Feb 2010 – CS Video: Pierre Morel Arrives From Paris With Love (ComingSoon.net)

Morel: Let me assure you, I’m not going to transform Dune into an action crazy movie. It’s not the point. I was a fan of the book from the start, I read the book when I was 14-15 maybe, and I’ve been reading it over and over and over. I’m a huge fan of the original material, I don’t want to ge away from that, I want to be very very true to the original novel.

It’s very challenging, it’s very complex. A lot of what is going on in the book is happening people’s minds, which is tough to show. It has lots of layers – politics and lots of interaction between different things… It’s a challenging thing, because it’s very rich, the original book is so rich. You cannot condense it to a 90 minute move, it has to like 2-and-a-half hours at least, and still there you have… it’s compact.

But we can make it. I think the technology now allows us to do much more than David could do in 84.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=62758

The Dune content begins around 14 minutes in. Again, encouraging.

Feb 2010 – Dune’s New Messiah (IGN)

Morel: “We’re starting from scratch. Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we’re starting over again. I don’t think we’re going to keep any elements of the Peter Berg script. It was good, actually. It was interesting. It was just not our vision.“

“Dune is such a huge, huge project… it’s challenging, it’s long-term — we’re only starting. We have to rewrite the script, we have to develop a whole universe. It’s going to be a long thing, so who knows. But I’m passionate about Dune so I’d love to do it next.”

[Regarding internal monologues] “That’s one of the challenges, yes – everything that is in Paul’s head, we’ll have to show it on screen and find the right approach to make it visually interesting. But I think the technology we have now allows us much more than we could do before, so we’ll see.”

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/106/1065212p1.html

The mention of the Internal monologue problem so early on is interesting… and encouraging.

Feb 2010 – From Paris with Love Director Pierre Morel Dishes on Dune (Tribeca Film)

Tribeca Film’s Jenni Miller: Do you plan to infuse it with some action?
Morel: “I don’t know. It’s all about—I’m a huge Dune fan, a reader, like for 30 years; I read it when I was a teenager. I’ve read it 10 times maybe, so I want to stay true to the book. Saying that, I also think that there’s a lot of scenes that are not described in the books—it’s just mentioned, like the bad guys attacking something—and it might make sense to include those in the movie, not just by mentioning it but showing them, and that would maybe [call for] some action scenes, yes. It’s not about action. It’s not the point. It’s not about [making] an action movie. It’s just doing Dune. It’s like a huge universe thing, and there’s such a fanbase, like guys who have been reading that forever—you can’t mess with that.”

http://www.tribecafilm.com/news-features/blog/Director_Pierre_Morel_Dishes_on_Dune.html

(Emphasis mine). This is the single most encouraging thing I’ve posted here so far.  Against my better judgement… I like this director.

Jan 2010 – ‘Dune’ remake back on track with director Pierre Morel (EW/Hollywood Insider)

The studio has hired Taken helmer Pierre Morel to oversee the movie. Paramount is currently looking for a new writer to incorporate Morel’s vision of the project into the original draft by Quantum of Solace scribe Josh Zetumer.

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/01/04/dune-remake/

It took them long enough . Morel, like Berg, is very much an action director with only a handful of films behind him. I wonder who exactly is pushing the film in this direction? The producers are the same ones who gave us the longer, more literary and perhaps ‘pedestrian’ miniseries – Does Paramount want another Transformers or Star Trek? They definitely brought in some cash – are they the template?

Jan 2010 – ‘Dune’ Adaptation Will Be ‘Very Respectful To The Original Novel,’ Pierre Morel Says (MTV Movie Blog)

Morel: “I’ve been a fan of that book – because I will not refer to the movie – I’ve been a fan of the book since I was a teenager.“

“I’m trying to be very respectful to the original novel, but it’s a challenge; there’s a lot of expectation, all the readers will be waiting for me with their shotguns. All the non-readers will also be waiting for us, because it’s such a complex, rich novel and you have to make it accessible to those who have not read the book. So, it’s a tough challenge but I’m very excited about that.”

