"Our hands are poised on the levers of power but yet our grasp on it is still fragile."
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Tantalizing teaser for Dune: Prophecy promises plenty of political intrigue
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I look forward to this one.
I will be a little sad if it is the typical Harkonnen bad, Atreides good. There were bits in the books that referenced the past that seemed to indicate that, depending on your point of view, the roles were reversed as far as who played bad guy and relatively good guy. I think that would be fun.
I do hope it isn't just house rivalry. There's a lot at that timeline that would be interesting that has no relation to the later films.
I will be a little sad if it is the typical Harkonnen bad, Atreides good. There were bits in the books that referenced the past that seemed to indicate that, depending on your point of view, the roles were reversed as far as who played bad guy and relatively good guy. I think that would be fun.
I do hope it isn't just house rivalry. There's a lot at that timeline that would be interesting that has no relation to the later films.
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From what I understand, the source material doesn't even adhere to the source material, so seems like it's all pretty much fair game at this point.
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Brian and Kevin's material was sub-par compared to Frank's, so there is room for improvement. Hope the showrunners and writers do a good job...
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I enjoy watching the high drama of religious zealots battling over the arcane and intricate machinations of their ideologies.
So I'm honestly looking forward to the next several years of weirdo Dune cultists chewing their tripes out over how this incarnation is an unadulteratedly evil affront to their very core.
So I'm honestly looking forward to the next several years of weirdo Dune cultists chewing their tripes out over how this incarnation is an unadulteratedly evil affront to their very core.
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I never read Sisterhood of Dune, but if it’s the same quality as the other prequel books by Brian Herbert and Anderson, hopefully “inspired by” means “they read the book and were inspired to make a much better story than what they read.”
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Given the target audience I'm wondering if magic the gathering will release a dune set.
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Typically depending on how you view power and decency Atredies were the be Machiavellian fear how much they love us, whilst Harkonnen were the love how much they fear us. Atredies weren't being benevolent because it was right they were benevolent because it was useful and possibly more powerful.
At least as I remember it. I haven't read them in ~20 years so I might be misremembering their takes on power but that was my take away.
So you get into the whole is a good thing done for a bad reason, or at least a morally neutral reason still a good thing? I personally know which house I'd rather live under, but we should be clear it wasn't ever intended as a black and white morality story. The movies just don't have the time to devote to the nuances. We didn't have enough time with Leto and Paul to dig into that so we get a more simple good vs bad and a seemingly good man forced to do bad things for a less bad outcome?
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Ditto, though it looks good aesthetically at least... couldn't be worse than LoTR RoP!
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The next Dune game's creators will eventually spin off their own IP. The new IP will help to popularize an obscure game genre and carry serious motifs about the environmental and sociopolitical consequences of technological change. The new IP will itself have a more light hearted spinoff. Eventually both franchises will be purchased by a megacorp, get driven into the ground by creative bankruptcy, and die with a whimper.
Edit: add links in case the allusion is too obscure
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Yeah, better hope they have good script writers - the Brian/Kevin prequels were rough (I guess they could have improved - I dropped them fairly quickly).
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You realize this is the elevator pitch for the game ‘Prequel’. Who’s your VC?
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After my experience with their novels, seeing
And if it turns out to be good, oh well, it can join the thousands of hours of other good media that I will never have time to look at <shrug>
is enough to convince me that I don't want to watch this.
And if it turns out to be good, oh well, it can join the thousands of hours of other good media that I will never have time to look at <shrug>
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Yeah; in Frank's universe, I always figured that the Harkonnen / Atredies dynamic was just a snapshot in time, with each house grasping what would give them an advantage, and the Bene Gesserit acting as a modifying influence to stop either house from getting out of hand. In the original Dune, Atredies was currently well-heeled and Harkonnen was just reaching peak evil. And the activity on Arrakis was throwing that complex political web out of balance.
I always treated Brian's novels as "hey, in this awesome universe my dad created, what if THIS happened?" one-offs. Some of them were fun, some were a headache, and none were canon.
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I remember being excited when the first one came out. I was (am) a huge Dune fan and have read all six of Frank's books multiple times. I ordered the first prequel from the Science Fiction Book Club and couldn't wait for it to arrive. I think I read two chapters before tossing it in the trash.
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I had to take a quick glance at the dune time line to be reminded of what happened when. I was convinced that Dune was set about 10k years in the future, but it really is 23k.
Having only read the Legends of Dune trilogy and not Sisterhood of Dune I never realized the latter was set right after the events of the former.
Having only read the Legends of Dune trilogy and not Sisterhood of Dune I never realized the latter was set right after the events of the former.
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The events of the series will consist of long, intensely whispered scenes of dense political intrigue, interspersed with choreographed battle scenes, despite which, nothing matters and these events will set up a ten thousand year period during which the Corrinos rule, the Harkonnens and Atreides snipe at each other behind the scenes, and the Bene Gesserit playing conniving horsebreeders.
Sorry. I...may have had too much spice, but the events in my vision seemed so REAL.
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I read the first AND the second prequel, hoping for improvement, but as with the Betancourt Amber dreck, my naivety was not rewarded.
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You should read the Brian Hebert / Kevin Anderson books that have come out, a LOT of "referenced only" things were fully revealed. In fact the whole reason Harkonnens were considered bad, and Atreides good...
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IIRC, In the Butlerian Jihad novel(s) that everyone likes to hate on, the Harkonnens were generally the good guys and the event that destroyed their reputation was the main H character refusing to nuke a bunch of human hostages that the machines basically bolted onto their ships for just that purpose.
