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Heard they split book into 2 parts. Good idea.
If only Peter Jackson could've restrained himself to bisecting The Hobbit...
Trailer dropped less than an hour ago BTW.
FYI, Jackson desperately wanted to stick to two movies, it was the studio that insisted on a trilogy. The fight and being forced to switch to three movies almost broke him.
Given how much I friggin' loathe Pink Floyd, I'm honestly amazed at how much I liked that trailer.
I like Pink Floyd, but only in small doses.
Yes I'm positive that QB is correct, that Hans Zimmer is doing the soundtrack and having better audio equipment can improve listening enjoyment.
Just not sure that applies to all the songs done by Pink Floyd. :p
Zimmer actually created the cover version of the Pink Floyd song himself, so the song is probably on the soundtrack (likely on the end credits, unlikely to be blasted out mid-movie). The earlier teaser trailer contains what is probably the main title theme from the film.
Zimmer is a lifelong fan of Dune and even suspended his long-term alliance with Chris Nolan to work on the film. He's also said it's his favourite soundtrack and the thing he's proudest to have worked on, which is saying quite a lot. Just hope he's not hyping it too much.
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After watching the trailer, I remain cautiously optimistic. Granted, it's been several months since I last read the book, but I spotted what I think were some scenes from the book that never made it into the Lynch version. Which makes sense, since I read somewhere the director was determined to remain more faithful to the book.
Considering Herbert is perhaps my favorite writer, I very much hope this will be a huge success.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I never got into the books, tried the first one and gave up (admittedly years ago), but have to say, the trailer didn't do much for me. I don't really know why I care about the main character other than he's maybe less of an a!!##@~ that his dad? But from what it seems, the plot is a ruler of a planet comes to invade another planet and bites of more than he can chew, and his son the main character becomes the leader who can do it?
Why do I want them to invade the planet successfully in the first place? While I can certainly admit there could be lots I missed in the trailer, if a sci-fi fan like me who's not into Dune at all isn't excited by this, I do wonder if it's really that much of a blockbuster hit.
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Since Tenet took in less than 15 mill opening weekend, im not sure a blockbuster is even possible right now. Though, I do think some folks are vastly overestimating Dune's ability to be the next LOTR. Dune has always been too nuanced and too political for mass consumption. I mean Joel doesnt even have a minor understanding of the material, and is already writing it off.
You forgot Viggo, who is the man! Packing A-listers is no sure bet; looking at you Jupiter Ascending...
I expect a similar response to Dune as Bladerunner 2049. Too slow and complicated for most folks. People will be asking where is the next star wars? After that, they will be asking why the last star wars was so dumb. /shrug
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Regardless of the movie itself, the problem is that we are in a pandemic, and many, if not most, people are just not going to go to a theater right now.
Until we have a reliable and effective vaccine, I don’t think any movie is going to do big money - there simply are not enough people willing To risk it to sit in a theater right now.
It’s a shame, but it’s the cold, hard reality we are in for now ...
1999 is asking: Who's Viggo?
You can't count him as an A-lister before he made the list!
:D
Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in Lord of the Rings.
-OR-
Vigo the Carpathian, from Ghostbusters 2. (But I don't think he's been cast in Dune. Not sure.)
@Marc - there's three full months and four days until Dune 2020 hits theaters. We'll have vaccines by then and if not pretty much everyone under 60 will have caught the Coronavirus and so be ready for some blaz'n action on the big screen.
Srlsy though the China box office is doing quite alright (if the movie isn't titled Mulan) so maybe by December we'll be where they're at.
Have vaccines by then? Everyone under 60 already caught covid19? This is amazingly optimistic. Three months from now could be the tail end of a new flu season and covid19 second wave.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Since Tenet took in less than 15 mill opening weekend, im not sure a blockbuster is even possible right now. Though, I do think some folks are vastly overestimating Dune's ability to be the next LOTR. Dune has always been too nuanced and too political for mass consumption. I mean Joel doesn't even have a minor understanding of the material, and is already writing it off.
