Here's Hoping: Dune 2020
I thought a good article to write for my audience of one would be an optimistic piece about why Denis Villeneuve's upcoming take on Dune, that monolithic VFW grandpa of modern sci-fi, is shaping up to be not just good but excellent. If at times it trails off or gets lost in the weeds think of this more as my digital summoning circle for the best damn Dune movie that we deserve.
Linguistics
Starting with the absolute sexiest topic, linguistics, it's important to realize how valuable this was both to Herbert's vision but also to creating a believable world in Arrakis. But first, when we think of a desert planet based on the Levant in dryer times we envision, naturally, that there would be things like intense preservation of moisture, weakness to subjugation and slavery, and a very considerable amount of the population being harnessed for the miserable farming of water. But wait --this sounds just like Tatooine, and isn't Star Wars smarter and cooler?
No, get out.
You see, these single biome planets are stupid. So stupid in fact that the one Tatooine was based on not-so-secretly wasn't one. Stupid enough that David Lynch turned down Empire for his original Dune shot in Mexico. George Lucas did not have to read between the lines, he just had to not skip any chapters to know that terraforming the planet was a pretty key item because it meant a symbolic death of culture in the subsequent weaning of the Shai-Hulud in the favor of modernized civilization. Its barren appearance was supposed to be evocative, disarming... even sinister but hey, subtlety doesn't work on everybody and that's okay.
The Arabic and Islamic influences are probably a bit too time consuming to list here, especially since people have done it already if you want to check out this neat summary from Khalid Baheyeldin. I'll just give you two of my favorites and a brief bit on what they mean to me.
The honorific given to Paul, Usul, is based on the Arabic word which may be spelled the same way meaning literally the basis upon which something is built. In some contexts it also means 'of or relating to principles/scruples.' Of the many types of rulers we see in Dune Paul Atreides definitely plays a role more or less opposing of the morally wicked, so the name is apropos. But the evolution of the word usul in our world is also pretty mirroring. For instance, I first heard of this Dune word connection while studying the great Indian tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha. The honorific Ustad was given to him and to few other musicians as a denotation of mastery but the word was originally Persian in origin and spread out from the cradle under many other different interpretations including usul. What's really special and cool to me though is in Indian culture the name is given usually to musicians but it can also be given to teachers of any craft regardless as long as its users wish to show intense appreciation for their teachings. So with the name Usul in Dune, we have a shining man of principle but also a teacher for whom great reverence and gratitude is shown, and will one day be the foundation for what at that point was to be a noble and pure reinvention of Arrakis.
I gotta wrap this one up so I'll go quickly. The Dune word 'kanly' signifies an honor-based duel with knives and derives from the Turkish word kanlı meaning 'bloody' from the stem of blood, 'kan-' a word which in Turkey has come to mean 'sworn enemy.' There's not much to unpack here but we must admire that the practice's first use does in fact take place in a scene that resolves the blood debts of two sworn enemies.
Now go watch Arrival. An alien contact flick about... talking it out. Villeneuve is a lingustics nerd which is very good news with respect to reverence for the sourcemat.
Inspired Casting
As the great mother Mohiam we have Charlotte Rampling, who already has amazing blue eyes so no strange cornea destroying contacts are needed. She was amazing in Zardoz which itself was in some way a great tale of two cities with a clear Athens and a clear Sparta. Finally, there's a bit of closure for her loop as she once was slated to play Lady Jessica in Jodorowsky's Dune until she found out that he had planned to have a scene with about 2,000 extras simultaneously dropping trow and shitting themselves on screen. "Fun" Fact: George Harrison almost played the lead in Holy Mountain until he reached the scene where he was to wash his butthole for like four minutes.
Another great pick is Dave Bautista, who has been the surprise character actor of the century. While he can easily be charming and funny to boot, it's the pathos of his insect protein farmer Sapper Morton from Blade Runner 2049 that I want to focus on. (This is going to happen to humans by the way.) Ignoring the companion animation, his single scene in Blade Runner was so good and so natural that it managed to immediately set a tragic and somber tone for at least the first half of the film. I don't want to ruin that feeling for you but just trust me when I tell you they came up with all requisite in-universe reasons for a vulnerable, muscle bound, bookworm character from him to play and he slam dunks it.
What I have seen of Chalamet, he'll definitely entice a certain audience that expects a high degree of acting but the supporting characters he'll get to play off are what really have me excited. There are so many, but I want to tell y'all about David Dastmalchian. He should look pretty familiar if you've seen many comic book movies. He even recently wrote his own and there's this promo video he did for it that I watch at least... three times a week. As you can see, he's a lot of fun. But one thing he recently said in an interview (I'd link it if this was a job) was that he loves to pull out all the stops to be the slingshot that sets one of the main characters into a violent trajectory. And if that's not the golden mantra of a supporting character actor, I couldn't word it better myself.
Just in general, the casting for characters like Stilgar, Dr. Yueh, and Liet Kynes leads me to believe that there is much more interest nowadays for diverse casting but before you go, realize that the diversity is not coming from a Roddenberry-esque enlightenment future but more because Herbert had a very athropology focused bent on what the spacefaring human race would actually look like. I hope the hard left and the hard book-to-adaptation fans can either overlap or come together and agree that they truly are making a lot of the right decisions in earnest.
And at the end of the day, all you want is the people who will do the best job. Here's hoping!
