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back to article Paramount buries Dune remake

The planned Paramount Pictures movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune has been cancelled. The attempt to get the 1965 sci-fi classic once again adapted for the silver screen came to nothing after more than a year of development. Paramount had recruited Taken helmsman Pierre Morel to direct. Richard Rubinstein, who controls …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thats two..

    Dune and WW-Z - are paramount making ANY movies anymore?

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmm

    I'd quite like to see an adaptation that wasn't as awful as the first film, but I think it's unlikely.

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    1. amanfromearth
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      Alien

      I'll only go see it ..

      .. if Sting plays Feyd Ruatha again :)

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      1. Big-nosed Pengie
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        I WILL kill you.

        One of the great cinematic moments of all time. Right up there with...you know...that guy in that movie?

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    2. Painless
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      an excellent adaptaion of Dune

      Try the SciFi channel adaptation miniseries. It was excelent.

      And it actaully did all four books in two miniseries. Dune and Dune Messiah in the first (titled 'Dune'), and Children of Dune and God Emporer of Dune in the second (titled 'Children of Dune').

      And it was mostly European actors , iifc.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        yeah

        I remember watching that on a marathon on sci-fi long ago, it was great, the reason it was stuffed with Eastern European actors was because they spent all their money getting the one or two American actors, which was great because the Europeans accents were much more fitting to a grand imperial setting.

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      2. 4HiMarks
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        I agree

        Too bad SciFi, excuse me, SyFy, lost their way. I don't think I've watched them in some time. Now that BBC America HD is running Dr. Who, I don't have to.

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      3. Tom Clark
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        indeedy

        As it happens, it was Children Of Dune which launched the career of one James McAvoy.

        Swear down.

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      4. nichomach
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        +1 from me

        I thought it remained remarkably true to the book, with excellent performances and a well-managed script.

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        1. John 62
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          remarkably true to the book?

          hmmmmmm.

          I'd say the crazy stuff with the 'weirding modules' made the film even more flawed _because_ there were so many pages of dialog and narration lifted from the book.

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        2. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          @Oliver 7

          I didn't dislike it, I just said it was rubbish, and it was lol, I've watched it many a time and will likely watch it many more times, the representation of the Harkonens was good, however it missed a lot of the delicious detail behind the feud.

          The thing that can never be forgiven is the silly sonic weapons they used lol, never forgive!

          There were other things about it that were "le sigh~~~" and it could have done with being 3 hours longer, I think Dune just doesn't make a very good feature film.

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      5. Grifter
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        The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

        The first mini covered only the first book, the second mini covered messiah and children, god-emperor (or anything after) has not been made into a mini.

        Also the dune saga is a total of 6 books (dune, dune messiah, children of dune, god-emperor of dune, heretics of dune, chapterhouse dune) not 4. More if you include his son's attempts at continuing it.

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      6. Stevie
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        Wha???

        You mean the one with the terrible terrible awful terrible cockney Gurney Halleck? Every time I see it I'm waiting for him to burst out with a chorus of "Oh it's a jolly 'olliday wiv Muad'dib".

        And the terrible terrible awful terrible dancing tw*t from the guild?

        And the unaccountably missing mentats? (I can hear Gurney 'alleck crin' "Wot, no Thufir f'kin Hawat?")

        And those idiotic hats?

        And the acting? Like: maybe the makers could have hired someone who could do it?

        Kull Wahad! I think someone's brain has been fried by too much Semuta Music.

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      7. David Hicks
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        All four books?

        Err... no.

        Much as I enjoyed the two miniseries, especially the second one, they only covered three books. Pretty sure the second miniseries covered "Messiah" and "Children"

        Also, there are six books!

        It's just that the end of "Children" is a good place to stop because there's a break of 5000 years or so between there and the story of "God Emperor".

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          I prefer

          I prefer to forget the books written by his son.

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      8. MichaelBirks
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        Headmaster

        First Three Books only.

        Dune was Dune,

        "Children of Dune" was Dune Messiah in part 1 and Children of Dune in 2 & 3, with an unaccounted for ageing of the children for added hawtness.

        God Emperor wasn't touched. Thankfully.

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    3. Oliver 7
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      Am I the only one?

      ...who liked the original? I thought it was a flawed masterpiece. Despite some very ropey moments some of the effects were amazing for the time and Lynch's direction lent the film his idiosyncratic discomfiting feel, particularly the Harkonnen scenes.

