Secrets of Dune

[Worm]

Sorry if this was mentioned elsewhere (I hate searching ). Has anyone read this book?



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... X/bookrags

I was wondering if it was worth getting. I didn't see any mention of Pinky and the Brain on it.

[Omphalos]

I bought it a while ago and have already sold it. It was interesting though. It was about the making of the miniseries, and IIRC there was a CD or a DVD with it.

[Purge]

I haven't seen this. I purchased the "Science of Dune" book a few months back but haven't come around to reading it yet.

[Omphalos]

I haven't seen this. I purchased the "Science of Dune" book a few months back but haven't come around to reading it yet.

Check out Chig's blog when you get around to this one. We managed to dig up the author of a few of the articles and IIRC she made some posts there.

I dont think we are done going through that book yet, either.

[TheDukester]

I can see it on my shelf from where I'm sitting ...

I bought it used from an Amazon seller and consider it money well-spent. It's an interesting look at the first miniseries, which I'm also a fan of.**

**Especially the hats ... I loves them hats!

[SandChigger]

Yeah, I did the "bad thing" with The Science of Dune and skimmed through everything...and as a result haven't had the urge to go back and read through it carefully yet.

With my interest in the worms and spice cycle, I focused on the Sibylle Hechtel biology article first. I've also read the two main articles by Kevin Grazier, the editor (and science advisor on BSG), on the stars of the Duniverse and spacefolding/FTL travel...also areas of personal interest, so there wasn't a lot new there for me.

It's alright as these books go. If you're a completist and have the coin, enjoy. Not what I expected or would have liked, but as Hechtel pointed out in our exchanges, if she had tried to work out a plausible biochemistry for the worms, the result would have been fanfiction. That wouldn't have bothered me, really, considering that the fanfiction of scientists at least would probably have been more scientifically accurate than the fan fiction the HLP is flogging about.

Sorry, Worm, haven't seen the book you mention. I did run across a copy of it on Amazon once but decided against getting it after reading the details and reviews.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Yeah, I did the "bad thing" with The Science of Dune and skimmed through everything...and as a result haven't had the urge to go back and read through it carefully yet.

With my interest in the worms and spice cycle, I focused on the Sibylle Hechtel biology article first. I've also read the two main articles by Kevin Grazier, the editor (and science advisor on BSG), on the stars of the Duniverse and spacefolding/FTL travel...also areas of personal interest, so there wasn't a lot new there for me.

It's alright as these books go. If you're a completist and have the coin, enjoy. Not what I expected or would have liked, but as Hechtel pointed out in our exchanges, if she had tried to work out a plausible biochemistry for the worms, the result would have been fanfiction. That wouldn't have bothered me, really, considering that the fanfiction of scientists at least would probably have been more scientifically accurate than the fan fiction the HLP is flogging about.

Sorry, Worm, haven't seen the book you mention. I did run across a copy of it on Amazon once but decided against getting it after reading the details and reviews.

This post gives me major deja vu... you sure you haven't made this exact post before? Creeping me out.


I'm probably just loosing it.

[SandChigger]

Could be. If someone as together and with it as Green Cow can forget posts made, what hope have I of non-redundancy?!

At least it appears I'm more consistent than K&B!

[Centurion988]

Big shout out to Omphalos. Love your book review site.
Nice take on Poul Anderson's Tau Zero.
Time for me to be more selective when I brouse amazon, lol!
(yeah, just give the money away!)

[trang]

Just got this book from amazon order today.. read the forward and found a statement in there interesting. The Executive Producer of the mini series, Richard Rubistein, states that there was a dispute about who owned the TV rights, and a day after that was settled he optioned the rights from the Frank Herbert Estate, for a TV mini-series for Dune AND THE 5
SEQUEL BOOKS?????

Considering Dune was in 2000... Children of Dune in 2003... why not the remaining 3 books?? I dont know if this has been discussed or not.. I didnt know they had got rights to GEOD, HOD, and Chapterhouse.. Children of Dune was better than Dune.. so it would seem likely they could continue. Being it was Sci-Fi channel.. wouldnt surprise me that they might have canceled remaining installments. I think its worth investigation.

[DuneFishUK]

IIRC it was the Sci-Fi channel that finished Dune on TV - I don't think they were very optimistic about GEOD. It doesn't have Fremen riding worms and all the usual Dune stuff that sells - and it wouldn't be that easy to film. Also I think SciFi was trying to move away from Dune type stuff at the time.

The other big idea was an original weekly series based around a Duncan dealing with the plots against Emperor Leto. John Harrison penned a pilot... Sci-Fi didn't like that either.

[SandChigger]

Keith probably wouldn't have liked that, either, with his (probable) plans to hike out that ten-volume Duncan of Dune: A Thousand Lives and a Life.

