The Secrets of Frank Herberts Dune By James Van Hise

Free read The Secrets of Frank Herberts Dune

Based on Frank Herbert's Dune, the epic new SCI FI Channel mini-series embodies science fiction adventure at its grandest! This lavish new production, starring William Hurt, Alec Newman and Giancarlo Giannini, and featuring the direction of John Harrison and the cinematography of Vittorio Storaro, sets a new standard. Faithful in all aspects to Herbert's vision, it presents Dune for the first time in its full complexity...the most magnificent adaptation ever on the screen.On an exclusive footage-packed DVD designed especially for this book, The Secrets of Frank Herbert's Dune shows you why The SCI FI Channel gave the mini-series the biggest production budget in its history!

The Secrets The Secrets of Frank Herbert's Dune is a dazzling book-and-DVD treasury of behind-the-scenes production stills, interviews, video clips and drawings -- many exclusive to this edition. The Secrets of Frank Herberts Dune

The journey of the main character, Paul Atreides, is a symbol. A symbol of the journey for all of us.

Just finished watching David Lynch’s batshit-crazy 1984 adaptation, followed by the 2000 six-hour John Harrison mini-series for the then Sci-Fi Channel. I watched with my partner, who knew nothing about the seminal 1965 Frank Herbert novel. And who wondered why I had the Denis Villeneuve trailer on ‘repeat’ on YouTube.

Herbert was one of the first SF authors I ever read, along with the likes of Robert Heinlein, Samuel R. Delany, Clifford Simak, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith and Isaac Asimov, i.e. the usual suspects. I was a teenager when Lynch’s movie came out, and something in me responded deeply to its weirdness and wonder.

I still have a soft spot for the Lynch version, which has the dubious honour of being one of the strangest, most-unlike-Star-Wars SF movies ever made. I think that Lynch’s vision still holds up stunningly well today. Even though the Harrison mini-series followed 16 years later, meaning an exponential improvement in SFX technology, the Sci-Fi Channel version can’t help but look tawdry in comparison (James van Hise reveals that the budget was $20m, while $40m was spent on Lynch’s Dune.)

John Harrison ‘solved’ the constraint of it being too expensive to film on location by having cinematographer Vittorio Storaro come up with the concept of a Translite (Storaro himself refers to it as a TransLight.) This is basically a large-print photograph used as a studio backdrop and lit like a movie set. It looks as fake as hell. Still, the mini-series won a 2001 Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie, and Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries (though the CGI sandworms here look even more like penis puppets than Carlo ‘E.T.’ Rambaldi’s work on Lynch’s Dune.)

Watching the mini-series makes one realise that Lynch’s screenplay is all exposition and breakneck action, with little connection or emotional interaction between the characters. It is like a tick-list of all the major plot beats of the book. There are innovative touches like the ‘weirding’ module’ as Lynch’s answer to solving the problem of Voice on-screen. Harrison’s own tinkering with the book sees a greatly expanded role for Irulan, for example, bringing her from the fringe of the political struggle on Arrakis to its literal centre.

However, in the Lynch version there is little to make the viewer care for these deeply fucked-up characters. Although seeing Patrick Stewart carry a pug into battle is a particular joy. An unforgivable omission of Lynch’s Dune is that Paul and Jessica’s induction into the Fremen culture is given remarkably short shrift, which is why it is so deceptively easy to read this as a ‘white saviour’ narrative.

Harrison is careful to show the viewer how Paul pays his dues to become Muad’dib. My partner pointed out to me that in some early crowd scenes the ‘adhan’ can be heard clearly, perhaps underlining how the Fremen culture is a ‘melange’ of ideas and tropes about Islam in particular. It is going to be interesting to see how Villeneuve’s adaptation tackles politically-charged concepts like ‘Mahdi’ and ‘jihad’.

Interestingly, Harrison is also not afraid to show how much Paul changes, becoming quite unlikeable and even somewhat alien by the end. This could be somewhat unintentional due to the uncomfortably stilted performance by Alec Newman as Paul, who seems to be even more wooden than Kyle Maclachlan. Paul is probably destined to be one of those great unfulfilled actors’ dream roles. Unless Timothée Chalamet can realise the true potential in this character with Villeneuve at the helm.

Lynch’s Dune was, of course, a massive flop (unless you take into account that it steered the auteur along his own ‘golden path’ to Blue Velvet shortly thereafter.) Despite this, the 2000 and 2003 mini-series are ranked as two of the three highest-rated shows ever on the Sci-Fi Channel. Clearly there is a visceral response to Frank Herbert’s classic tale, which seems to be as mutable as the ever-shifting sands of Arrakis. 160 Does what it says on the tin. Some good interviews with production staff.

Interesting to see how some of the novel's inherent adaptation problems were tackled, specially in light of the more recent Villeneuve approach. 160