Tackling Dune

I have been a fan of Frank Herbert's Dune (and some of its sequels) since I discovered the story in the pages of Analog in the mid-1960s. Dune is now recognized as one of the classics of the science fiction genre and a became a hot property for film directors. 

The latest attempt to film the movie, by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, will premiere in Venice in a week or so. Here's an article interviewing Villeneuve and some of the film's scriptwriters who discuss the challenges of filming this epic novel. 

The audience for science fiction tends to skew male but with “Dune,” Villeneuve saw the opportunity to make a film with strong, fully rounded female characters, starting with Lady Jessica (Ferguson), the mother of Paul and a member of the Bene Gesserit.

"At the very beginning of the creative process, I remember Eric Roth asking me, ‘What is the most important element I should focus as I'm starting to write the first draft?’ I said, ‘Women,’ ” Villeneuve says. “There are so many things in the book that are so relevant and so prophetic but I felt that femininity should be up front. We needed to make sure that Lady Jessica is not an expensive extra.”

To further bring forward the book’s female characters, Villeneuve made the desert-dwelling warrior Chani, played by Zendaya, a significant presence in the film despite the fact that she doesn’t appear until the second half of Herbert’s novel.

“As the movie was evolving, Chani just kept growing and growing because I just was fascinated by Zendaya and her presence and how magnetic she was,” Villeneuve says. “ I shot more and more scenes with her. We improvised stuff. I was just so inspired by her.”

In one of the biggest departures from the novel, the film changes the gender of the character of Liet Kynes, a planetologist who has a deep understanding and love for Arrakis and its native people, the Fremen. In Herbert’s book, Kynes is a man but in the film she is a woman, played by British actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster.

I expect to see some outraged howls from the usual suspects about some of these changes, but I don't have a problem with them. I am very much looking forward to seeing it when it hits theatres in October.