Pierre Morel Gets Taken to a 'Dune' Remake With Love
Plus a new trailer for his upcoming film...
The news Taken director Pierre Morel would direct Dune, a feature film adaptation of Frank Herbert's highly acclaimed 1965 novel of the same name, hit the digital pages of Entertainment Weekly around 5:45 PM PST on Monday, January 4. I didn't immediately jump on the news because I figured I would give David Lynch's not-so-acclaimed 1984 adaptation a once over first (considering the HD DVD had been sitting on my shelf since 2006 and I still hadn't watched it). As it turns out, I don't think I will be watching it again.
Herbert's novel centers on a galactic struggle to control the supply of a valuable spice found only on the desert planet Arrakis and this won't be the first time someone has touched the material since Lynch. In 2000, the Sci-Fi Channel released a three part mini-series adaptation and then followed that up with a sequel, "Children of Dune," in 2003.
More recently, Peter Berg (The Kingdom) was set to direct an adaptation as long ago as December 2007, but has since moved on to direct Battleship, an "adaptation" of the Hasbro board game. I guess the classic sci-fi novel proved a bit too daunting and a board game adaptation was a better fit.
Quantum of Solace scripter Josh Zetumer wrote the first draft when Berg was attached, but apparently Paramount Pictures is looking for a new writer to incorporate Morel’s vision of the project into the original draft. "EW" reports the project is a high priority for Paramount’s production chief Adam Goodman.
Morel made a big splash last year with the surprise success of Taken. Prior to that he directed the French actioner District B13 (which I am going to watch right after I publish this post) and on February 5 his next film, From Paris with Love starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers will hit theaters. Coincidentally, a new trailer for that film just hit Apple and you can watch it directly below.
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The David Lynch version is quite different from the book but I liked it and got me interested in the books.
The mini-series was more like the book but very cheaply made. You could even see the lines between the panels at the back of the set.
Herbert created a story and world so big and yet so detailed that you get the same problems as with the Lord of the Rings movies. How do you get it on the screen?
On the other hand, that ended up quite well.
I'd love to see a good adaptation. As long as they have the budget (might be a problem at the moment) and stay close to Herberts story it should work out.
hope you enjoy district b13. and even more so i hope you post your reaction/opinion to it.
Gotta say, I'm not too sure of the chances of "From Paris With Love," at least not box-office wise. It may be a great movie, but the title is a pretty bad one, and the title is the very first attention grabber for any movie. The trailer wasn't that great, either.
But the news about "Dune" sounds pretty awesome. Pierre Morel is perhaps the very first thing ever to come out of France that could truly be described as "badass" (Luc Besson comes close, but while his movies are great, the visuals are more often focused on the breathtaking than the badassery, thus making "badass" not quite the right word for him).
I am a bit dubious about this. Neither the previous film or TV adaptation of Dune really captured the spirit and intent of the book. It's hard to see how a standard 2 hour movie could do it justice without oversimplifying the story and losing much of what makes the original book so compelling.
As for Morel, B13 is an all out action movie which is hugely stylish and great fun if you can turn a blind eye to the simplistic and pointless "plot". Can't see him working for Dune though – I guess it will depend largely on who the new writer is and what kind of film Paramount wants.
I'd like to hear what you have to say about B13 too
@ABLE and @Helen: I will be writing up my thoughts on it in the Sunday morning "What I Watched" article so be on the look out for further discussion there.
@ Helen: Fellowship of the Ring is over 400 pages long and The First Dune book is not much longer (just over 528 pages); therefore, I believe if presented in a 165-180 minute format, condensing the book shouldn't be a problem. Also, when completed an "Extended Edition" could easily push a Dune film beyond 3 hours.
While it's certainly a daunting task indeed for any director (regardless of rank or experience) to take on Herbert's complex science fiction epic, I think it is very "filmable." If James Cameron has shown us anything over the past few weeks its this: when armed with today's visual effects (CG, 3D, Motion-Capture), a great screenplay (shouldn't be too hard considering the source material) & solid acting, any inspired director should be able to tackle any topic and bring to the screen.
I will agree with you on one point; I'm very concerned about the studio's choice of director. While I greatly enjoyed Taken (and its very real, Jason Bourne-action-style) and do look forward to the madcap From Paris With Love, Morel seems to be more of an action director. Herbert's work needs the finely tuned genius of a James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Stephen Spielberg or even…dare I say it…George "Star Wars" Lucas.
However, perhaps behind this odd choice lies a fascinating story of a young Morel dreaming of one day being able to film Dune (ala a young horror filmmaker by the name of Peter Jackson dreaming up King Kong and Gollum in his cinematic mind). I will watch this story with great interest.