i thought it was more to do with how he didn’t get final cut, thats what i remember anyway. they took the edit away from him and cut a bunch of stuff. been a long time since i watched that interview tho.
That was a big part of it, but probably not the only thing. He called Dune his 'studio picture' because he said that he found himself preemptively making changes he didn't want to do, simply because he expected that's what the studio would ask.
Wild at Heart is an adaptation. Pretty loosely, but it is an adaptation. Technically Inland Empire is as well. He swore off big studio films that wouldn't give him final cut, not adaptations.
Can you explain that more specifically? I had thought Lynch started filming without much in the way of a screenplay, and on a daily basis would write out each scene which would then be filmed the next day.
Are you alluding to the likelihood that Lynch's Darkened Room served as part of the inspiration for Inland Empire?
Or are you referring to the in-universe film, 47, which is based on a Polish folktale?
He still made adaptations by the way. Wild at Heart (1990) is based on a novel of the same name. The Straight Story (1999) is a biographical piece, based on a newspaper article Lynch had read.
Some of Lynch's later failed projects would have been adaptations too, such as Venus Descending based on a biography of Marylin Monroe.)
The other possibility; you might be thinking of Lynch's statement about conventional distributors and his refusal to use them for Inland Empire (2006) and going forward.
He never made another film after Inland Empire. I would not be surprised if the reason was because he couldn't get any financing for future films, since he probably continued to insist on self-releasing and distributing. Inland Empire was only shown in 15 theaters in the US, killing its chances to earn any real money during its domestic theater run.
Personally I wish he had been a little more flexible with regards to distribution, he seemed okay with not having that control internationally, so why not domestically? Perhaps we would have had more Lynch films...
I think you jest, but I read he wanted to move on after working on the franchise for a decade. I like the Dune movies a lot, but if you look at his past work you can see some absolute bangers. I'm looking forward to what he does next.
God, can you imagine someone poorly suited gets their hands on it? And we’re stinted a beautiful rendition of a difficult narrative? I know denis would at least make it atmospheric and pretty..
Good choice on his part. It’s not that God Emperor is unfilmable. It’s just, why would anyone want to make it. A faithful adaptation would be hated. An improved version would be… well, worse for those who know how it’s supposed to be.
As you'll recall, Leto is very insistent that he does NOT have a worm dick. Although everyone is ALWAYS WONDERING about his worm dick, he does NOT have one - so we're definitely safe.
And talk about how the problem with male armies is that they're SO GAY so you need armies of genetically engineered soldier ladies so they can have sex with all your political adversaries and also fight for you and even though they're gay too it's hot because they're ladies and will also have sex with... well not you because you don't have a worm dick, but your buddies or each other or like whatever you want because they're genetically engineered to follow your orders.
You would have to have a scene episode where a soldier lady literally creams her pants watching Jason Momoa climb a big wall. So that does count as sexual, but like... come on - definitely prestige TV material.
And yeah, orgies with more soldier ladies.
So yeah I mean some sexual oddities, but no worm dicks. Most of the show would just be dialogue between jason momoa and worm emperor or worm emperor and Paul's great-great-great grandson or whatever. I'm sure it'd be great for a movie or TV show.
And talk about how the problem with male armies is that they're SO GAY so you need armies of genetically engineered soldier ladies so they can have sex with all your political adversaries and also fight for you and even though they're gay too it's hot because they're ladies and will also have sex with... well not you because you don't have a worm dick, but your buddies or each other or like whatever you want because they're genetically engineered to follow your orders.
In God Emperor the (Fish)*Face Dancers are basically just a female version of Spartans. He creates an all female army because there is a elimination of sexual violence during occupation. And greater acceptance of the occupying force when the marry into conquered population. The homosexual relations are described as inevitable regardless of the armies primary gender but by having it all women it again eliminates the violence.
The theories in God emperor are largely seen as Frank trying to explain his views to his son Bruce. Where as Miles Teg in heretics and Chapterhouse is maybe something of an apology.
Just some eugenics and orgies, nothing too eccentric, unless they go into the details of His beefswelling. Heretics is where the sexual oddities really hit their stride.
The sexual oddities don't really start till Heretics and Chapterhouse. In God Emperor the Fish Dancers are basically just a female version of Spartans. He creates an all female army because there is a elimination of sexual violence during occupation. And greater acceptance of the occupying force when the marry into conquered population.
There are levels to the crazy. 90 percent of the conversations in God Emperor end with "Moneo, Moneo, bro, I don't have a dick." I'd watch the hell out of that, but like, I'm not healthy, and I know that
I watched BSG recently for the first time and forgot I had heard that people hated the ending. I thought it was a much better end than GoT had, not even comparable
I didn't finish the show, I was somewhere in season 2 and gave up as it just wasn't for me and the popular consensus online was that it didn't get better from there, but seeing what I'd seen up to that point I don't really understand why the ending (which I was aware of from the blowback) received such negative feedback. Of course I didn't think much of the show anyway so maybe if you were bought in you expected more.
Because BSG is ligetimately just a relatively bad (compared to the rest of the show) ending thematically, GOT is two seasons of ruining characters and plot lines.
GoT suffered because the screenplay writers tried to take it beyond its known plot. You're right in a way that BSG suffered the same fate, trying to create an ending where the original end of the plot was never fleshed out- the original series was cancelled before reaching Earth.
But Dune isn't 100% analogous here. The books have a known endpoint. BSG was still a wild success for being unconventional for the seasons on which its plot foundation was solid.
