Dune is Going Big or Going Home
There’s a new adaptation of Dune coming out sometime soon — though probably not as soon as currently scheduled, because of the pandemic. But we’ve got our first trailer for the highly anticipated film.
I say “highly anticipated”, but only because I know other people are highly anticipating it. I don’t have a care one way or another. I’ve never read the book and, while I’m sure I saw that first movie at least once, I have no memory of it. So I have no personal connection or degree of excitement regarding Dune.
And, honestly, from that perspective, this trailer is wild and meaningless. It’s a bunch of nonsense. All except for that sandworm scene at the end. That was pretty badass.
—————————-
Posted on September 10, 2020, in Movies and tagged Dune. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
Your views match mine. I read the Dune books just after I graduated college years ago. So I was able to read them all at once and didn’t have to wait years between books. I don’t count the ones written after his death. Those never count, whether it’s James Bond or Sherlock Holmes.
Anyway, my question does anyone actually care about Dune anymore? The 1980s movie didn’t exactly spawn a cult following. The two Syfy miniseries from a decade ago are long forgotten. And I don’t get the sense that the Dune books have the following they did 50,40 or even 30 years ago.
Will young people, who I am guessing haven’t read the book (I could be very wrong) turn out? Will oldtimers like me, who read the books so long ago that I don’t actually remember many details, come out?
Kind of reminds me of the Blade Runner sequel. The original movie wasn’t actually a popular hit. I remember having a conversation with someone who saw the original movie when he was in college and was now a grandfather asking the probing question of who the Blade Runner sequel was for? People like him who were much older and weren’t exactly counting the days for a sequel? Or for young people who weren’t around but might have only seen it on video and aren’t exactly counting the days. The foamers who bought the 47 video variations on DVD qho aren’t exactly numerous enough to pay for a $250 million movie?
I take it that the loudest factions do not have to be the most numerous. Blade Runner had fans, but it’s not exactly like their numbers reached 10s of millions across a broad demographic. Batman and Marvel can sell their movies because each generation gets their own version. The last Dune book came out something like 40 years ago. The brand hasn’t exactly been kept alive in the minds of new generations.
This is just me, but I have my doubts that it will be successful. The book was long and complicated. Very hard to put into a 3-hour movie. The Avengers movies, while long, had simple, easy-to-follow plots that told a relatively simple story based on the audience understanding of characters who were introduced in other films.
Dune has to start from scratch. A big problem to navigate.
Keep up the good work.
I think you hit the nail on the head. I’m as casual a sci-fi, movie-going fan as they come…and I am just blanking on this Dune stuff. I’ll go see it because I go see everything, but if this trailer can’t get someone like me excited for a big Dune movie, what hope do they have to get the average person excited about it?
I just realized that the director of Dune and Blade Runner 2049 is the same guy – Denis Villenue (I think that’s the right spelling. Apologies if I got it wrong.)
This fact really puts an interesting twist on my long comment. If Dune fails, it’s Hollywood director’s jail for Denis.
Oh hey, thanks for pointing that out. I had it in my head that Darren Aronofsky was directing this. I probably could have looked it up…but you know how the mind works. Now I’ll remember it’s Villenue.