Children of Dune Movie Sci-fi Channel

Post by **Freakzilla** » 15 Oct 2008 17:03

One of the commentaries in the recent Dune (1984) SE DVD was the costume designer talking about how they spent six months designing hats for the Fremen that never got used in the movie.

I guess nobody bothered to tell the costume designer that FREMEN ARE NOCTURNAL!

Post by **Freakzilla** » 15 Oct 2008 17:05

Ghanima Atreides wrote:I think Alec made an ok Paul but a very good Preacher, ...

I think he was excellent as the Preacher.

TheDukester · Post by **TheDukester** » 15 Oct 2008 17:39

Ghanima Atreides wrote:... the twins being teenagers ...

Definitely would spring to mind for any Dune fan, I agree.

I think it might be on the commentary track somewhere (or maybe an article I read), but I remember the powers-that-be on CoD pretty much agreeing that they just didn't want to work with child actors.

Raising the age of the twins a few years didn't kill the story and it gave them a chance to hire trained professionals. Including a very hot one ... yummy.

A Thing of Eternity · Post by **A Thing of Eternity** » 15 Oct 2008 17:41

TheDukester wrote:
Ghanima Atreides wrote:... the twins being teenagers ...
Definitely would spring to mind for any Dune fan, I agree.

I think it might be on the commentary track somewhere (or maybe an article I read), but I remember the powers-that-be on CoD pretty much agreeing that they just didn't want to work with child actors.

Raising the age of the twins a few years didn't kill the story and it gave them a chance to hire trained professionals. Including a very hot one ... yummy.

You'd need really stinking good child actors to pull off the twins too, I think that was a reasonable change to make for a film.

Post by **Freakzilla** » 15 Oct 2008 17:43

A Thing of Eternity wrote:
TheDukester wrote:
Ghanima Atreides wrote:... the twins being teenagers ...
Definitely would spring to mind for any Dune fan, I agree.

I think it might be on the commentary track somewhere (or maybe an article I read), but I remember the powers-that-be on CoD pretty much agreeing that they just didn't want to work with child actors.

Raising the age of the twins a few years didn't kill the story and it gave them a chance to hire trained professionals. Including a very hot one ... yummy.
You'd need really stinking good child actors to pull off the twins too, I think that was a reasonable change to make for a film.

Yeah but there's something about (a) child(ren) wise beyond their years that is really creepy and you can feel something is missing when they use older actors for Paul and the twins.

EVERY teenager thinks they know it all.

A Thing of Eternity · Post by **A Thing of Eternity** » 15 Oct 2008 17:46

Freakzilla wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:
TheDukester wrote:
Ghanima Atreides wrote:... the twins being teenagers ...
Definitely would spring to mind for any Dune fan, I agree.

I think it might be on the commentary track somewhere (or maybe an article I read), but I remember the powers-that-be on CoD pretty much agreeing that they just didn't want to work with child actors.

Raising the age of the twins a few years didn't kill the story and it gave them a chance to hire trained professionals. Including a very hot one ... yummy.
You'd need really stinking good child actors to pull off the twins too, I think that was a reasonable change to make for a film.
Yeah but there's something about (a) child(ren) wise beyond their years that is really creepy and you can feel something is missing when they use older actors for Paul and the twins.

EVERY teenager thinks they know it all.

That's true, if it could be done well with child actors it would be bloody amazing, and you're right, the whole OM thing is very much missing when it's teenagers.

TheDukester · Post by **TheDukester** » 15 Oct 2008 17:57

If all the pieces don't fall into place, though, you get Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace.

Tleszer · Post by **Tleszer** » 15 Oct 2008 19:07

TheDukester wrote:If all the pieces don't fall into place, though, you get Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace.

He'd have made an awesome Leto. And he could have dressed in drag to play Ghanima.

Sorry. Had some diarrhea of the mouth there. I think I'm better now...

Ampoliros · Post by **Ampoliros** » 15 Oct 2008 19:49

I don't believe the Phantom Menace was accurate. I consider it to be a badly written docu-drama that just tells us what happened. Jake Lloyd as Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker.

Ghanima Atreides · Post by **Ghanima Atreides** » 16 Oct 2008 06:19

Another fun tidbit is that James McAvoy, the guy who played Leto II, has gained quite a bit of popularity since CoD, and speaking to some of his fangirls (on a non-Dune board) I was the only one who knew about his role as Leto.

