Elba - Shaddam IV
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A popular actor who would add the necessary gravitas and moral complexity to the character of the emperor.

Those are my only picks for now, but I'll be back later. In the meantime, I'm curious to hear the thoughts of our Sietch?

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 08 May 2017 10:05
by Omphalos
Liam Neeson NEVER dies (anymore).

I have always thought that Danny Trejo would make a great Gurney.

McNiece? IMHO you cannot put a Shakespearian actor into this movie. It'll give it too much of a Star Trek feeling.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 11 May 2017 11:43
by georgiedenbro
Ok, here's my ideal cast:

Paul: Asa Butterfield (a young actor who I think looks right and can actually do it)
Leto: Willem Dafoe
Jessica: Julianne Moore
Gurney: Liam Neeson
Duncan: Christian Bale
Thufir: Patrick Stewart (why not!)
Yueh: Eddie Redmayne
The Baron: John Goodman
Piter: Tom Hiddleston
Feyd-Rautha: Tom Felton
Dr. Kynes: Pete Postlethwaite
Count Fenring: Ben Kinglsey
Shaddam: Jason Isaacs

I'm a little on the fence about Willem Dafoe as Leto but I think he could pull it off.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 12 May 2017 04:31
by SadisticCynic
Duncan is supposed to be kind of Asian, right?

How about the guy who plays Rama in The Raid?

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 12 May 2017 08:45
by Freakzilla
SadisticCynic wrote:Duncan is supposed to be kind of Asian, right?
...with curly hair. I don't think he HAS to be Asian, but that would work I suppose.
How about the guy who plays Rama in The Raid?
Who?

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 12 May 2017 17:36
by WolfgangMercury
Freakzilla wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote:Duncan is supposed to be kind of Asian, right?
...with curly hair. I don't think he HAS to be Asian, but that would work I suppose.
How about the guy who plays Rama in The Raid?
Who?
His name is Iko Kuwais. He's an Indonesian actor and stuntman. It certainly sounds like he has the action chops, which the character of Duncan needs. Does he strike you as the "moral" type? Reviewers say that he has "innocence" and "enthusiasm." Enough to make Duncan a likable character for the audience to sympathize with. If Dune is a success and they continue the story we're going to be seeing a lot of him. To me, he looks like more of the action hero than the womanizer Duncan is.
Watching the trailer for Headshot, I can't help but think of his quote: "I died once. I won't die again."
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Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 15 May 2017 09:23
by Cpt. Aramsham
Freakzilla wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote:Duncan is supposed to be kind of Asian, right?
...with curly hair. I don't think he HAS to be Asian, but that would work I suppose.
He's described as dark-skinned with unruly, goat-black curly hair, round face, slightly flat features, high cheekbones and dark "cave-sitter" eyes with an epicanthic fold.

So from that description I think he's clearly meant to be mostly black, with some Asian blood.
georgiedenbro wrote: Dr. Kynes: Pete Postlethwaite
He's been dead for six years, though...

The problem with fancasting (if we take the suggestions literally) is that you always end up with actors who are way too famous, where a more unknown cast would usually be better.

That said, there are some good suggestions here and here. I particularly like Cillian Murphy for Piter de Vries, Michael Sheen for Count Fenring, Angela Bassett for Gaius Helen Mohiam, and Javier Bardem for Stilgar.

Personally, I would add:

Jessica Chastain: Lady Jessica
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She has the grace and motherly softness (Tree of Life) and the toughness and intelligence (Zero Dark Thirty) to play all aspects of Jessica.

Ron Perlman: Gurney Halleck
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Again, he has the range to do the grandfatherliness and the ruthlessness, plus he's very funny. And put a scar on him (he has experience playing deformed from Name of the Rose) and he has the perfect look for the tired old warrior.

Patrick Stewart: Thufir Hawat
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(As others have suggested.) He'd be a much better fit for this part than he was for Gurney, and every day he's looking more and more like the Thufir from Cryo's Dune game.

Donald Glover: Duncan Idaho
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OK, so he's snapped up by Star Wars, but otherwise I think he'd be perfect for the part. Atlanta proved that he has the dramatic chops and can play Duncan's melancholy.

James Spader: Baron Harkonnen
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Yes, he'd need prosthetics (or perhaps CGI) to embody the Baron, but I think the most important part of the role is the voice, and Spader has a great voice. And he can be funny and scary at the same time, perfect for an over-the-top villain like the Baron.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 15 May 2017 15:48
by georgiedenbro
Cpt. Aramsham wrote:
Dr. Kynes: Pete Postlethwaite
He's been dead for six years, though...
Cripes, I had no idea! That's sad to hear, he was awesome. And I agree with you about the problems of fancasting.
That said, there are some good suggestions here and here. I particularly like Cillian Murphy for Piter de Vries, Michael Sheen for Count Fenring, Angela Bassett for Gaius Helen Mohiam, and Javier Bardem for Stilgar.
That first link has some really great casting ideas, I like some of them better than my own, especially Ray Winstone and Chiwetel Ejiofor (who is awesome). Funny that he also thought of Asa Butterfield for Paul. Seriously, is there really another contender of more or less the correct age? I hope Villeneuve comes to the same conclusion and doesn't cast a 30 year old as Paul. I also love your idea of Bardem for Stilgar.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 02:57
by Cpt. Aramsham
I had a couple of other thoughts...

Omid Abtahi: Dr. Kynes
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Going a somewhat different way with Kynes. I think he'd be good as the scientist and imperial functionary unsuspected and dismissed as unimportant by most, and add a human dimension to Liet the leader of the Fremen.

Paul McGann: Duke Leto Atreides
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He's a bit too pale for the olive-skinned Atreides, but he's otherwise a good match physically. A sometimes disquieting intensity, desperation, and toggling between aristocratic cool and surprising personal warmth are what I think of for the Duke, and those qualities are very much in McGann's wheelhouse.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 14:44
by georgiedenbro
Dr. Kynes is a tough one to cast. Von Sydow was great because he has that ability to look involved and yet detached. To me the quintessential Kynes scene is the one in the glossary, where he tells the Fremen assassin to "remove yourself." It takes a certain amount of having one's head up in the clouds to fail to register a Fremen assassin (of all people) as a threat. I sort of think of the character as being so obsessed with his theories that he barely even notices people at all, even after becoming their leader. Between that and having a teenage daughter I guess I just think of Kynes as being older and fairly cool-blooded.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 15:47
by Cpt. Aramsham
That scene is actually Kynes' father, Pardot Kynes (though in Children of Dune Frank seems to have forgotten about Pardot, and describes the episode as having happened to Liet instead), who does indeed seem pretty cold, based on Liet's hallucinations in the desert:
He never could stop lecturing, Kynes thought. Lecturing, lecturing, lecturing—always lecturing. [...] Why aren't you helping we? Kynes wondered. Always the same: when I need you most, you fail me.
Abtahi is 37, which is quite compatible with having a teenage daughter (particularly among the Fremen, who marry young). In fact, the Dune Wikia gives Liet Kynes' birthdate as 10,156 AG, making him about 35 in Dune, but I don't know where that information is taken from; the only thing I can find in any of the Frank Herbert books is that he was 19 when his father died. It's probably from the Dune Encyclopedia, which does have this date.

Re: Dune Ideal Cast

Posted: 07 Jun 2017 10:12
by georgiedenbro
Oh man, my mind is going. Yeah it was Pardot. Whoops.