Time Contributor | Sunburn
Movies should be more similar to music than novels.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > if you talk about the most watched Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster this year, it can be said that it is "Dune". </h1>
Now that the film is scheduled for release on the mainland on October 22, Chinese film fans can finally feast their eyes on the big screen.
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<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > Dune is based on the classic sci-fi IP of the same name by Frank Herbert. </h1>
Over the past half century, this IP film adaptation has been considered "a novel that cannot be adapted into a movie" because it has consumed the efforts of generations of Hollywood filmmakers but has been slow to deliver a perfect answer.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > until this time, Dennis Villeneuve took the shot. </h1>
Dune currently has a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 88% and an IMDb rating of 8.7.
Judging from the word of mouth that the film has exposed, this annual science fiction blockbuster has indeed lived up to the expectations of fans, fans and film peers for half a century.
Today, Shi Shijun has compiled a detailed hard-core science post, from the origin of the creation of "Dune", the story setting to the adaptation process, there are detailed interpretations.
Without understanding this, you may have a hard time understanding this magnificent space epic.
Creative prequel
In 1962, American biologist and writer Rachel Carson published the popular science book "Silent Spring".
In the book, Carson describes the ecological problems caused by pesticide pesticides such as DDT, warning people of the great threat posed by environmental degradation to human beings.
The work sparked heated discussion in American society, eventually prompting the U.S. government to pay attention to the problems posed by pesticides, and thus established the Environmental Protection Agency.
Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
"Silent Spring" has not only become the starting point of environmental ecology, but also made more science fiction writers begin to focus on the huge impact of ecological changes on human beings.
In 1957, the obscure American writer Frank Herbert was invited to write a reportage on a scientific experiment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stabilize the destructive spread of sand dunes with grass to solve the problem of soil erosion.
Frank Herbert
After research and visits, Herbert found that the expansion of the original sand dunes was enough to swallow up the cities, rivers, and highways where humans lived.
This subversive power gave Herbert great inspiration to tell a story that takes place on a planet that has been swallowed up by sand dunes.
This reportage is the prototype for one of the greatest science fiction novels of the 20th century, Dune.
The Dune series of novels
The birth of the "dunes"
Herbert's ambitions also expanded as rapidly as dune, and he intended to expand the manuscript at hand into a novel, but it backfired.
After a few years of immersion in the creation, the original edition of Dune was rejected by more than 20 publishers.
It wasn't until 1963 that Dune's short soft science fiction novel Dune World was officially published, or in a publishing house known for publishing car repair books...
Herbert set the story on the planet Erracos, thousands of years later, on a planet known as the "dunes," where deserts cover most of the land and there is little precipitation.
Water is severely scarce, and sandstorms threaten the survival of people and everything – except for the huge sandworms buried beneath the dunes.
After building such a hellish ecology, Herbert made it the only source of spices, the most important resource in the universe.
This spice is not a spice that we generally recognize, as a resource, it can not only prolong human lifespan, improve intelligence level, but also an indispensable energy source for interstellar travel.
In short, this is the resource that all the forces in the universe must fight for, and it affects the struggle and change of the entire galactic regime.
These designs by Herbert are easy to find in the real world.
In the novel, many words and ideas are close to the concept of the Arab world, and the main story line of a foreigner leading a desert civilization in a military rebellion is also easily reminiscent of the film history classic "Lawrence of Arabia".
And the prototype of spice, and the struggle it provokes, is not like oil in the real world?
Lawrence of Arabia
As soon as the novel was published, it sparked a heated discussion in American society, winning the 1965 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the highest award for science fiction, and has been translated into dozens of languages and sold 20 million copies worldwide.
The success of the first part was only the beginning, and Herbert did not slow down, but continued to tell the story of what happened on the desert-covered planet.
The Dune Savior, published in 1969, and The Son of dunes, published in 1976, together with the first Dune, are known as the "Dune" trilogy.
The upcoming film version of "Dune", which will be released in the mainland, is based on the first half of the first novel.
The young Paul played by Sweet Tea is the protagonist of this part
Five years later, Herbert launched the last trilogy of Dune God, Dune Heresy, and Temple Dunes, continuing to tell the story of the dune planet thousands of years later.
In addition, the Dune series has also produced many spin-offs, prequels, and encyclopedias of dune backgrounds.
By this point, Dune has become the best-selling and most important series in the history of science fiction, and with global warming, soil desertification, water scarcity, and oil crises, Dune's vision has made it shine brighter than when it was first born.
Story setting
The story of "Dune" takes place 4,000 years later, human beings can travel freely through the stars by traveling faster than the speed of light, and the emperor of the empire Padisha, Shadam IV, ruled the interstellar empire.
(Note: Some story spoilers are included below)
Fearing the growing power of Duke Leto Ertridi, the Emperor decided to use the hands of others to get rid of this henchman.
The Duke had a long-standing feud with another Baron, the Hakenam family, and the planet of Erracos, which produced the spices mentioned above, was Baron Haknam's sphere of influence.
The Emperor ordered the Duke of Leto to move the territory to the planet Erracus, and Baron Haknam was naturally reluctant to give up control of such a core resource.
Oscar Isaac plays Duke Reto, Father of Paul
Knowing that there was deception, Duke Reto went with his family to the planet Erracos.
In this conspiracy, Duke Reto committed suicide after being captured, and Duke Reto's only son, Paul, and his wife, Madame Jessica, escaped and went deep into the heart of the desert, with the help of the Freymans, the natives of Erracos.