They had to buy their way back into the Laansrad some generations after the Imperium was established and the experience embittered them, etc.
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Same. The wrap-up season was disappointing, but not enough to sour the series. Great stuff.
That and Person of Interest (for very different reasons, of course) are high water marks for SF television, to me.
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I honestly didn't know anybody disliked Villeneuve's Dune movies.
I mean really, I've never heard this before. This is a really fresh take!
Especially intriguing are the specific criticisms about how the cinematic work for a modern wide audience differs from the novel from a half-century ago which largely appealed to a very narrow slice of humanity, and which featured writing of notably low visual descriptiveness and evocativeness. These thoughts are both new and highly useful to the wide audience when critiquing an adaptation.
I'm glad you shared these novel thoughts. Too bad there aren't any other places we could read more of exactly this sort and level of intelligent critique. I mean I know we'll never get the level of discussion on such a rare take where you could find it slathered over every single mention of Villeneuve's Dune on the internet, but if you hear of even one more post with these sorts of insights, please share!
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Only a related question, but does anyone even have HBO HBO Max Max HBO Max anymore? Among the gazillion other streaming options, this is the one I hear mentioned least. Like, not at all after GoT shit the bed.
I liked Dune, but I don't know if something like this has the pull to bring anyone back to the platform.
I liked Dune, but I don't know if something like this has the pull to bring anyone back to the platform.
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I still have it, but I've been considering dropping it for a while. That's not a damning statement; I have a very limited "television" habit, and mostly retain my services due to sheer inertia. I do feel like we're reaching Peak Streaming, and hopefully consolidation will set in soon. I'm looking forward to video becoming a bit more like music, where virtually every service offers you all the same content, but that would require the platforms to divest of their in-house studios…
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I find the premise unrealistic. In a future where there is interstellar space travel, it would be more interesting to me to see what gave rise to the rejection of non-human computers while seeing Homo Sapiens being channeled selectively bred into sub-species. Gordon Dickson tackles that issue in his Dorsai series, a future where the only intelligent life is homo sapiens.
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HBO still has some level of prestige to the name, and House of the Dragon seems popular and well reviewed.
Interestingly, this Dune show was originally commissioned as an "HBO Max" exclusive, so wouldn't show on HBO, then it became a "Max" exclusive, but now it's actually an "HBO" show and will air on that channel, as well as stream on Max. This seems to be because the show is considered "prestige" enough for HBO, and may be balancing the budgets for the various channels/streaming services a bit.
The upcoming show "The Penguin", a spinoff of "the recent The Batman" movie, is also now an HBO Original instead of Max Original.
https://deadline.com/2024/07/the-penguin-dune-prophecy-hbo-1236006935/
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Apple is "inspired" by Foundation, Amazon has an "inspired by" the Lord of the Rings. The BBC had the Discworld-inspired "The Watch". I live in fear that there's an "inpired by" Neuromancer in the works.
And while I don't mind them making these shows, I really wish they wouldn't use an existing IP for it. It's selfish on my part, but I'd really like to see a "real" Discworld show, set for real in Ankh-Morpork, with a real Watch. I don't want someone's tangential take on it that uses the existing show as window-dressing because I won't get to see a real imagining of the material.
About the only episodic SF/Fantasy property I've seen that I really enjoyed was Good Omens, and I'm scared to see the second season.
I'm not sure I want to see this. It has a "paint by numbers" feel, namedropping for impact rather than for reasons that really move the plot along. I'm sure it'll be well-crafted, but it's not for me.
And while I don't mind them making these shows, I really wish they wouldn't use an existing IP for it. It's selfish on my part, but I'd really like to see a "real" Discworld show, set for real in Ankh-Morpork, with a real Watch. I don't want someone's tangential take on it that uses the existing show as window-dressing because I won't get to see a real imagining of the material.
About the only episodic SF/Fantasy property I've seen that I really enjoyed was Good Omens, and I'm scared to see the second season.
I'm not sure I want to see this. It has a "paint by numbers" feel, namedropping for impact rather than for reasons that really move the plot along. I'm sure it'll be well-crafted, but it's not for me.
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Well, there is a Brian Herbert book about the Butlarian Jihad that tackles this apparently
I found it a clever plot device of Frank Herbert’s, do take technologies out of the plot. Same with shield technology leading to melee weapons being the dominant form of military forces. You have to suspend your disbelief a little but I always thought it was cool
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Frank's adheres to Franks.
Brian + KJA adheres to their own, but in writing style tend to see Franks more as a 'guideline' or 'suggestion'.
That said - this doesn't even adhere to KJA & Brian - this (as view and described) is a full departure from even KJA's formulaic mass production.
Here's some examples:
Sisterhood started on Rossak, it started before the the Imperium was fully refounded, and before a Corrino was Emperor. If you follow KJA.
If you follow either Frank or KJA - No Fremen left Dune, and they were trapped there as wanderers before the Imperium was founded... so certainly didn't have a Fremen in the Imperial House.
Atredies was house accendant/popular even at imperium founding, and Harkkonens even at the founding (in KJA books) were already consider traitors and ostracized.
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Cap'nAwesome
Ars Centurion
Not sure what Apple and Foundation have to do with this upcoming HBO series except that they are both sci-fi, but whatever. I'm enjoying the Foundation series much, much more than I ever enjoyed the books and I'm hopeful for this series as well. Like Foundation, I think it will only benefit if it takes an "inspired by" approach to the source material and concentrates on just making a compelling show. Time will tell. Eventually I'll resub to HBO long enough to catch up on HotD s2, TLoU s2, Penguin and probably this show as well.
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