Harder to adapt than LOTR or ASOIAF

I'd like to see somebody try the "Thomas Covenant" trilogy....


any one else?

While I agree that LOTR, by itself, isn't as complex as Dune, the whole of Tolkien's middle-earth writings are. And the whole context of all the writings could be mapped over in a truly fine production of the LOTR, something the writers and producers missed, turning it into just another sword and sorcery piece. There are all the elements of Tolkien's Anarcho-Catholicism (as modified into its own mythos) they could have been included, but it was either not noticed by the writers/producers or was ignored altogether. It may have been difficult to get it right, but they could have at least tried instead of injecting all the soap opera material that was not found directly in LOTR. I guess they had to include something for the chicks.

For those who may have missed it, all of Tolkien's middle-earth writings chronicle those who reject the "West" and instead follow their own arrogant will and then therefore are forsaken. It also follows those who follow the West out of their own free choice and so defeat evil, and they are aided subtly by the West, and sometimes more directly. Frankly, I'm not huge reader of fantasy and find most of it tedious and by the numbers. But Tolkien was following a "history" and wrote in that context. I'm a big reader of non-fiction history, which is perhaps why I enjoyed Tolkien's work so much and don't care for the as-yet-ignorant "chosen one" who meets up with a wizard and has find the McGuffin to defeat Big Bad Guy X.

Dune was complex yet not ponderously so, which is why I enjoyed it as well. I hope to have a truly fine production someday, one that has a big enough pallet to paint on but a big enough budget to not feel chintzy. If the book can enjoyably detail the complexity, then a skilled screen writer should be able to do it justice. The matter is whether there is enough money to produce it on film without tossing out so much and leaving only an unintelligible "high points" string of pearls instead of complete narrative. You shouldn't have to have read the book to know what is going on.

Some people are afraid of the unknown. I don't know why, and it scares me.

Frank Herbert... proving that a picture is not worth a thousand words.



|Statistics show that 100% of people bitten by a snake were close to it.|

they could have a multipart web series leading up to the film, not the ideal situation but its something.

Shall we find something to kill to cheer ourselves up?-hk-47

Do you think Dune could be adapted the way Peter Jackson put alot of thought into his Hobbit Films?

I disagree that the miniseries was better. I think that both have their problems, but the movie at least tried to be its own thing. The miniseries was more faithful to the books, but that came at the expence of it encompassing everything that is bad about popular science fiction (whats up with the sardaukar machine guns btw?) Yeah, they have the basic plotline down, and alot of the dialogue is correct, but the characters all come off as being bland sci-fi stock characters, with Paul managing to be even more annoying than Luke Skywalker in Episode IV. The Baron was the only character they managed to do a half-decent job with (perhaps because he was the one that Lynch *beep* up on the most).

The set design was atrocious. For all the money they spend shoveling hundreds of tonnes of sand into a piss-poorly painted set, they could have just gone to the UAE and done it right.

Also, why was everyone in the Movie a white American (or White Briton in the case of Harkonnens and Corrinos?) Even the Fremen seemed like they were only a drive away from the Santa Monica valley.

thematically it's more complex and deeper than LOTR or ASOIAF (just my opinion ofcourse), but other than that, it's no different really.

The setting isn't unusual, nor are there lot's of them. One desert planet is the main focus of the setting. Sure there are lots of different elements, clothing, buildings, ... but nothing that hasn't been done in other movies or series.

Characters are characters. There's a lot of them, sure, all with a fairly important part to play, but ASOIAF seems to do that nicely. (relatively speaking anyway and also just so far, let's wait for season four and see if they can keep it up, I doubt it myself)

I would love to see HBO make a ten episode miniseries of Dune. Ten hours might not be enough though, not to really make it as it could and as the movie and the series haven't been able to.

There are six books (I'm not going to mention those not written by Frank Herbert himself) and it would be absolutly divine if HBO would give it six seasons. (which will never happen imo, more's the pity)

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L'amour est mort, vive la haîne!

I think a series comprised of two or three eight-episode seasons would do more justice than another mini-series. There is just so much to cover in the world of Dune that anything less than a full season would pretty much just be running straight through the plot rather than taking the time to immerse the viewer in the fictional universe.

Of course there is the conflict of staying true to the source material versus streamlining it for a wider audience, but shows like Game of Thrones prove that this issue can be mostly overcome.