I thought a good article to write for my audience of one would be an optimistic piece about why Denis Villeneuve's upcoming take on Dune, that monolithic VFW grandpa of modern sci-fi, is shaping up to be not just good but excellent. If at times it trails off or gets lost in the weeds think of this more as my digital summoning circle for the best damn Dune movie that we deserve.
Linguistics
Starting with the absolute sexiest topic, linguistics, it's important to realize how valuable this was both to Herbert's vision but also to creating a believable world in Arrakis. But first, when we think of a desert planet based on the Levant in dryer times we envision, naturally, that there would be things like intense preservation of moisture, weakness to subjugation and slavery, and a very considerable amount of the population being harnessed for the miserable farming of water. But wait --this sounds just like Tatooine, and isn't Star Wars smarter and cooler?
No, get out.
You see, these single biome planets are stupid. So stupid in fact that the one Tatooine was based on not-so-secretly wasn't one. Stupid enough that David Lynch turned down Empire for his original Dune shot in Mexico. George Lucas did not have to read between the lines, he just had to not skip any chapters to know that terraforming the planet was a pretty key item because it meant a symbolic death of culture in the subsequent weaning of the Shai-Hulud in the favor of modernized civilization. Its barren appearance was supposed to be evocative, disarming... even sinister but hey, subtlety doesn't work on everybody and that's okay.
The Arabic and Islamic influences are probably a bit too time consuming to list here, especially since people have done it already if you want to check out this neat summary from Khalid Baheyeldin. I'll just give you two of my favorites and a brief bit on what they mean to me.
The honorific given to Paul, Usul, is based on the Arabic word which may be spelled the same way meaning literally the basis upon which something is built. In some contexts it also means 'of or relating to principles/scruples.' Of the many types of rulers we see in Dune Paul Atreides definitely plays a role more or less opposing of the morally wicked, so the name is apropos. But the evolution of the word usul in our world is also pretty mirroring. For instance, I first heard of this Dune word connection while studying the great Indian tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha. The honorific Ustad was given to him and to few other musicians as a denotation of mastery but the word was originally Persian in origin and spread out from the cradle under many other different interpretations including usul. What's really special and cool to me though is in Indian culture the name is given usually to musicians but it can also be given to teachers of any craft regardless as long as its users wish to show intense appreciation for their teachings. So with the name Usul in Dune, we have a shining man of principle but also a teacher for whom great reverence and gratitude is shown, and will one day be the foundation for what at that point was to be a noble and pure reinvention of Arrakis.
I gotta wrap this one up so I'll go quickly. The Dune word 'kanly' signifies an honor-based duel with knives and derives from the Turkish word kanlı meaning 'bloody' from the stem of blood, 'kan-' a word which in Turkey has come to mean 'sworn enemy.' There's not much to unpack here but we must admire that the practice's first use does in fact take place in a scene that resolves the blood debts of two sworn enemies.
Now go watch Arrival. An alien contact flick about... talking it out. Villeneuve is a lingustics nerd which is very good news with respect to reverence for the sourcemat.
Inspired Casting
As the great mother Mohiam we have Charlotte Rampling, who already has amazing blue eyes so no strange cornea destroying contacts are needed. She was amazing in Zardoz which itself was in some way a great tale of two cities with a clear Athens and a clear Sparta. Finally, there's a bit of closure for her loop as she once was slated to play Lady Jessica in Jodorowsky's Dune until she found out that he had planned to have a scene with about 2,000 extras simultaneously dropping trow and shitting themselves on screen. "Fun" Fact: George Harrison almost played the lead in Holy Mountain until he reached the scene where he was to wash his butthole for like four minutes.
Another great pick is Dave Bautista, who has been the surprise character actor of the century. While he can easily be charming and funny to boot, it's the pathos of his insect protein farmer Sapper Morton from Blade Runner 2049 that I want to focus on. (This is going to happen to humans by the way.) Ignoring the companion animation, his single scene in Blade Runner was so good and so natural that it managed to immediately set a tragic and somber tone for at least the first half of the film. I don't want to ruin that feeling for you but just trust me when I tell you they came up with all requisite in-universe reasons for a vulnerable, muscle bound, bookworm character from him to play and he slam dunks it.
What I have seen of Chalamet, he'll definitely entice a certain audience that expects a high degree of acting but the supporting characters he'll get to play off are what really have me excited. There are so many, but I want to tell y'all about David Dastmalchian. He should look pretty familiar if you've seen many comic book movies. He even recently wrote his own and there's this promo video he did for it that I watch at least... three times a week. As you can see, he's a lot of fun. But one thing he recently said in an interview (I'd link it if this was a job) was that he loves to pull out all the stops to be the slingshot that sets one of the main characters into a violent trajectory. And if that's not the golden mantra of a supporting character actor, I couldn't word it better myself.
Just in general, the casting for characters like Stilgar, Dr. Yueh, and Liet Kynes leads me to believe that there is much more interest nowadays for diverse casting but before you go, realize that the diversity is not coming from a Roddenberry-esque enlightenment future but more because Herbert had a very athropology focused bent on what the spacefaring human race would actually look like. I hope the hard left and the hard book-to-adaptation fans can either overlap or come together and agree that they truly are making a lot of the right decisions in earnest.
And at the end of the day, all you want is the people who will do the best job. Here's hoping!
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