Sci-fi Channel's Children of Dune

jazdogg writes "Caught the trailer last night on the Sci-fi Channel for the new Frank Herbert's Children of Dune mini-series. I only hope this series is better than the previous one." I dunno - I liked the last Dune series, and am looking forward to this one.

Re:dune

[jjohnson]

Actually, Herbert had sketched out a seven volume story covering 10,000 years; parts of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were written before Dune was finished. And the second of Paul's children named Leto was consciously named that because Paul wanted a son named after his father.

Herbert got through six of the seven. His son has the notes for the seventh, and is preparing to butcher his father's legacy as he's done six times already with those godawful prequel books.

Re:dune

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Dune was initially conceived as trilogy. The first book sets up Paul as the perfect Messianic hero. The following two books tear down this hero and point out the perils of the hero myth with is so prevelant in our religions and culture. An excellent yet lenghty analysis written by Tim Oreilly can be found here: http://tim.oreilly.com/sci-fi/herbert/

I hope....

[Lord_Slepnir]

....that this one has a budget of more than $20. I mean, last time SciFi did this, while the writing was pretty good, the acting (particularly Duke Leto) was like watching Al Gore. More than half the sets were sand filled soundstages with cheap backgrounds painted on the backgrounds.

Re:Linux?

[The Only Druid]

You're a fool. A notable point in Dune is that there are no computers. In fact, Herbert explains that millenia before there was a robotic revolution, leading to a banning of computers of any sophistication. The Mentats are human computers, performing such calculations, although they are an industrial society. Spaceflight is accomplished through the mental powers of Navigators to bend space.

Your post was completely off-topic and irrelevant.

Sorry if this is harsh, but you shouldn't post just to post.

Re:Last Dune Series

[mike77]

I purchased the last dune series on dvd, as I wasn't able to catch it on tv. I've read the books, and watched the lynch film, and I have to say I thought the SciFi series was atrocious! I refuse to watch the dvd again. The story itself (ie the adaptation) wasn't bad, but the quality of the show itself was terrible. I mean how many times are you going to use the same set backdrop? I don't know, troll me if you must, but I HOPE SciFi does a better job (ie spend more on it) this time around.

Read Dune, Then Stop

[Nova Express]

Its easy to understand why Sci-Fi would make a miniseries of Dune, since it's a great book. Were it not for Hollywood's sequel mentality, it would be a lot harder to understand why they're making a miniseries of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune (which Sci-Fi is mashing together for the Children of Dune miniseries), which are not great books by any stretch of the imagination.

Here's some advice for those who haven't read any of Herbert's many Dune sequels yet: Don't. Not only were they not as good as the original, they weren't even in the same league. If you ask just about any serious science fiction reader, they'll tell you the same thing: Read Dune, then STOP! Dune Messiah sucks, Children of Dune sucks less than Dune Messiah, but still isn't a tenth as good as the original, and God-Emperor of Dune sucks the farts out of dead cats.

If you can just pretend that Herbert never wrote anything after Dune, you'll avoid wasting your time reading inferior sequels and tarnishing your memories of the original.

Re:Dune Messiah?

[Kaypro]

John Harrison, the screenwriter and co-producer answers (from here [scifi.com]):

Q: What books does Children of Dune cover? Why not call it Dune Messiah?

A: After the enormous success of SCI FI's first Frank Herbert's Dune miniseries, SCI FI asked Richard Rubinstein and me to come up with a proposal for another. After a lot of thought and conversation, it seemed that the next books in Frank Herbert's epic presented unique adaptation opportunities as well as problems.

Dune Messiah by itself did not resolve completely enough to stand on its own; it set the stage for Children of Dune. But that third book couldn't be the basis for a new miniseries without the precedent of Dune Messiah. So I decided we should combine both books and create a continuation of the first miniseries. Simply put, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune would complete the saga of Muad'Dib and set the stage for what was to come.

There is a significant passage in Frank Herbert's Dune, spoken by Reverend Mother Ramallo, in which she tells Paul that "when religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows." Of course she means Muad'Dib -- he is the whirlwind. As Dune fans know, in Dune Messiah he is tortured by what that whirlwind has meant, of what has become of his revolution. And, as students of history, we know that "every revolution contains the seeds of its own destruction." In Children of Dune, those seeds have started to bloom. But there is an answer, a road that Muad'dib was unable or unwilling to take: the Golden Path. By the end of Children of Dune, Muad'dib's son, Leto II, is willing to go down that path.

So I decided to combine both Dune Messiah and Children of Dune into one seamless narrative that would complete this chapter of the Atreides on Arrakis and set the stage for the next 3,000-year era, the Golden Path, and the reign of the God Emperor.

Re:Beating a Dead Horse?

[Flamerule]

[...] the prequels, each one of them, are written better than Dune itself.

Wow. You're raising up the Dune prequels above the original Dune? The 1965 Nebula award winner and 1966 Hugo award winner? One of the most famous science fiction novels ever written?

The prequels are fast paced, well written, clear, fascinating page turners that expertly illuminate the events leading up to those protrayed in the original Dune.

This is some great advertising copy. "expertly illuminate"? The prequels are entertaining reads (I thought House Harkonnen was somewhat worse than the others), well in line with co-author Kevin J. Anderson's previous work -- his Star Wars novels, for example -- but to compare them to the original Dune is ludicrous.

Some people enjoy the prequels; others don't care for them. That's all cool. But to call the prequels better than the original... I have to question your taste in SF, and literature in general.

All links

[Knacklappen]

Why to waste time with all those JavaScript-popups, here are the real links:
TCA trailer [scifi.com]
Whirlwind [scifi.com]
Boys to Men [scifi.com]
Alia [scifi.com]
Teaser [scifi.com]

Re:I liked the first one too.

[pestel]

Everyone says the mini-series is more faithful to the books. Okay, so we had the weirding modules in Lynch's film. Big deal. The makers of the mini-series can't even get the basics right. Reasons to hate the Sci Fi Dune miniseries:

1. Um, it's supposed to be HOT on dune. Like really really really hot. Why are people walking around without still suits? Why are the castle windows OPEN and the wind from outside fluttering through the curtains?
2. Why does a worm come when Paul and mom are wondering in the desert ONLY when they start walking wo/ rhythm. Hell, they'd been walking rhythmically for a long time, then suddenly they fall down a dune and the worm comes! Huh?
3. William Hurt was apparently stoned out of his mind the entire movie.
4. Paul was not a whiny brat in the book - he was supposed to be mature, especially for his age.
5. The navigators are supposed to look like fish, not bats.
6. The hats.... someone should have killed the costumer who must have found hats on sale somewhere. Or maybe they paid him to take them away.
7. Why is Chani, a young fremen, so fat? Hell, why are all the Fremen so water fat? This is talked about in the book how Paul looks "water fat" initially. There is no way a fremen should have breasts that large, but then fan boys probably wouldn't watch it.
8. The acting just plain sucked.
9. What was with all of the different classes doing their little tai chi/dancing when they talked?

That's just a few of the reasons I can think of off the top of my head having not seen the mini-series since its original airing. As many others have said, I suffered through it, hoping it would get better... The trailer doesn't leave much hope for "Children of Dune" whether you liked the book(s) or not.

Re:Sci Fi channel doing more literature?

[noewun]

Three?

Six.