BasharTeg · Post by **BasharTeg** » 16 Oct 2008 08:05

Everyone talks about Jake Lloyd for all these sci-fi movies. I didn't think he was that special in phantom menace aside from the fact t hat he's young and an actor.

He was wanted for the role of Ender Wiggin in Ender's Game which never got made. I heard an interview with Orson Scott Card about why not and the fact that there just aren't many great child actors was the main one.

The reason the twins were made to be 18ish and not 9-11 as they were in the book was purely marketing and the fact that there were no actors that age that could pull it off. I thought MaCavoy was great as Leto, but Ghani was a tad too Hollywood. And the guy who played Farad'n looked nothing like I imagined him, but what can you do.

trang · Post by **trang** » 16 Oct 2008 09:46

I watched and thought the Sci-Fi channels DUNE and Children of DUNE were pretty decent. I didn't like some of the actor inconsistency, or some of the choices. I re-watch occasionally.

I am a fan of the original Lynch Film, especially, the extended version by the Allen Smith. I had the same problems with the wierding modules, heart plugs, cat milking, and some other things, but after watching/listening to the long interview with Lynch and Frank, it makes some sense.

I guess I prefer it on many different levels, one that FH was involved with it, two the epic feel, the cast I like much better (Kyle is 25 by the way not 30 at the time of the movie), three the music score, and lastly the visuals.

Neither is the perfect dune on film, and with "adventure-action Jackson" Berg directing the next version, I don't think DUNE on film will ever be fully realized.

A side note: I read recently that Ridely Scott finally got the rites to do The Forever War, and is going ahead with it. Seems he has wanted to do it for 20 years or more, but legal wranglings on the rights prevented it.
I mention it cause he was originally the first choice for the first film but bailed. I think if anyone could do it he could, and wish he could.

Trang

TheDukester · Post by **TheDukester** » 16 Oct 2008 10:28

trang wrote:I am a fan of the original Lynch Film, especially, the extended version by the Allen Smith.

That's actually an Alan Smithee film, which is a fairly important distinction.

GamePlayer · Post by **GamePlayer** » 16 Oct 2008 10:53

Ghanima Atreides wrote:Another fun tidbit is that James McAvoy, the guy who played Leto II, has gained quite a bit of popularity since CoD, and speaking to some of his fangirls (on a non-Dune board) I was the only one who knew about his role as Leto.

That's not surprising. Unless it's The Matrix or Battlestar Galactica, it's been my experience most women run screaming from mention of the term science fiction.

Sole Man · Post by **Sole Man** » 16 Oct 2008 10:57

I based one of my chacters in my book on James McAvoy.

Post by **Omphalos** » 16 Oct 2008 11:33

Sole Man wrote:I based one of my chacters in my book on James McAvoy.

You wrote a book? What is it about? I might like to read that one.

BasharTeg · Post by **BasharTeg** » 16 Oct 2008 14:41

I've never actually seen the 1984 Dune movie all the way through. The parts I've seen were just so bad I didn't watch the rest. I know it did have an all-star cast, but once I saw Duke Leto arriving on Arrakis holding a dog under his arm, I was like WTF? And the fact that Paul Atreides was 25 years old, sort of threw the whole thing off.

Other things I thought were horrible from what I did see...

Piter's eyebrows
Bald Bene Gesserits
Baron Harkonnen's skin problems
Lasgun effects

DuneFishUK · Post by **DuneFishUK** » 16 Oct 2008 17:17

BasharTeg wrote:I've never actually seen the 1984 Dune movie all the way through. The parts I've seen were just so bad I didn't watch the rest. I know it did have an all-star cast, but once I saw Duke Leto arriving on Arrakis holding a dog under his arm, I was like WTF? And the fact that Paul Atreides was 25 years old, sort of threw the whole thing off.

Other things I thought were horrible from what I did see...

Piter's eyebrows
Bald Bene Gesserits
Baron Harkonnen's skin problems
Lasgun effects

It's not a perfect adaptation of FH's book, but it is incredible. The dog for example - he's one of my favourite bits. The Emperor has loads of dogs (beginning of the first scene) - so it is established as a simple narrative cue. TBH he's one of the more coherent elements in there

I've just read a random blog comment that sums it up perfectly:

someone on a random blog wrote:Awww, David Lynch's Dune is great. Not great as in "enjoyable and entertaining", but great as in "adapted into something largely incomprehensible by someone who is bat shit insane".

