DUNE - Looks like Hollywood's gonna try again...

A bit incomplete...

Leto - Liam Neeson or maybe even Pierce Brosnan...Liam Neeson looks the part, but I think Brosnan has the intensity.

Paul - Er...

Jessica - Lena Heady. I can't remember who said it, but that's good casting.

Duncan - Clive Owen is basically Duncan from God Emperor...Daniel Craig would be a bit more noble in the role, though, and considering this is Dune, he's not as brooding as he is in later novels. Maybe even Aaron Eckhart?

Thufir - Anthony Hopkins.

Gurney - Viggo Mortensen.

Baron Harkonnen - It would be cool to see Jim Carrey done up as the Baron, but he doesn't have the voice. He definitely can't just be a bigger actor. Maybe we can delve into the music industry and steal Till Lindemann?

Feyd - I'd like to see Heath Ledger do this...but it can't happen. Maybe a villainous turn for Ed Norton?

Rabban - Mickey Rourke? Benicio Del Toro?

Piter - I can't think of someone off the top of my head. Alan Rickman?

Shaddam - I like the idea of Hugo Weaving.

Fenring - Richard Roxburgh (courtesy of BobaMatt's suggestion) or a shorter, less mighty-viking Peter Stormare.

Stilgar - I've chosen a Hurt...John Hurt.

Chani - Sienna Guillory holds a soft spot in my heart.

Irulan - Scarlett Johanssen.

 

Is Baron Harkonnen

 

Pretty much, but...please, can we make them stop hovering...

 

We spoke about this some: Bardem?

Yes plz.

I like it.

Interesting.

Too old on all counts. Look for a decent "teen" actor.

Yarrr no.

Piter is said to be slight and effeminate...Ed Norton could play it...or Benicio del Toro...John Leguizamo...I mean he dies early on...

Yes.

Swarthy Fremen!

Hm...

I'm so in love.

 

Man, I hate the floating Barons. I know they try to emphasize the whole repulsor thing by doing it, but really, it's like a line of dialogue to explain it and then have him walk. Unless it's a logistics thing. I know for a fact they said the Baron in David Lynch's version couldn't even walk with that fat suit on...

 

And please, no gross disease for the Baron...

 

The major problem with it is that it's a gross misunderstanding of the text. What they've done is taken fat actors perfectly capable of walking and given them this repulsor thing that was intended, in the text, to bouy up a man too heavy to otherwise support his own weight - fat men that randomly float is stupid, but if he has to float at least make him 1,000 pounds or so. Basically, that's what irks me: the floating makes no sense. If you give us a guy that's so disgustingly huge that he can't possible move on his own - like the Baron's supposed to be - at least the audience would make the association. "Oh, he floats because he can't walk. Cool."

But if I had to choose, I'd have him walk. It could be a visual thing: his floaty harness thing is just chillin' there, the guys float it over, strap it to the Baron, and suddenly he can walk. Not hard.

 

Yep, the Baron is like I always assumed Jabba was... before TPM that is. I used to think that Jabba, and by extension all Hutts, had to float around on his dias to move because he couldn't do so under his own power.

I just finished watching the Sci-Fi series again. I must say, much as I like that one more that Lynch's movie... I want to see it done being as true or truer to the novel with a Hollywood budget. I'd like to see a sort of synthesis between the Scifi stillsuits and Lynch's stillsuits. So long as they don't look like Batman's body armor, or just a jumpsuit with some little hoses attached to it. That and better sets, you know... maybe they can actually film it in the desert instead of a soundstage.

 

Except that in the books there's no indication he doesn't walk.

 

Who, the Baron or Jabba?

What I mean is, the Baron doesn't get around entirely by his own power.

 

I thought the Baron had the gross disease in the book though, but we could do with less of the puss squeezing.

Irulan - Scarlett Johanssen.

That was the best pick of the bunch.

This does need to be at least a 3 hour movie, I will be upset if they remove the political themes and just turn it into an action movie.

I never did really watch the Sci-fi version, I saw part of it and wasn't impressed by the production values.

 

The former.

Well, all the forward force is his. The upward force, though, that's all suspensors. :-D

Speak not of Brian Herbert and KJA.

Particularly considering it's not exactly an action packed book.

 

Funny thing, Frank Herbert's action seems to largely be off-screen.

Anyone read Paul of Dune? I'm looking to read the rest of the original series, but I'm also interested in Paul's jihad and I know Paul of Dune tells that story... but when I tried reading Butlerian Jihad it was horrible.

 

I like the idea of Christopher Plummer as Shaddam, but I also think Colm Feore could possibly be an excellent Emperor of the Known Universe.

 

Which is okay. Actually, one of the coolest things Peter Jackson did in his movies was to develop Tolkien's subtext and off-screen action. Faramir's story in RotK? Fantastic.

This would be the book where KJA and BH decide that Frank Herbert's books are all just IU historical accounts written by Irulan, and that's why there are inconsistencies between FH's works and BH and KJA's (now superior canon) works.

Yeah, no, don't read them.

 

Saves me money then. Thanks Matt.

 

I'm sure there are hilarious summaries somewhere.

 

Paul of Dune is worth a read if only for completeness' sake. They absolutely butcher Fenring in it.

 

But that's the thing: if you're looking for completeness, there's no need to read their books. Need I link the PA comic yet again?

 

Wha?

 

I believe Matt refers to this rather apt little critique:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15/

 

Don't bother reading the EU material unless you're looking to fill holes here and there... there are too many lore errors alone to make it an unenjoyable adventure (though, I give credit that if you can look past the flaws that the Dune EU are decent reads).

Someone on page one said there's the possibility of avoiding political air with this? If so, why make a Dune movie? Dune interwove politics, drama, environmentalism, awareness and military all into a beautiful masterpiece.. to remove one would be to cheapen it. I agree that the SF miniseries was amazing given the constraints they were given. If you take away the political air between the Harkonenns, Fremen and Atreides... what's their left to be? Shooting, killing and spice loads? lame, imo.

 

Does anyone remember this?

 

A lot of you seem to be forgetting that while Shaddam was old, he looked in his 50's at most.

And I think it'll be more like the book if The Baron's fatsuit is full of helium; that way he's walking, but his massive fat is light and floaty.

EDITED

 

How about Brendan Gleeson as the Baron? He's fairly heavy-set and he can do evil-crazy.