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/01/11/exclusive-dune-adaptation-will-be-very-respectful-to-the-original-novel-pierre-morel-says/

So far so good. Faithful might have a more positive choice of words, but with the amount of cash being poured into this and failure of the 1984 film we should expect a certain amount of adaptation. The film industry, especially the blockbuster end of things, doesn’t like risks.

Jan 2010 – ‘Dune’ Director Explains Plans For ‘Faster’ Movie, Better Representations Of Clothes And Tech (MTV Movie Blog)

Morel: “[David Lynch's 1984 movie] was interesting, but not what we [fans] expected. And I thought I’d give it a chance, try to do this, make it faster and more modern. I think that now, in 2010, we have the technology to achieve much more than David could do twenty-five years ago. I think it will be cool to try something different.”

[Elaborating on his plan for the  concept design] “We’ll try to figure out what things may look like 10,000 years from now; it’s all about reconfiguring the entire universe. Everything is going to be very different than [it is] now, and we know from the book that there’s no more computers, no thinking machines. So a lot of the technology is going to be different. We’ll be working with design concepts, futurists and scientists who will give us a vision of how technology may evolve with certain conditions. That might lead us to another vision of the future – it’s not David Lynch’s vision, it’s not ours either, but in-between.”

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/01/13/exclusive-dune-director-explains-plans-for-faster-movie-better-representations-of-clothes-and-tech/

Faster… yes they are still going down the action route. Faithful and action packed. Should be interesting.

Now, where he goes next is weird. I get that he’s trying to distance himself from Lynch’s Dune – it failed and is a bit of a joke really. But, the visual design was one of the things it did right. Dune is a feudal society, so the design takes cues from Renaissance (feudal ) Italy – it’s a visual cue, a piece of shorthand that allows the director to convey and reinforce the feudalism without having to spell it out. Dune should be a unique vision of a distant future, but modern isn’t really a vibe I get from Dune.

But on a certain level he is saying the right things again – the technology we use to design our objects and buildings influences how they look. Architectural modelmakers influenced how buildings looked when they started to use laser-cut perspex. So it follows that in Dune things won’t look like they’ve been designed in the computer. How that tallies with modern… who knows.

There are a huge number of Dune sites and forums out there – many of them very inactive and more exist only in links that point to expired domains. The purpose of this list, and the updated lists that follow it is to establish a long term, updated record of good Dune sites that are active now as well as ‘old faithfuls” that are still on-line. Dead sites will be removed and new ones added. Use the comments system to recommend missing sites or report inactive ones. Thanks

This is the third version of this listing, the updates are relatively minor.

Discussion

Dedicated Dune forums and discussion boards.

Jacurutu: The Cast Out – The de-facto home of the Orthodox Herbertarian Jihad – A large active membership of well-informed fans of the Classic Dune series. Prequel fans are welcome, but will have to fight their ground and support their arguments with FH quotes!

Fed2k – Game centric Dune discussion and related resources such as FAQs, patches and more.

De Dune à Rakis – French Dune Forum.

Dune Novels.com – The ‘official’ forum. Great for fans of the new Dune books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, less great for critical thinking – you will get banned!

Boards with Dune content

Worm’s SciFi Haven – General scifi with a good few Dune fans.

The (Almost) Undeleted – General scifi with a dedicated Dune section and an excellent bibliography of Frank Herbert secondary sources.

KJA Special Forces – A secret invitation only haven for fans of Kevin J. Anderson’s work.

Other (less active) Dune boards

Sietch Tabr – Limited membership/activity. Has some promise as a Jacurutu/DN middle road, but never really seemed to get off the ground. Has an attached Dune Wiki site.

Alt.Fan.Dune – Ancient but quiet. Home of the the Dune FAQ (always handy) and digging deep with unearth some gems from the likes of the late Dr. McNelly.

The Landsraad – Used to be an major site before it was migrated to Multiply.