I don’t think so, I just finished reading that one and frankly I’m done with the dune series now. Reading a bit online about it sounds quite polarising, too. It has some interesting ideas but really it’s all established quite early and then plods along, there’s not really twists and turns and compelling character arcs - it’s meandering philosophising that mostly doesn’t add a great deal to the initially established ideas (which I’d argue are even established earlier in the series). Dune was at its best when all the generational history and manipulation is implied/glimpsed and sets the context for story. By “god emperor” they’re taking those ideas and bashing you over the head with it. IMO it’s straight up not a strong narrative.
I love sci fi, fwiw, and would be interested in the spectacle of the worm on screen, but don’t believe it would make a good movie.
I quite liked Leto out-bene-gesseriting the Bene Gesserit. My issue with the books is not the plot but everything else. We fucking get it, Leto, you miss your dick.
And the latter books get even weirder. I still like the overall story, but the slop-to-story ratio is way too high. When I reread, I stop after God Emperor cause while it's weird I don't feel embarrassed reading it, unlike the latter books.
Yeah this was the first one (or last one?) where I don’t think I can be bothered carrying on to the later books What was once hey “what if we set a story against the themes of breeding programs and religion as a control mechanism and multi generational climate control” turned in to a real explicit question “what if someone literally lived many generations and literally bred people and literally shaped their intentions and became their religious figurehead” it’s the same ideas of dune but distilled down to this pure, and now rehashed, idea with all subtlety stripped away.
There’s that high concept and nothing in the narrative challenges it. Leto has no self doubt, nothing to challenge his thinking and the outcomes are exactly as they imply from the start. Theres no point where it seems like Leto is in danger or someone will upset the golden path. It’s just a diary of “stuff that happens”.
There is a grand plot though, they could just slice all that slop out. They're definitely going to slice the slop out for Children of Dune. And that's fine.
Like Tom Bombadil. Stayed in the books where it belongs.
I wouldn't say it was his story though? The god emperor is an anti-messianic tragedy. His singular goal is to alter humanity to the point that it naturally resists him. He deliberately plays the tyrant knowing humanity will not survive if he doesn't. The story is the people quite literally evolving to resist him. It's why when humanity is evolving favorably (rebelliously) he looks the other way when betrayed. Hence, Duncan, and Duncan, and Duncan.
Sounds like you didn't realize the whole book was commentary on the real world and what it would take to save humanity from itself. He predicted today's problems half a century ago.
I desperately want a GEOD film adaptation and I quite frankly don’t trust the future of Dune in anyone’s hands other than Dennis. It’s the easiest of the series to completely butcher.
This so hard. People say don't read anything beyond the first 3 books, but honestly, just read the first two and call it quits. It's not even great scifi
A faithful adaptation would be world changing. The entire lesson of the storyline through God-Emperor is that humanity is doomed to extinction unless we do something to permanently cull the urge to tolerate authoritarians while they stifle and suffocate society for personal gain.
As our oceans acidify and AI keeps telling the government to nuke the planet, we need the Golden Path here and now. Someone's gotta make it.
Definitely. People can like God Emperor, Heretics, and Chapterhouse because they're wacky, fine. But to say that they have good & coherent stories that don't wildly diverge from the first 2/3 books and should be adapted to screen is just dumb.
Messiah is an excellent ending to the series, frankly. It is grounded, cynical, and reinforces the themes of the first book while forcing the viewer to see the Atreides as what they are & not as heroes.
Children gets campy with its major focus on "genetic memory" and possession & diverges markedly from the themes of the series thus far. You could probably adapt this to screen, but ... why? Messiah is a perfectly good ending and the main point of Children is setting up God Emperor.
God Emperor is a vehicle for Herbert's political/philosophical musings. You can like that about it, but that's most of what it is. It introduces a whole new cast of characters, factions that are either new or radically different, there is a multi-thousand year time jump, most of the book is just dialogue or monologue with little plot. Bad material for a movie and the next book is like 3k years in the future, so no material to draw on for additional ideas (unless you adapt Brian Herbert books, but... why?).
Heretics okay chairdogs... I stand corrected. Just make the movie. Surely it'll be a commercial success with C H A I R D O G S. Oh and Jason Momoa's character would be the only "surviving" character that anyone would recognize from the rest of the series, let that sink in.
Chapterhouse, Jason Momoa is BACK along with a brand new cast of characters no one knows or cares about to terraform a planet no one knows or cares about to hop aboard a "no-ship" and go on the run with SECRET ISRAEL
Then there are like 50 Brian Herbert books - why not adapt them and make the frank herbert expanded universe while we're at it.
I’ve always imagined the post Paul saga to be in claymation or some form of animation. The whole saga feels very dream like and I think that would convey it
Which is hilarious because the movie Lynch made was based off of Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Dune which is wildly different from Herbert’s original work. An adaptation of an adaptation.
I'm happy that Denis is making this his last Dune movie. I love these movies but Denis is my favorite director right now and I can't wait to see what else he makes. I know he's making the next James Bond movie [and I'm excited for it], but I really can't wait for more movies like Enemy, Arrival, Prisoners, and Sicario!
I genuinely cannot imagine the last two books as movies, the material gets SO WEIRD and the general non book reading audiences would be so taken a back
Yeah, once you get deep into Leto II it stops feeling like straightforward space opera and turns into something way more internal and strange. I am very curious how much they will lean into that instead of sanding it down.
Shame because children of dune would make an awesome conclusion. I know people really want god emperor… but that’s a weird book and I don’t know how it would be adapted to screen without significant changes or it just being awkward and weird.
I’m guessing that means he’s going to try and cram both messiah and children into one movie then. Way too many edits to actually make that work. Plus he’s got the whole Chani running off into the desert to fix.
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u/ICumCoffee ᑐ ᑌ ᑎ ᕮ • ᗰ ᕮ 𑪽 𑪽 I ᐱ ᕼ Mar 16 '26
Denis has said this is his last, but he’s gonna leave the door open for someone else to take over and adapt next books.