Marina Antunes [Celluloid 09.03.10] movie news scifi gallery adaptation



The new adaptation of Dune is going forward, even if Peter Berg is no longer attached - he’s been replaced by French import Pierre Morel (known around these parts as director of District B13). Now some concept art has appeared online for Berg’s vision of the film and though Morel has said that he and Berg have a completely different approaches to the material, I can’t imagine completely scrapping these concepts. It’s difficult for me to believe that Morel and his team can come up with something better than this.

Comic book artist/movie concept artist Jock has taken his website live and with it posted some of the concept images he worked on while Berg was still involved with the project. They’re dark and beautiful and exactly the kind of thing I expected from a good adaptation (and I liked Lynch’s wacky version) and I must admit, I’m a little worried about the new direction of this project. It’s not bad enough that they’re talking of taking this thing 3D (why people, why? Do we really need sand worms coming out of the screen? I didn’t think so.) but they also scrap perfectly great concept art? Yeah, it’s troublesome.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that a Dune film will never meet my high expectations. It’s a good thing we’ve got the miniseries. They're not perfect (the first is far superior to the second) but they're pretty darn good. Now we just have to wait and see how badly Morel and his team mess things up.

Thanks to MovieWeb for the heads up. Gallery after the break.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

I like The Old Dune movie. I like the Dark look to it, the costume designs, Heck I think it's great movie even. One of the Great Sci-fi movies. I really don't think anyone will be able to have that look that David Lynch did for that film. Now we have this Dune remake that better not be some stupid Kid Adventure.
I thought the Dune Miniseries sucked it was B rated production and yes I have read the Books.

HydraEclipse (1 year ago) Reply

In truth the David Lynch film has a great look but was unintelligible to anyone who hadn't read the book.

Honestly though, these concept designs aren't that amazing. They really just look... generic. I know one of the unwritten rules of this site is to overly praise pre-production and theoretical productions, but I think you're confusing a dark "look" with the black picture borders.

cyclops76 (1 year ago) Reply

Lynch's Dune was far from flawless but still, I love that film and I think it stands on its own as a great sci-fi flick even if you haven't read the books because, after all, I don't think it's that close to the source material. I agree about the costume designs, they are amazing...save for the Sardaukar uniforms. The mini-series, as low budget as they were, presented a Dune universe closer to the one in the books, just "closer" mind you. Children of Dune was, in my opinion, an improvement over tv's Dune and I think that's the closest we've come to a Dune adaptation. All that said, I love theses concepts and would love to see some Sardaukar costume design for Berg's version or the new one. Hope they do the book justice.

Keith (1 year ago) Reply

This site pisses me off actually. A lot of the writers and critics are unevenly pretentious. I bet the staff meet up on the weekend and go down a set list of inside jokes they can unleash on unsuspecting acquaintances not familiar enough with what they're into, being the butt end of a joke.

^_^

MightyBall (1 year ago) Reply

I'm sorry, but those all look terribly generic, except for the worm pics. Those just look terrible. A couple of the works look like they have arms or something, one looks like it has a hinged jaw, and their all covered in weird spikes?

No thanks.

I agree with the above posters, the Lynch film was great, if flawed. It just had the epic scale feel to it that was sorely missing from the miniseries.

donc48 (1 year ago) Reply

The issue you have with Dune is the same you have with most really great Novels. Your trying to get 90 to 120 pages the length of most screen plays out of a 300 plus page work. I don’t care who you have in there the results are not going to be pretty. I read the book and saw the original movie, and the mini series I didn’t like the movie, liked the mini series. Dune is just one of those books that will be great fiction, but never a great mainstream movie it’s too cerebral, too many nuances. The Road was much easier the plot was simple a boy and his dad get from point A to B though a devastated America. Try and explaining Dune in one sentence.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

The First Dune is way better then the silly Miniseries low budget project.

When you are a director you don't try and just copy the books you make a movie, you take the idea from the books and you fashion a movie. Your making a film not a film that is going to be exactly like the books you take the idea from. This is crucial to pacing in a film.(I am a composer not a director though)

But hey everyone has there opions^_-
which is good!

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

The Lynch version may have an altered plot, however it best embodies the feel of dune that I get from reading the book. If they can make a film that captures the essence of the spice without turning it into another feel-good coming of age film, we may have something. Dune is serious sci-fi, my hope is that they don't ignore the worm-sign.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

Pierre Morel...? maybe they could rename it,

From Arrakis with Love

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

Would love to see a new Dune movie. The others are great, but they always feel like something is missing from the movies that the books had. Could be a great movie updated. Hopefully it will do good, and have many sequels from the rest of the Dune series, including the prequels.

dunedude (11 months ago) Reply

Dune has yet to be done correctly for film.

The Lynch version had lots of problems--weirding modules (book had no "modules") casting and direction problems--Stilgar's deliveries are ridiculous, Stewart's are not much better. Prochnow does his usual great job--He and lady Jessica save the movie. And why are all the Harkonnens red headed?? Are we to believe that all red heads are sociopaths? I like the movie but it is NO WHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS THE BOOKS.

The mini-series absolutely sucked. What's with the whiny brat Paul? And I have yet to see a movie where William Hurt didn't wreck it. This guy has all the charisma of a stone. The rest of the casting was terrible. The costumes look like cheap early 1960's StarTrek throw-togethers. And again, the Harkonnens are red headed psychopaths.

Dune has never been done correctly on the big screen or TV. It's a gold mine for the right group.

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