Poor guy gets enough shit already that he's stealing from The Dune Encyclopedia and the Lynch movie and mini-series. Imagine how much worse it would be after a weekly series like that!

[Freakzilla]

...It doesn't have Fremen riding worms...

Siona rides Leto II.

[Tleszer]

Hawt.

[TheDukester]

... why not the remaining 3 books??

Not to defend TV people, who are generally some of the stupidest people in the world, but I think I can see their point. In terms of television, the final three books just aren't as visual as the first three. They require the reader to do a bit of work and to have a bit of an imagination, and that sort of thing is often in short supply out there in viewer-land.

Another possible explanation, of course, is TheKJA telling the Herberts what to do, as usual. Maybe Keith wanted to shelve any future projects for personal reasons. I'd ask someone at the HLP, but all they would say is "Ask Kevin," so I'm not going to worry about it too much.

[DuneFishUK]

only GEoD would make horrible television... and even then, if you wanted to lose the whole point of the book you could probably pull enough from it to make a popular miniseries by focussing on the love story with Hwi, the backroom plotting against the Emperor... hell the opening scene would make a great action opener too...a miniseries could be done but you'd have to lose the philisophical aspects of the book. the themes about Leto's lost humanity would probably have to be the main focus.

the last 2 books have plenty of action that could be adapted to TV.

They could make a decent GEOD miniseries - it is definately doable. However it would require pretty heavy adaptation to be watchable.

They could refocus it - they could also do a bit of a dual storyline and do something with Ghani's death. That would at least get some classic Dune stuff in there.

The last 2 books are definitely filmable - but what about all the sexy stuff?

[Freakzilla]

**Especially the hats ... I loves them hats!

At least the mini-makers used their hats and didn't spend six months designing hats for Fremen then cut all the scenes with them out!



You get off on doing that to me, don't you?

[trang]

sorry hadnt had chance to get back on and respond. I think the last three books are very doable, no one has even tried so think it would have been worth it.

My main thought is how long do the options for the TV mini series on the last three books run till?
Im still trying to figure it out, but I believe producers from the Sci-fi Mini series are working on the New movie. Still think it works better for television than big screen but that just me.

Guess is water under the bridge at this point, but they could have kept chugging along and even a first attempt at the last three books would have been interesting.

as for all the sex stuff...(imprinting, axlotol tanks.. etc) probabaly have to modify that a bit for general use.. would have to think about that one.. the Matres in Loguns run rainbow leotards.. is somthing that would rival the 2000 Dune Mini series hats though:) have to change that I think, have to modify it a lot but keep true as can be.

[Rakis]

only GEoD would make horrible television... and even then, if you wanted to lose the whole point of the book you could probably pull enough from it to make a popular miniseries by focussing on the love story with Hwi, the backroom plotting against the Emperor... hell the opening scene would make a great action opener too...a miniseries could be done but you'd have to lose the philisophical aspects of the book. the themes about Leto's lost humanity would probably have to be the main focus.

the last 2 books have plenty of action that could be adapted to TV.

They could make a decent GEOD miniseries - it is definately doable. However it would require pretty heavy adaptation to be watchable.

They could refocus it - they could also do a bit of a dual storyline and do something with Ghani's death. That would at least get some classic Dune stuff in there.

The last 2 books are definitely filmable - but what about all the sexy stuff?

We need a HBO-like scifi channel...

[SandChigger]

I'd settle just for a scifi-like SciFi Channel.

(Btw, are they still going through with that asinine name change? When does it take effect again, next month?)

[NotAbout]

only GEoD would make horrible television... and even then, if you wanted to lose the whole point of the book you could probably pull enough from it to make a popular miniseries by focussing on the love story with Hwi, the backroom plotting against the Emperor... hell the opening scene would make a great action opener too...a miniseries could be done but you'd have to lose the philisophical aspects of the book. the themes about Leto's lost humanity would probably have to be the main focus.

the last 2 books have plenty of action that could be adapted to TV.

They could make a decent GEOD miniseries - it is definately doable. However it would require pretty heavy adaptation to be watchable.

They could refocus it - they could also do a bit of a dual storyline and do something with Ghani's death. That would at least get some classic Dune stuff in there.

The last 2 books are definitely filmable - but what about all the sexy stuff?

They're all definitely doable, but as to the appeal to mass audience I'm not convinced. However, if they did attempt it:

GEOD would have to be focused mainly on Duncan and Hwi I'd imagine, simplify the whole thing. I really wouldn't mind reading a fan-made script or some sort of adaptation based on the idea of making it suitable for TV, its about as close as we'll ever get to seeing one.

HOD&CD would definitely be "stand-alone" actions for TV. Don't distract the viewers with all the back story and history, just focus on the current events and allude to past characters and events for hardcore dune-fan cred. Probably Teg would be a bad-ass action cliche.

[ionah]

...It doesn't have Fremen riding worms...

Siona rides Leto II.

horny