Dune Blogs

Hairy Ticks of Dune – Unrelenting stream of bile focussed on the new Dune books and their author.

Kevin J. Anderson’s Blog – The author of the new Dune books.

Resources

The Dune Encyclopedia at thedune.ru – Download Dr. Willis E. McNelly’s legendary Dune Encyclopedia (*in English) in a fully searchable PDF format. Well worth a look.

Dr. Willis E. McNelly: Dune Encyclopedia and Beyond – The late doctor’s official site.

Frank Herbert: The Works – Bob R. Bogle’s indepth look at all things FH (well worth a look)

Frank Herbert – Tim O’Reilly’s 1977 biography of Frank Herbert. Now out-of-print, but still available online. This contains some incredible FH quotes and should be considered a must-read.

Dune – Behind the Scenes – Heaps of info on David Lynch’s 1984 film as well as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ill fated attempt.

Collectors of Dune – Complete listings for everything Dune related that you might be able to find on eBay.

OrthodoxHerbertarian.ttf – The Dune Font – My own recreation of the font used on classic US Ace editions of the Dune Chronicles and other FH books.

Usul’s Homepage – Probably the original Dune site. It hasn’t been updated for years, but it still has some incredible resources including Dune 7 fan-fiction and a very handy pronunciation guide featuring Frank Herbert himself. Well worth a look.

The Dune Wiki – Semi-abandoned, but still alive Wikia wiki dedicated to Dune. Covers both Original Dune and Nu-dune as well as Dune in other media.

Cave of Birds – Excellent resource for quotes from most FH novels.

Dune Index – Book covers, collectors and more.

Other Dune Sites

I, Scytale – Fanfiction

Arrakis Awakening – There is a long history of fan-made Dune RPGs played on forums. Some, like the incredibly long-running Dune PBEM concentrate on managing your own Great House and the intrigues of Landsraad politics. Others, such as Arrakis Awakening, take a more narrative approach, with players controlling individual characters from the chronicles.

Nov 2009 – Brian Herbert (and Kevin J. Anderson) Interview (The Author Hour)

Matthew Peterson: …I hear that there is another Dune movie that’s in the works. How is that one going?

Kevin J. Anderson: It’s in Hollywood hell at the moment.

Matthew Peterson: Oh, yeah.

Kevin J. Anderson: It’s kind of a waiting game. But we can certainly hope, because I think Peter Jackson really raised the bar for all the film makers. When he did The Lord of the Rings, I think he really proved to everybody that you really can do justice to a huge, epic, complex story and get it right.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah. Well, third time is a charm. [laughs]

Brian Herbert: They’re talking about a classic interpretation of Dune, and Paramount’s pretty serious about it, so I’m hoping it goes forward.

http://theauthorhour.com/brian-herbert/

Another fairly standard nu-dune interview where Brian hints that he might just have a clue and KJA sounds like a cock. No real surprises, Paramount does have high hopes for it’s big budget adaptation of Dune, but 2 years later the script’s not finished, the director’s quit and all they’ve got to show for it is Kevin J. Anderson sounding like a cock.

Could be worse.

Oct 2009 – Exclusive: An Update on the Dune Remake  (Pajiba)

“Peter Berg completely dropped the project a few weeks ago — his Film 44 production company backed out, and now Paramount is scrambling to find a new director.

The search, however, has run into two issues: 1) they’re looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don’t want anything resembling the crap effects of the ‘84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a preexisting passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project. Right now, Paramount is shopping the script to two directors: They like Neill Blompkamp (District 9), who has the right vision, but the frontrunner, at the moment, is Neil Marshall (The Descent), who was sent the script early this month. However, despite the enthusiasm of producer, Kevin Misher (Public Enemies), the studio is somewhat tepid on Marshall, uncertain about handing over a $175 million film with franchise potential to a somewhat unknown director whose only hit was the modestly successful The Descent.”

http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/dune-remake-update.php

It sounds like Byron Merrit and KJA were right all along; I know this will make a lot of happy people even happier. And the mention of Neill Blompkamp’s name will make them dangerously happy – since we found out that Berg was out back in September,  his name has been at the top of many fan’s wish lists.