It's like Starship Troopers. You don't watch it as a Robert Heinlein adaptation, you watch it for the Paul Verhoeven crazy.

trang · Post by **trang** » 16 Oct 2008 17:37

TheDukester wrote:
trang wrote:I am a fan of the original Lynch Film, especially, the extended version by the Allen Smith.
That's actually an Alan Smithee film, which is a fairly important distinction.

:::bows to the dukester::::

My apologies you are correct sir!!! as a matter of fact I still have the DVD For the Smittee version from blockbuster on my desk. Might give it a run tonight. It is defiantly a better version, more complete with more explanation with the storyboards and so forth.

Trang

TheDukester · Post by **TheDukester** » 16 Oct 2008 17:52

What's odd is that it could be argued the Smithee version is just as acceptable as the theatrical release. Honestly, I'm a bit lost as to why Lynch emphatically took his name off the credits ... most other Smithee credits are from directors who really felt the studio screwed them.

I don't know; I'm not an artist. Maybe I'll ask Kevvie ...

Sole Man · Post by **Sole Man** » 16 Oct 2008 20:49

The dog thing is a fetish of David Lynch's. He loves dogs. (Literally. If you look hard enough you'll find...Ugh, I don't want to talk about it.)

He even had that somic strip: The Angriest dog in the world, which had and opening desciprition about the dog was so angry he was in a state of Richtus Mortis, followed by three planes of him sitting there, frowling in daylight, and then the same panel at night, but with someone in a house saying from off-shot phrase.

Man, David Lynch is one twisted, insane, and overrall luney excuse for a human being. I wonder what his sex life is like...

Rakis · Post by **Rakis** » 17 Oct 2008 00:01

TheDukester wrote:What's odd is that it could be argued the Smithee version is just as acceptable as the theatrical release. Honestly, I'm a bit lost as to why Lynch emphatically took his name off the credits ... most other Smithee credits are from directors who really felt the studio screwed them.

I don't know; I'm not an artist. Maybe I'll ask Kevvie ...

I liked the Smithee version, but you could also remove a few scenes from it that are just repetitive : how many times do you need to hear Shaddam say why the Guild wants Paul dead

I did enjoy when they take the water from Jamis...

As for child actors in CoD, young Alia wasn't so bad in Dune 84...

BasharTeg · Post by **BasharTeg** » 17 Oct 2008 10:15

The actress who played the young Alia in both Dunes I thought was pretty good. I got chills the first time she said "My brother comes...". I think I'll have to watch it all the way through at least once, just so I can say I've seen it, but overall I thought the actor choices were good for Dune 2000 and CoD. Considering they used mostly unknown/foreign actors for both movies, I thought they did quite well.

Dr. Kynes in Dune 2000 I thought was great, although I don't know why they brought him back as Korba in CoD.

Also, the guy who played Count Fenring in Dune 2000 who I don't think they gave enough attention to, had like a 2 second scene in the opening of CoD, he was one of the Fremen Lieutenants, that was it.

Also, in Dune 2000 they totally cut out Hawat after Yueh's betrayal. What's up with that. They had six hours, they could have left him in there.

Sole Man · Post by **Sole Man** » 17 Oct 2008 10:23

I'm not sure either... I think they were going with he got killed in the raid.

Hurm...

DuneFishUK · Post by **DuneFishUK** » 17 Oct 2008 12:45

Rakis wrote:I liked the Smithee version, but you could also remove a few scenes from it that are just repetitive

There's a fan-edited 'work-print' version out there that fixes most of that and includes all the deleted scenes from the SE DVD too.

Baraka Bryan wrote:yeha i thought it was interesting that they couldn't find new actors for some of those roles.

Turok was in COD as one of Alia's priests too.

Didn't have a problem with recasting good actors as different characters - Korba was bald, the Priest had a beard... so they were obviously different people

(Didn't even spot Fenring)

J A C U R U T U

Children of Dune Movie Sci-fi Channel

On actors

Re: On actors

on dogs

on Hawat's death