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October 14, 2003
Future histories
The Return of the King and both The Matrix sequels make this a banner year for film. The movie event for me, however, was the Sci-Fi Channel's rendition of Children of Dune (which told the story of Dune Messiah as well as the book of the title). Leto II is, in my humble opinion, the greatest hero of all fiction so I was inevitably a demanding viewer. The acting, the effects and above all the music were an astonishing portrayal of Frank Herbert's stories in all their tragedy and adventure. It is just possible I shall one day see something I would never have dared hope for... a film version of my favourite novel, God Emperor of Dune.
One of us had to accept the agony. He was always the stronger.
CGI special effects have enabled the telling of stories which would have been prohibitively expensive if not impossible until recently. The latest example of this was Sci-Fi Pictures' Riverworld, a film whose existence I did not suspect until it turned up on tv Saturday night. I am still looking forward to the new Battlestar Galactica mini-series even if Starbuck has undergone a gender change.
Soon it could be time to brush up on my psychohistory. Ain't It Cool News reports a possible "faithful" film adaptation of the first two Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov.
Twentieth Century Fox has just hired a writer to script two movies at the same time, ala "Lord of the Rings," these being the scripts to FOUNDATION and SECOND FOUNDATION. They tell the story of Hari Seldon and his science of psycho-history, which predicts the next thousand years of the human race. The future is put in jeopardy by the appearance of the Mule, a mutant who takes over the galaxy, and who can't have been part of Seldon's Plan. Fox obviously sees this as a sci-fi Lord of the Rings. The writer is Jeff Vintar, who penned next summer's Will Smith starrer "I, ROBOT" based on his original screenplay "Hardwired," with characters and concepts from Asimov, a sort of "early days at U.S. Robotics" prequel that Alex Proyas [DARK CITY] is directing.
Bring on Foundation!
And then... More films good. More books bad. At least when the books in question are the offensive, lamentable prequels to Frank Herbert's masterpieces. Now they are threatening to write "Dune 7" based on Herbert's notes. If only Brian Herbert would follow the example of Christopher Tolkien and publish the notes along with other commentaries. A re-release of the Dune Encyclopedia would also be much appreciated in preference to the "canonical" crapola which is getting into print.
And then... Mike Campbell is reading God Emperor... I can hardly wait to have a chat about it. It may not be posted here, however, for fear of spoilers for a story which spans six novels.
Mike agrees the music was tremendous. And it was the montage scene at the birth of the twins which moved me to tears.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 14, 2003 05:51 AM
Comments
If the reports I have heard about "I, Robot" with Will Smith are correct it's going to be about as faithful to the source as the filmed version of "Starship Troopers" was to it's source.
In other words, not at all.
I hope it flies. There was a plan, in the 80's, to film the Foundation Trilogy back-to-back, and then release them one after the other, in the space of a month or so. Never happened, alas.
As for Dune, Desert Planet...Getting the Encyclopedia back into print would be great. You might want to see this site:
http://futureprometheus.com/drmcnelly/
...for more information. As to whether it would ever be reprinted, I've heard that Brian, Son of Frank, did not like it for some reason and is refusing to let it see light again, alas!
Posted by: Fred Kiesche at October 14, 2003 07:56 AM
Mmmm...Foundation. Will be difficult to pull off, but I suppose if they can do the LOTR movies as well as they have then there is hope.
Posted by: Ian at October 14, 2003 01:18 PM
I still have not seen the SF Channel's portayal of "Dune", although I am itching to. David Lynch did the novel a gross disservice.
D
Posted by: David Strain at October 14, 2003 03:43 PM
Given the multitude of stories within Foundation, I've no idea how it could be done as a single film.
Asimov, unfortunately, has not been treated well by the movies. The All-Time Worst Movie Ever award has to go to the watchable-only-if-you-claw-your-eyes-out Nightfall, starring David Birney. It makes Starship Troopers look like the most faithful adaptation of a book ever (and like Shakespeare, to boot). Gah.
Posted by: *** Dave at October 14, 2003 04:54 PM
Actually, if you get a chance, see the filmer-formerly-made-by-David-Lynch on SciFi. It is the "Allen Smithee" version (that being the nom de plume that director's use when they feel they have lost control of their film). It's got footage put back in that **I think** makes it a much better movie.
Yep, the silliness of things like the Baron's big zits is still there. But many of the excised scenes were pretty darn good and made it a much more tolerable movie.
Posted by: Fred Kiesche at October 15, 2003 08:29 AM
Hmmmmm...Amazon has "extended" versions of the two mini-series versions of Dune and Children...More stuff to spend money on!!!
Posted by: Fred Kiesche at October 15, 2003 09:09 PM
Yep, now I know of their existence those extended dvds are going to be my Yuletide presents to me!
Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at October 15, 2003 09:31 PM
If there is a God Emperor discussion group I want in, if only to stand up and yell "YEAH!" when somebody makes a good point.
Posted by: Ray at October 16, 2003 07:46 AM
I hear your plight, fellow Dune-ian. Frank Herbet took us to a world more rich than any sci has ever done. The best part about the original 6 is that you can take them to whatever level you want...great for its sci-fi merits but also deeper into realm of epistemology. All we can hope for is that Brian Herbet doesn't F it all up.
Posted by: Alex at September 5, 2004 07:26 PM