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Post by boojam on Dec 31, 2016 19:55:16 GMT
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Post by DaveyJoe on Dec 31, 2016 20:01:00 GMT
I kind of liked Starship Troopers once I was old enough to appreciate its satirical elements. To answer your question, they're rebooting Dune instead of adapting a new story because of name recognition. It's an easier path to profit.
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Post by boojam on Dec 31, 2016 21:06:16 GMT
I kind of liked Starship Troopers once I was old enough to appreciate its satirical elements. To answer your question, they're rebooting Dune instead of adapting a new story because of name recognition. It's an easier path to profit. Ever read the Heinlein novel? I don't agree with Heinlein's philosophy in the novel , but Verhoeven's take on that is clunky and awkward. Mainly Verhoeven makes a sows ear out of a ripping yarn , Heinlein was an ace story teller , alas the movie eschews that by discarding all the engaging sophistication of the prose form, which would have translated perfectly well to the screen in better hands. Verhoeven went on to a fumble a good Phil Dick idea with Total Recall (and then, god knows why!, they made a worse remake in 2012). |
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Post by DaveyJoe on Jan 1, 2017 0:06:22 GMT
I kind of liked Starship Troopers once I was old enough to appreciate its satirical elements. To answer your question, they're rebooting Dune instead of adapting a new story because of name recognition. It's an easier path to profit. Ever read the Heinlein novel? I don't agree with Heinlein's philosophy in the novel , but Verhoeven's take on that is clunky and awkward. Mainly Verhoeven makes a sows ear out of a ripping yarn , Heinlein was an ace story teller , alas the movie eschews that by discarding all the engaging sophistication of the prose form, which would have translated perfectly well to the screen in better hands. Verhoeven went on to a fumble a good Phil Dick idea with Total Recall (and then, god knows why!, they made a worse remake in 2012). I actually haven't read anything by Heinlein, but I think I have Stranger in a Strange Land in a box somewhere. I guess that allowed me to enjoy the movie on its own merits. I'm not a big fan of Total Recall, but man, the remake looked bland. |
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Post by boojam on Jan 12, 2017 11:07:03 GMT
Will have to see how Denis Villeneuve handles Blade Runner 2049. Noticeable that Hampton Fancher wrote the screenplay, tho was it script doctored by Michael Green? or was he a co-writer. Blade Runner sure had a screenwriter pedigree Francher with doctoring by David Peoples. Even tho not listed as a producer ol' Ridley Scott has a bit of a hand in on this one.
Scott was set to direct the 1984 Dune but didn't. On Wikipedia Scott tells his story about this, no where do I find that producer Raffaella De Laurentiis fired Scott for turning in a screenplay that deviated from the Herbert book in strange ways.
Frank Herbert had turned in , before Scott, a three-movie screen play, Scott turned in a two hour one. As it was David Lynch when though a Herculean effort to deliver one movie. One film did not serve the story narrative very well at all. Lynch really tried , the cast was good and the production design was right on the mark, alas the VFX was not mature enough.
I won't mention the TV version is an awkward mess , does not trump the Lynch version.
I might made a good HBO series!
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Post by boojam on Feb 21, 2017 16:10:52 GMT
Went back and watched the 1984 Lynch version. You know Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan has such a small role, yet leaps off the screen as character! She does have the pro-log (she had a longer one that was cut, which is very good) and voice overs but has only on single word in the main body of the film. Been other depictions of Irulan , but she is the best.
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Post by boojam on Feb 22, 2017 12:52:14 GMT
I thought the you tube video interviews with Virginia Madsen are very interesting. The fact that she was so sick she was sitting on a stool in that last sequence in the film was amusing. That is the only time she has any length of screen time in the whole film, being silent must have been a blessing. (In a few of the close-ups she does look like she is straining.)
Interesting that Lynch had the emperor introduce her has his daughter , guess one has to figure out she is a Princess since that is not established in the visual narrative, or what her purpose as a character is.
Watching the deleted scenes most of the deletions make sense. I puzzle over why Linda Hunt’s deleted scenes are not included, they fit without taking up much time and add context. He character seems almost a shaggy dog story.
I notice in the theatrical final sequence that the Guildsman carrying the steam-punk-mike gets a line in to the Emperor (to shut up) and not Mr. Intravenous-Head Navigator, who is the same actor seen speaking before. You know I can buy Lynch’s out-of-the-box quirks, but gee did they have to go with the low bidder in the special makeup department (I also count Kenneth McMillan’s boils too!) ? It is strange because the makeup for all the women in the film is important and it is impeccable.
I wish there were more interviews like the Madsen one, there are others Lynch and Paul Smith, Kyle MacLachlan , those seem culled at different times and places. Not sure Lynch would do it but thinking all the others would. Interesting that only a handful of the main cast has died. Max Von Sydow is even still around!
Funny , until recently I did not put two and two together and notice that Alicia Witt is the same Alicia Witt who played Alia! Many child actors just disappear most of the time.
Also Raffaella De Laurentiis is still about , and has given some interviews, would like to see more. A funny thing, I think I can see her as an extra in Fremen crowd scenes but not sure. She did play a dead body in Conan 1982, Cinefantastique even had a picture of it, its not in the movie.
I started reading SF in 1953 and started being a movie buff about the same time. Dune is not my favorite SF novel even tho I like it. Herbert tells a good story, even tho I don’t by the viability of the social-political-economics of a quasi-technological ‘medieval’-like society. Poul Anderson did that much better in his Dominic Flandry stories. Still Dune is the product of modern science fiction prose as created by John Campbell in 1938. Herbert’s sequels to Dune are awful, I have no interest in that story.
I give Lynch credit for trying to keep the sophistication. Indeed it would have been interesting to see Lynch’s final cut, tho even if he had turned in 4 hours’ worth of narrative it is difficult to see how to cover the prose narrative with that short of a visual narrative. It is a great cast, but Lynch’s idiosyncratic ideas don’t always translate, the burlesque Harkonen staging is goofy wrong. Poor Brad Dourif and Freddie Jones seem struggling to come to grips with Lynch’s actor’s direction. A strange film, one wonders if a more seasoned Lynch would have succeeded?
I am very curious to see Denis Villeneuve does.
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