I'm not quite yet writing it off as a movie. I wrote it off decades ago when I didn't get into the books, as too slow and not too interesting (admittedly after about 50 - 100 pages). I have no problem with slow burns, political and nuanced books either, I slogged through the first 150 pages of Lord Foul's Bane and then loved the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and also enjoyed the Foundation trilogy for example. In my experience, I tend to dislike books more for the writing style than the plot, unless the plot is just awful. In fact, I had a similar experience with never making it more than halfway through the Fellowship of the Ring (though the LOTR movies were fantastic and jettisoned the dry academic style Tolkien used in the books).
My point isn't in any way to trash Dune or write it off, but just to illustrate that the trailer potentially didn't do much for people who aren't already fans of Dune, and didn't do a good job of conveying what it's about, and potentially even will have people write it off because the trailer in itself didn't do a good job. It might have shown things which existing fans will like, but to me, it failed for others. I'm certainly willing to admit my personal sample size of one might not jive with most people's experience, and there's examples of sci-fi things people love which I don't (Firefly for example), but still think for the most part I align pretty well with sci-fi and fantasy fandom.
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Who did they have for LotR going into it? McKellen because he played Magneto... and that's about it. Not that Cate Blanchett was nobody but her part was minimal and the rest certainly were nobodies on the international scene.
John Rhys Davies was not a nobody, having become quite well known for playing Sallah in the Indiana Jones films, and starring on the popular cult series "Sliders."
Sean Bean was not a nobody, having famously played 006 in GoldenEye, and certainly wasn't unknown internationally as the Sharpe series was incredibly popular in Europe.
Liv Tyler had just leapt from indie darling success to massive breakthrough thanks to the juggernaut of Armageddon.
Ian Holm had been quite well known internationally since 1978's Alien.
Christopher Lee, the incredibly well known star of Hammer Horror films had also been a Bond villain in the 1970's.
Viggo Mortensen was not an unknown thanks to roles in Carlito's Way, GI Jane, The Prophecy, A Perfect Murder.
Hugo Weaving had just burst onto the scene as Agent Smith a full year prior to Ian McKellen playing Magneto.
Elijah Wood was well known from The Good Son, The Ice Storm, Deep Impact.
Which leaves... Goonies and Rudy star Sean Astin, also not a nobody.
Yeah, the cast for LotR wasn't unknowns or nobodies. Just some that hadn't been well know before, like Karl Urban. :)
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DUNE is an excellent example of how incredibly more niche science fiction as a genre is than fantasy. Before the Jackson movies LORD OF THE RINGS had sold something like 200 million copies, was one of the biggest-selling individual novels in human history and was a household name. That didn't mean it was going to do well - the 1978 animated film didn't do great - but it did make marketing it a lot easier.
DUNE is the biggest-selling individual SF novel of all time (only just, as THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY has been catching up on it for a while), but has only sold around 20 million copies, so about 10% of the amount. It's much less of a household name, despite two previous live-action adaptations (the bizarre 1984 David Lynch movie and the ultra-cheap 2000 mini-series) and multiple video game versions. It hasn't penetrated the general consciousness to the extent that LotR had, and if anything the DUNE brand value had been compromised by the avalanche of subpar, cash-in sequels and prequels released by Frank Herbert's son.
It's still a relatively big book of course, but more among SFF geeks, not the general audience as LotR was.
DUNE is also very weird. It looks like a white saviour chosen one narrative played straight, not a subversion and criticism of the trope which the author advances as a warning against the "great men of history" cliche. That's very hard to adapt to the screen and make it work.
@Marc - there's three full months and four days until Dune 2020 hits theaters. We'll have vaccines by then and if not pretty much everyone under 60 will have caught the Coronavirus and so be ready for some blaz'n action on the big screen.