Rebecca Ferguson as Mrs. Jessica
Many of the Etridians' loyalists were either captured, helped by other forces, and killed.
After his father's assassination, Paul was tasked with avenging his father and restoring his country.
He changed his name to Paul Muadi, and after integrating into the culture and life of the Freyman people, he gradually grew into the leader of the area and married Chini, the daughter of the Indigenous spiritual leader Keynes.
Zandaya plays Chini, and Sweet Tea forms a new screen CP
Jessica was also revered as a Virgin by the Freymans and gave birth to Leto's widow, Paul's sister Eria.
Eulia can speak when she is just born and has terrifying superpowers...
"Dunes" is an epic about people growing into heroes, and the original author Herbert's brushstrokes do not fall only on the flying machines and science fiction concepts that cross the stars.
Unlike most superheroes in American pop culture, Paul was gifted and well educated and trained, but he went through a lot of hardships to become famous.
It can be said that the entire story of the "Dune" series revolves around the power struggle of the Ertridi family.
Its story can be set in any era, but it just happens to take place in the future, on the planet Erracos where sandworms travel.
The difficulty of film and television
Soon after the publication of the first novel of "Dune", it attracted the attention of many producers and directors, but its film and television adaptation road was full of thorns like the sandstorm of The Star of Erracos.
In the half-century that followed, only two feature films were produced.
1984 Dune
One is David Lynch's Dune in 1984, and the other is the upcoming Villeneuve version.
Producer Arthur Jacobs acquired the rights to his film adaptation as early as 1971.
Originally planned to be directed by Lawrence of Arabia director David Lane, Jacobs himself died two years later, and the rights were acquired by a French consortium.
With the support of a consortium, Alessandro Zodlowski, the Chilean ghost director who had filmed "The Holy Mountain," took over Dune, and he embarked on an ambitious plan.
Holy Mountain
The famous surrealist painter Dalí starred as the Emperor, Citizen Kane director Orson Wells starred as duke of Harknon, the Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger starred as Feder-Lausa Hakonam, and David Carating played Leto.
Interestingly, Jodulovsky arranged for his own son, Blantis Zodlowski, to play the male protagonist, Paul Ertridi, the soul of the entire "Dune" series.
Not only that, but Zodlowski also plans to invite the "Father of the Alien" H. R. Giger was the art director, and the legendary rock band Pink Floyd and the French avant-garde rock band Magma scored the film.
Zodrowski
Unfortunately, this unprecedented film lineup eventually became stillborn.
Jodulovsky's Dune never made it into the real production phase.
The behind-the-scenes story of the bubble-up film was brought to the screen, and a documentary called "Jodulovsky's Dunes" was released in 2013, and interested friends can check it out.
The documentary shows the formed "Dune" storyboard
After this, the film and television rights of "Dune" were won by the Italian producer Dino de Laurentis, Herbert personally participated in the adaptation of the script of "Dune", and the famous director Ridley Scott joined.
But Scott was now obsessed with another sci-fi project, Blade Runner, and the slow production process discouraged him and eventually had no choice but to quit.
Seeing that the film and television rights were about to expire, Laurentis simply re-negotiated with Herbert to extend the copyright time, and also took the copyright to the sequel to "Dune".
Laurentis approached David Lynch, who, though completely unaware of the novel, eventually took over the massive project, but it didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped.
Dune 84, The Emperor and the Great Nun Keith Helen Moshiam
Two years after preparation, Lynch's version of Dune was shot in a huge studio in Mexico, with the original rough cut lasting four hours.
Laurentis and Universal wanted the length to be controlled at about 2 hours, while Lynch wanted a fixed-cut version of 3 hours, and the two sides were deadlocked.
In the end, the trick of the strong producer against the director's will was staged again.
The edited version led by Laurentis deleted many of the original scenes and remade new pictures, the plot was simplified, and the narrative was supplemented by a voiceover.
Not surprisingly, Lynch protested by refusing to sign, but instead printed on film with Alan Smithee, the "code name" used by Hollywood directors when they refused to sign.
In the end, the less perfect "Dune" received a decent box office, but the critics scoffed at it, and the media was full of words like "ugly", "empty", "worst of the year".
84 edition of Dune
Such a defeat led critics to believe that Dune was probably one of the most unsuitable science fiction novels for the screen.
For more than 20 years, no Hollywood studio wanted to do anything to Dune, and only Paramount had planned to bring it back to the screen in 2008, but it didn't work out.
Until recently, director Villeneuve took over this hot potato.
2021 Dune
In addition to the movie, the episodic version of Dune currently has a popular version.
In 2000, the American science fiction channel Syfy launched a three-episode miniseries of Dune Castle.
In 2003, the series "Son of Dune", which adapted the novels "The Savior of Dunes" and "Son of Dune", was released, telling the story of Paul's children, Leto II and Janima.
However, this version of the bad special effects can not show the grand epic sense of Dune.
The earliest chinese audience to contact and understand "Dune" is probably the "Dune" series of games adapted by the famous game company Ximu Studio.
Dune game
This game is not only the first love of many people's games, but Dune 2 is considered to be the founder of the RTS (real-time strategy) game genre, driving a series of classic games including StarCraft, Red Alert, and Warcraft.
Compared with "Dune" in the film field, the game has left a good story worth writing.
Finally, I would like to say that director Villeneuve has shown his ability to control science fiction themes and a highly recognizable authorial style in "Blade Runner 2049".
Everyone is quietly looking forward to the arrival of this truly adult-oriented space opera, witnessing the birth of a hero on the planet Erracos in the depths of the universe...
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