So what new information is actually in this blog post? The budget will be $175M – that’s more than Paramount spent of Star Trek and is a very impressive amount of cash. At least the effects should be top notch

Sept 2009 – Setting the Record Straight on Robert Pattinson Roles (Gossip Cop)

“But what about Pattinson re-making “Dune,” a rumor which set Twitter atwitter? While it’s true that Peter Berg remains intent on doing a re-make of the 1984 film that starred Kyle MacLachlan, Robert Pattinson will NOT be in the film, a source close to the actor tells Gossip Cop.”

http://www.gossipcop.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-robert-pattinson-roles/

This fits with Berg saying he’s looking for, “guys in their late teens.” in the ‘Hard PG-13′ MTV Blog Post. Phew! I’m hoping they’ll find a suitably incredible unknown

I just had a last quick look at the official Dune forum and I saw this from Herbert-grandson Byron Merritt:

“He’s not directing. It’s been confirmed by Paramount higher-ups.“

Guess that settles it… does it? Who knows? Does Berg know? I’m off to bed.

Sept 2009 – ‘Dune’ Remake Will Have ‘Hard PG-13′ Rating With Franchise Potential, Reveals Peter Berg (MTV Movies Blog)

Josh Zetumer’s script, Berg revealed, is almost 200 pages long—”a massive epic,” Berg said—and it could potentially spawn more than just the one film. With the project still in the script phase, the task now for Berg and his team is to “figure out how we can beat [the script] into something manageable without offending the purists,” he explained, as “filmmakers have struggled [in the past] because it’s a very complicated book to crack.”

“My experience with the book was different than David Lynch’s experience or the people behind the Sci Fi Channel’s experience. I found it to be more of an adventure tale, more of a muscular action/adventure story. I think that’s my approach, not as an R-rated film, but as a pretty hard PG-13 film about a young man dealing with issues of vengeance over the death of his father and wanting some payback and having to come to terms with his destiny along the way.”

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/09/14/exclusive-dune-remake-will-have-hard-pg-13-rating-with-franchise-potential-reveals-peter-berg/

Eh? Berg’s still directing? Were Kevin J. Anderson and Herbert-grandson Byron Merritt talking out of their bottoms? That would explain why there has been no news of Berg’s “departure” outside of the Herbert Camp.

I know a lot of people were very happy with news of Berg’s departure and hoped he would take his “muscular action/adventure story” with him on his way out. However this blog post suggests he’s still in the director’s chair and as “muscular” as ever…

There are a couple of more encouraging bits in there too though: Josh Zetumer has completed his first draft – to get this in perspective: the average movie script is around 90-120 pages long, Zetumer’s script is 200 pages. That’s huge, and if they choose (crazy idea here) to film it as two back-to-back movies, this project has a chance. But if they cut it down to 2 hours 11 minutes, it will be the 1984 film all over again – aka MASSIVE FAIL. No sequels. There’s a suggestion here that they understand this, I hope they do.

It’s good that at least Zetumer sounds like he has the right end of the stick – Dune is a complex story and deserves to be treated as such. Writing is the first chance to make any movie great.

In a post about Peter Berg’s upcoming Hancock sequel – which seems to have moved up a gear in the past few days, io9.com speculated:

“This most likely means director Peter Berg’s Dune will be pushed back another two years.”

However Byron Merritt, Frank Herbert’s grandson and admin on the official Dune Forum posted this in response to the rumour that Peter Berg would not direct Dune (2010):

“It is official: Peter Berg is no longer the director. Who will it be? We’ll have to wait and see.”

“I believe it was mutually understood between Paramount and Berg. He has too many other items on his plate and Paramount wanted someone dedicated to the DUNE film.”

It’s a bit odd that it’s only KJA and Byron (both in the Herbert camp) saying this stuff and it is yet to surface on any “more reputable” sources.