Even the most advanced vaccines have only just entered the human trial phase, which will last for 3-4 months. They then have to make final assessments and that's assuming there are no horrible side effects (if there are, they need to halt, adjust the vaccine and recommence testing). Then they have to produce enough of the vaccine to inoculate a large chunk of the planet. They're starting doing that already - mass producing vaccines before they're approved, accepting they'll have to destroy the entire batch if the vaccine is not approved - but it's going to take a long time to produce enough vaccine to give to the entire world.
We also now have the first confirmed re-infections of people who caught the virus earlier on, suggesting that any immunity gained from COVID19 might only last a few months, if that.
So no, this will not be over in any way, shape or form by December. Even December 2021 might be optimistic at the moment.
I'm with Wert; 2021 (the end of it) might be the best we can hope for in terms of seeing movies in theaters again. At least in large crowds and not at drive ins.
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Sweden never closed their theaters. They're doing good now (all things considered) and will be doing great by comparison in December.
Unless of course the dreaded "second wave" is an actual thing. That and it's entirely uncertain what level effectiveness we can expect out of the various vaccines being developed, meaning there may effectively be none for years. If that's the case then theater going may be a thing of the past for an indeterminate amount of time. Sports and live entertainment could be something we tell our kids (or grand kids) about.
I'm here in the UK and the second wave has already landed in full force (and we're several weeks behind where it is in France and Spain). The government has been hosting emergency meetings this week and the general vibe is that there will probably be a two-week shutdown of cinemas, restaurants and pubs in a couple of weeks, extending to a full national lockdown later in the winter if that is ineffective.
The word is that DUNE will almost certainly be delayed from December to maybe around March or May if Europe does lock down again, especially since countries that managed to avoid a lockdown the first time around (like the Czech Republic) look quite badly hit at the moment. DUNE's budget was so high that releasing to VOD doesn't look like an option, although they will be looking at how well MULAN does to see if it is viable.
Dune arguably has 10 A-listers on the roll. That has to count for something?
The David Lynch movie had multiple A-listers, several distinguished older thespians and several promising up-and-comers on the roll in 1984 and it didn't help it very much.
Hollywood analysts do seem agreed that casting is nowhere near as big a deal as it was in the 1980s and 1990s for determining how big a film will be. Casting a film with known names can be helpful, but it can't overcome bad reviews or word of mouth. Actors of the moment like Momoa, Brolin and Isaac being in the movie will get some attention, but won't guarantee it being successful.
Well I'm hopeful it will be...but at the same time, given that a HUGE chunk of movies here that were slated for US release didn't come out...
I'm not convinced some of what slated for 2020 might be out in 2021. Maybe.
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Alamo Draft House Is offering to sell you the entire screen to you and yours. This could be a good way for theaters and production companies to get people back into the seats.
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Another, better, trailer for Dune 202021.Only if Regal Cinemas actually open back up next year.
:D
Yeah, if only. The Regals in my area have become Top Golfs...
This looks fantastic.
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John Rhys Davies was not an A-lister when he was cast for the role of Gimli in LotR. Today? He's still not and A-lister!
That is, as always, a different argument than the one you previously made. You didn’t say anything about the A-Listers in Lord of the Rings, you specifically said that with the exceptions of Sir Ian McKellan and Cate Blanchett
the rest certainly were nobodies on the international scene.
John Rhys Davies wasn’t an A Lister, but he sure wasn’t a nobody either. Just like the other actors on that rather lengthy list I provided that still didn’t include all of the known actors in Lord of the Rings.
It was a good run, but this threads about to erupt into a shartstorm.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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With WB's announcement today, it looks like the release date is locked, and in the US it will simultaneously release on HBO Max same day (along with all WB 2021 movies for that matter). In the fine print though it looks like all of the simultaneous HBO Max releases will be there for only a month before leaving, which makes sense to encourage people to subscribe multiple months instead of "saving up" and watching a bunch of movies in a single month.
Well regardless...something to enjoy for later.