Dune Fan Film

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:23 pm

Several months ago I mentioned on this site a fan based effort to produce a fan-film version of Dune. An on-line pal of mine in Spain was the moving force behind this effort. As a result of his dedication he and pretty much his entire town worked for eight long years to produce three-two hour films, one film each for the three books that make up FH's masterpiece, Dune. Two years ago they were finishing up the post production work and decided to make a trailer, which they released on youtube. As a courtesy they sent a copy of the trailer to the HLP, or the Herbert Limited Partnership, the organization that owns and manages FH's literary estate. As members of HLP were still actively producing books (Brian Herbert) and were at that time negotiating with a major studio for a new film version of Dune, the HLP demanded that the producers take down the trailer, and stop all efforts to release the film. Since the producers were thinking about going professional and did not want to start out what was certain to be brilliant careers in the visual arts, they complied.

Here are a series of stills from the production. As you can see, this thing probably would have been amazing. The producers swore that they took every effort to remain true to the words and heart of FH's original. I prey still that this will one day be released. I may even go back to school to relearn Spanish so that I can watch it without subtitles. Hope you enjoy.

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:25 pm

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:27 pm

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:28 pm

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:35 pm

Sorry to all of you who have dial-up.

FYI, I had nothing to do with this production; I just lament what happened to it and support the film makers in their efforts to one day show this thing.

The producers worked on this thing for eight solid years. During the course of production some actors died, many went to and returned from high school and college, children grew up, and a town came together in a way that no other town in the history of the world ever has. The idea of doing a project like this makes my heart swell every time I think of it.

And just so that I don't end on a bad note, the producers are at it again, this time with a story idea that is in the public domain. Check out http://www.mediteatro.com to find out more about the film they are working on now. I probably will never be released in the states, but god...you just have to admire their dedication, especially after what happened to their dreams the last time.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:11 am

It looks tremendous, and I'd dearly love to see it ... but at the same time, they were clearly oblivious to the intellectual property rights of the owners of the original material, and they had to know that there was no way they could have hoped to earn any money off it to recoup their costs without advance permisison or agreement of the herbert estate, right ?

Heck, when I was in college some friends and I did a home-movie version of the parts of the movie Alien ... but we did it purely for fun, with no idea of ever earning money.

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:18 am

They never wanted to sell tickets. This was purely a labor of love. It was to be shown for free, and if I recall correctly they even offered to assign all rights to the HLP. I think the problem was that they were contracting to get a new version of Dune made at the time. Truly unfortunate.

severance · Post by **severance** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:44 am

As if we needed another reason to despair at the HLP - wasn't inflicting Kevin J. Anderson on us bad enough?

Many thanks Omphalos, I've seen a few on Freakzilla's site, but most of those are new to me.

Post by **rip8fan1** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:39 am

Looks awesome! Too bad we will probably never see it.

CodeBlower · Post by **CodeBlower** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:02 pm

Thanks for the pics, man! .. and just when I had quit salivating from you talking about it that last time ..

The miniatures are superb!

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:00 pm

severance wrote:As if we needed another reason to despair at the HLP - wasn't inflicting Kevin J. Anderson on us bad enough?

Many thanks Omphalos, I've seen a few on Freakzilla's site, but most of those are new to me.

Jacurutu? Freak and I are the co-administrators of that site. Glad to have ya!

Redstar · Post by **Redstar** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:26 pm

Thanks Omph. I've been looking around for this film online and was really disappointed about about the HLP's actions. But these stills at least give me an idea of what it was about, and it really looks powerful.

I don't agree with some of the costume and background choices (feel a little too miniseries) and the Baron having pustules, but the interpretation seems fair enough and I do like the sound of it being a faithful adaptation.

Post by **Darb** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:49 am

Quasi non-sequitur: I never understood why Dino de Laurentis chose to turn Baron Harkonnen into an overwrought caricature. In the books, the Baron was an cruel evil genius and sexual deviant who was grotesquely fat and required a suspensor belt to move around. That's it. De Laurentis, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to think those flaws were not sufficient for the audience, and sent things even further over the top by also turning the Baron into a horribly diseased, disfigured and scenery-chewing madman. Herbert's version of the Baron was much more frightening, whereas de Laurentis' version was grotesque to the point of being laughable.