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      1. Thecowking
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        The Lynch film is a classic

        I love it, it's always been a favourite of mine and while the whole weirding way bit was squiffily done, Sting, Patrick Stewart with hair and flying fat men make it a greta film.

        In fact I shall watch it again tonight. The spice must flow!

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      2. Peter Kay
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        You're not the only one

        I loved it too. I don't remember the special effects as being /that/ bad, either. Must watch it again..

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      3. Stevie
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        Bah!

        Agree.

        Of course, then one must sit back, take a second to compose oneself before pounding the table in rage with a shoe and screaming "THOSE F*CKING EYEBROWS!"

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        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
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          Eyebrows?

          Isn't that from FLCL?

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      4. Anonymous Coward
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        The original is a masterpiece.

        The original is indeed a masterpiece, as (just like Lord of the Rings) it was obviously impossible to make a film of it. There are very few things wrong with the original, mostly to do with bits they missed out. The chances of a crumby remake being even half as good are minimal.

        I assume Americans insist on 90 minute films with simple plots because that's all they can cope with before they have to eat again.

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      5. Bod
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        The original was brilliant

        Flawed yes, but brilliant. Love the style, the sets, the costumes, music, and it has Sting and Patrick Stewart in the same film, and it's a David Lynch film!

        I watched a bit of the first mini-series but got bored. I admit I haven't read the books and I'm sure it's miles closer to them, but it felt as boring as Babylon 5 to me.

        It's one of those films where it's so iconic that any new version would have to follow it's style. It would be like doing a Flash Gordon film that wasn't as camp and fun as the 80s version. It just wouldn't be right (though doing Flash Gordon without Brian Blessed and a Queen soundtrack would be wrong anyway).

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  3. Gerry Doyle 1

    "cut the mammoth subject matter down to a compelling story that could be told at feature length".

    ...in other words - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, and in between all that some people get shot. A beginning, a muddle and an end, like every feckin film that's come out of the USA in decades.

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    1. vonBureck
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      Coat

      Fixed that story for you

      Droid meets droid, droid becomes chameleon, droid loses chameleon, chameleon turns into blob, droid gets blob back again. Blob meets blob, blob goes off with blob and droid loses blob, chameleon and droid.

      Mine's the furry-collar anorak with "Jupiter Mining Corporation" on the back.

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      1. Piloti
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        Thanks,.....

        My first laugh of the day!

        Cheerio.

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      2. Wize
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        Coat

        Or...

        The familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being beneath a silvery moon, which then explodes for no adequately explored reason.

        The one with the book in the pocket that has the words "Don't Panic" written in large friendly letters on the cover.

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      3. dssf
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        Boffin

        Or, Drob and Bloid, obs and oids...

        Blob meets Droid, Droid screws Blob. Blob gives birth to Drob and Bloid. Drob and Bloid mate. Drob and Bloid change genders. Bloid screws Droid, producing Broid, and Drob screws Blob, producing Brob.

        And along the way oozum smears and melts multiple humans along the way. Sometimes, there's group activity along the way...

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  4. Anonymous Coward
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    Thank <insert false deity>

    Why do they insist on redoing everything? Heath Ledger has been dead over a year, isn't it time to do Batman again?

    There are a lot of talented writers around who never get a chance because hollywood idiots would rather piss money away on overpaid 're-imaging' hack writers who cant do anything original.

    The inevitable failure would get blamed on piracy obviously.

    In the future they should just flush their investment down the toilet themselves to save us from their bad creative waste.

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    1. Richard 81
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      Normally I agree

      ...except in this case it would be interesting to see a movie of Dune that isn't quite so mad. The original was on over the weekend, and I think 'cult classic' must be a euphemism for 'didn't do well in cinemas because people on acid prefer to watch the popcorn machine'.

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    2. The Fuzzy Wotnot
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      Unhappy

      Indeed...

      That would suggest a risk and when you're spending $100-$250 million, that's a big risk to take. Easier to play it safe and know that as the executive in a media corp your $4m mansion and fleet of expensive cars are still safe by ensuring bums on seats in cinemas showing the latest over-hyped claptrap!

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      1. Captain DaFt
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        Thumb Down

        So...

        Maybe they should step back and take a look at how this "low risk" strategy seems to be working for them,

        I mean, deals and movies canceled, Studios looking for a buyer/savior because they can't keep the cash flowing...

        Looks like the first one that "risks" doing something fresh and different, on a much lower budget, with unknowns, might just make back their investment a few times over,

        But... that'll never work. A paltry few million in profit just doesn't seem to generate the same excitement in the industry as a movie taking in thousands of millions, but barely covering its expenses.

