I will be very interested in how they approach this movie given the content they are covering this time. Spectacular special effects may not be as extensive.
Herbert wrote Dune in the hopes that the readers would see the dangers of having a messiah figure as your leader. This I got in the notes that Brian Herbert made when he was publishing the “extended” novels and the 2-book conclusion to Herbert’s original story arc. I think he did a great job in its writing of capturing the nuance between “belief” and hope (in the Fremen) against “religion” (as exploited by the Bene Gesserit).
However, when he found out how most people viewed Paul as a hero archetype (what Herbert definitely did not want), he felt compelled to write Dune Messiah to spell out that danger far more explicitly. The remaining books he wrote in that universe were planned, but Dune Messiah was an add-on because of the dynamics seen in his readership.
And Dune I and Dune II did a great job of setting the stage of that danger of being that messiah figure.
I was not surprised in how Dune II ended . . . and in the way that it did end, I knew that they’re betting on getting a green light (if it wasn’t already had) for a 3rd movie. And I agree with you @Cooke that this third movie will be far less about action (but I’m betting that there will still be that; mostly at the beginning) and far more about drama. The thing I’m most interested in finding out is how they’re going to treat Alia in Dune 3 since she was a very important character in Dune Messiah; but she wasn’t really set up all that much in Dune II.
3 Likes
A lot of “warnings of dangers” viewed as “instruction manuals” these days.
3 Likes
Broke down and bought four tickets for an advance screening on December 15. My “sons” are all huge Dune fans so will treat them. Was surprised the running time was only 140 minutes. Assumed it would be 3+ hours to cover the narrative.
Dune Messiah is pretty short . . . and a lot of its setup is already done in Dune II.
I would’ve expected a movie in the 90-120 minute range to pretty much wrap things up (based on how things were left off in Dune II). But perhaps they’re spending a good amount of time setting up Alia.
I thought (mistakenly) that Dune 3 covered Messiah AND the four novels after it as Dune 3 is to be the final Dune movie. If it covers only Messiah then I agree it should be relatively short.
The “four” novels after Dune Messiah is comparable to trying to do Lord of the Rings in one movie.
Or the Wheel of Time in one movie.
And if you stopped there, you’d be extremely disappointed (as I was until Brian Herbert found the notes/material for the final book that didn’t make it to publication before Frank passed).
1 Like
I would agree. There is a lot after Messiah.
IMO, if one wanted to follow up with the “rest of the story” . . .
Do Heretics of Dune with Flashbacks to material from God Emperor as a two part movie.
Then get to Chapterhouse: Dune as its own movie
This would be a good place to do the “prequel” of Children of Dune where you have Leto getting visions of material from the time before the Butlerian Jihad . . .
Then wrap things up with a trilogy of the last two books (the ones written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson).
1 Like