Which brings me back to the fan film ... I see, to my disappointment, that the creators of this film appear to repeat de Laurentis' ill-advised changes to the Baron by making him look horribly diseased. Too bad.

Other than that, the movie looks very cool.

I'd pay good money to see that.

Redstar · Post by **Redstar** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:35 pm

Brad wrote:Quasi non-sequitur: I never understood why Dino de Laurentis chose to turn Baron Harkonnen into an overwrought caricature. In the books, the Baron was an cruel evil genius and sexual deviant who was grotesquely fat and required a suspensor belt to move around. That's it. De Laurentis, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to think those flaws were not sufficient for the audience, and sent things even further over the top by also turning the Baron into a horribly diseased, disfigured and scenery-chewing madman. Herbert's version of the Baron was much more frightening, whereas de Laurentis' version was grotesque to the point of being laughable.

I think they did this because most of the Baron's characterization that made him so horrible involved pedophilia and sadomasochism. I seriously doubt portraying either of those would have been met favorably in the 80's theatre, so they decided to try to trigger our disgust through less graphic means.

Post by **Darb** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:48 pm

The Baron's single biggest attribute as a villain was his cruel genius, which, like Paul, was the product of thousands of years of selective breeding ... the references to unbridled amoral sensuality were just sauce for the goose.

Redstar · Post by **Redstar** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:50 pm

Indeed. I haven't seen the Lynch version in awhile, so I'm not entirely sure if they portrayed his genius. I know the miniseries was praised for that on thing, though.

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:24 pm

Brad wrote:Quasi non-sequitur: I never understood why Dino de Laurentis chose to turn Baron Harkonnen into an overwrought caricature. In the books, the Baron was an cruel evil genius and sexual deviant who was grotesquely fat and required a suspensor belt to move around. That's it. De Laurentis, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to think those flaws were not sufficient for the audience, and sent things even further over the top by also turning the Baron into a horribly diseased, disfigured and scenery-chewing madman. Herbert's version of the Baron was much more frightening, whereas de Laurentis' version was grotesque to the point of being laughable.

Which brings me back to the fan film ... I see, to my disappointment, that the creators of this film appear to repeat de Laurentis' ill-advised changes to the Baron by making him look horribly diseased. Too bad.

Other than that, the movie looks very cool.

I'd pay good money to see that.

It was not DeLaurentis' call. It was David Lynch's. I always thought that as a matter of differentiation Lynch wanted as many Shakesperian actors around the characther of Paul as possible. Having a character actor play Paul then was a way to add to the difference that Paul had to those around him. The same with Chani. The Baron, being the primary bad guy, was played like the quinitsential stage Shakesperian bad guy: With lots of umph.

The disease was just Lynch being Lynch: adding something gross to a gross character.

CodeBlower · Post by **CodeBlower** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:58 am

I thought the diseased-look was just a visual for the revenge "gift" that Mohiam gave the Baron when they had their little rendezvous ..

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:40 pm

CodeBlower wrote:I thought the diseased-look was just a visual for the revenge "gift" that Mohiam gave the Baron when they had their little rendezvous ..

You have confused FH's dune, Lynch's Dune and KJA's Dune. The bit about the "gift" from Mohiam was pure KJA, and the gift was obesity, not the sores. The sores were Lynch's thing. IIRC FH said that the baron was fat just because he was a hedonist.

Post by **Darb** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 5:31 pm

Exactly.

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:14 pm

It ain't easy to keep track any more. And its just going to get worse when this new "muscular" version of Dune comes out in 2010.

*shiver*

CodeBlower · Post by **CodeBlower** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:44 am

Sorry about that .. after I posted and went away yesterday, I started wondering if that wasn't a prequel thing stuck in afterwards (possibly in response to the Lynch-look).

Omphalos · Post by **Omphalos** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:09 pm

I spend a lot of time on Dune forums, and I have always warned that a consequence of all these new books is that the original canon of FH's Dune will be withered away and forgotten, or at the very least blended in the minds of fans. I consider myself a die-hard fan of the original six books (seven, counting the Walking Tour of Dune in Eye), and a good 1/2 of my online activity is Dune related, and it even happens to me. I guess that is what I get for reading nu-Dune.