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  5. James Hughes 1

    So many good SF books

    So few people in Hollywood who can read....

    'Episodes' should be required viewing for all producers.

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  6. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Confused

    I though Hollywood's business model was to do pop-star studded glitzy remakes of old movies that in their day made lots of money in spite of poor visuals

    So their plan is to do a crap remake of a glitzy movie that made no money despite having glitzy production , lots of good actors and the pop star of the day

    ps. I hear Peter Jackson is doing a remake of the 2005 King Kong, the new one is going to be in black and white and will use advanced CGI to make it look like it was shot on grainy 16mm film

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    1. Criminny Rickets
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      Boffin

      King Kong

      Will he also be using an actress that looks remarkably like Fay Wray?

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  7. johnnytruant

    Alejandro Jodorowsky is probably free

    Shame Dali can't make it.

    Greatest film never made, that. Lynch's effort - especially the 3-hour-long fanedit based on the original shooting script - was pretty good, but Dali, Jodorowsky, Gieger and Mobius all working on the same film, with a story by Frank Herbert?

    Can't see the accountants in charge of modern movies going for it though. Sad face.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Dali version

      Not only that list of artists, but I believe the soundtrack was to be done by Pink Floyd!

      I'm glad this one's off the cards if it was just going to be a cut down version. Dune deserves to be epic.

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  8. Disco-Legend-Zeke
    Heart

    Perhaps...

    ...instead of collapsing the story, it should be expanded. So much great material there.

    A trilogy at least.

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      1. ravenviz Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Troll

        Re: @Perhaps

        And a blu ray box set in 5 years time!

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great Novel

    The parallels between oil and the Arabs is spooky.

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    1. John 62
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      parallels

      well, the Fremen were descended from a tribe called Zensunni and they had an Arabic-style language. Here on earth, Sunni Islam is the sect of the Arab/Bedouin muslims.

      Where's the Dame Edna Everage icon?

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      1. PassiveSmoking
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        Coat

        Parallels

        Zensunni, the appliance of science!

        ... wait.

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      2. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        re: parallels

        I think the most enduring thing about the books is the remarkable depth to which Herbert took so many aspects of our current world and extrapolated them forward - it provides a depth you don't often see in sci-fi. And he manages to do it without saying "look at me, I'm clever" and without the past cluttering up the stories. Its what keeps me coming back to the books time and again; there's always something you missed on the last pass.

        While most of the language seems to be derived from Arabic, there are plenty of other linguistic and cultural references including ancient Greece, Russia and even the Aztecs. My favourite religious reference is to the Orange catholic bible - guaranteed to annoy hell out of a lot of people in the place of my birth.

        There's a decent take on the Arabic used in the books at:

        http://tinyurl.com/47ln58o

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    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
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      Not really

      Old Herb' meant it that way.

      Also, libertarianism.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    SyFy

    I've watched some of the miniseries online and it's not bad for the obvious low budget but it's not that good either. But watching the miniseries has made me realise what a masterful piece of film making the the David Lynch original was. I think it really had the essence of the book which is no mean feat. I love the book but I think it's borderline unfilmable and I doubt anyone could beat Lynch's attempt.

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    1. johnnytruant
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      Lynch can beat Lynch's effort

      The mythical three+ hour film that Lynch shot - albeit never edited - has been pieced together by the fans using his original shooting script. If you own one of the Dune DVDs, you have all the footage, so can (I think, local laws may vary) legally download the version by "Spicediver" which is easily findable using Mr Page and Mr Brin's Patented Searching Engine.

      Much better than the theatrical release, which I thought was excellent anyway. Lots more coherent, deeper and apparently the script was Herbert-approved too (Frank, not Brian). I'm sure I read somewhere that the sonic-gun/weirding modules were Herbert's idea, even, because he felt the whole prana-bindu Bene Gesserit combat thing was too complicated to explain in a film.

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    2. John 62
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      Lynch, masterful?

      No. The direction was awful. Keeping pages of narration and dialog from the book was good. ADDING things was sacrilegious.

      The book is in no way 'unfilmable'. Granted, I'm not a director, so I'm not going to try to beat Lynch's attempt, but there is scope for much improvement, especially if you don't add any extra nonsense in.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
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      Alien

      Sci Fi classics

      ......and their unfilmable stories this is the problem with all of the best books they are so well internally scripted that any other script does not seem to come close.I personally think that "Hollywood"should not even contemplate doing this particular book as only one film but probably two.

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