Children of Dune March 16th on Sci-Fi (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Kleist]

Course, I think the Nielsons are busted anyways, since they don't count MY viewing habits. It doesn't matter if I'm watching or not, because they don't know.

Oh yes they do

Every time you change the channel, it gets reported to your cable company. Of course, these numbers are not officially reported, but BELIEVE me they know about them.

 

[Lars_J]

Every time you change the channel, it gets reported to your cable company. Of course, these numbers are not officially reported, but BELIEVE me they know about them.

With a digital cable box - perhaps. But with a built-in TV/VCR tuner? Eh... No.

 

[TheLongshot]

Every time you change the channel, it gets reported to your cable company. Of course, these numbers are not officially reported, but BELIEVE me they know about them.

Hell, some cable companies are so inept, I don't think they know that information.

Course, the "they" I was talking about is Sci-Fi. They don't know I watch it, unless I send them a letter. Even then they don't care right now.

Jason

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Jason, you can disbelieve me all you want. These are the facts of the matter.

SciFi is in a very bad position right now. Their parent company (Vivendi) wants them to go one way, they want to go another, but you don't get budget increases for things that go against the grain of what the parent wants

It's depressing i know

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Oh yes they do

Every time you change the channel, it gets reported to your cable company. Of course, these numbers are not officially reported, but BELIEVE me they know about them.

Baloney!

 

[CaptDS9E]

Lets just hope the company is sold . Lets pray the new owners will let sci-fi channel be sci-fi

capt

 

[Adam_S]

Since I'd never watched or heard of Farscape, but am a diehard Dune fan I actually tuned in and watched the show last night. I figured I'd post here since the thread is about Dune in the title but apparently its a venting ground for childish invective about a canceled series, and not at all about Children of Dune.

Guess I won't bother with a long reply since I have nothing to say about Farscape, but I found the first installment to be better than the initial series in every respect. I have high hopes for the rest of the series, though, they did such an excellent job of compressing Dune Messiah, I'm wondering why they took two installments for Children of Dune, I have a feeling that the pace will suddenly lag in tonights episode, but oh well.

Adam

 

[nolesrule]

Yes, the adaptation of Dune Messiah by John Harrison into part 1 was very good. I really enjoyed it. Certainly, the style was different and there was a knew director, but I really liked the first mini-series and this one is looking to be even better. I think the differing styles actually complement each other and the material that they were serving.

I do wonder how different it would have been had Harrison directed this one, but I am satisfied with what I have seen thus far.

I'm surprised there hasn't been much discussion here, other than a couple posts by me and someone else in the CoD DVD thread.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I wasn't a big fan of the first miniseries but I enjoyed yesterday's installment, except for Susan Sarandon's haircut... Hopefully, they'll keep it going tonight.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The first miniseries was exciting. Last night was less so. Still intruiged enough to tune in tonight though. It seemed like tonight was more about setup than anything else.

The end sequence, silent except for the music with all the people dying and being born and so forth, however was nothing short of brilliant.

 

[nolesrule]

I ma enjoying this one more than the previous mini-series, and I really liked the first one. I had read Dune Messiah, but not Children of Dune (I think I had started it once but never got back to it), so I had been wondering what happened next.

That montage in night 1 was just perfect, very powerful. Since I knew what would happene to Chani from the book, I found it really emotional.

 

[Mark-W]

I, too, am finding Children of Dune to be
more entertaining than the first one. Without the burden
of the backstory, the show seems to be moving at the same
speed Leto II imagines himself crossing the sands.

Blink, and you miss a key scene.

There have been flashes of the film Elizabeth
(the "settling the scorce" sequence), and tonight I caught
a shot of a hopper that looked lifted right out of
The Matrix. None of these are bad things,
if you going to be inspired by other films, pick those!

I also love the score to this show and how things are
playing out. I have more sympathy for Alia than I did
when I read those books all those years ago. (I always
imagined her a bit more like Blair from The Exorcist.

Cannot wait for the final night, and the forthcoming DVD.


Mark

 

[nolesrule]

I always had trouble imagining Alia. Probably because I had seen the Lynch movie before reading the books and even though I knew she was older in Messiah, that kid in the movie would always pop into my head for some reason.

At least now I have a prettier image to replace it with.

Don't read if you didn't see night 2:
Why do all the hot girls have to be possessed by dead fat guys?

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Adam_S wrote (post #47):

Actually, I liked the first mini-series much better than this one so far. One of things that makes the dramatics of these kinds of things work is the villains. Somehow the Harkonnens were quite a bit more menacing and enjoyable than the present collectivity of petty terrorists and the distant, and not too effective, Princess Wensicia of House Corrino, who, as impersonated by Ms. Sarandon, comes off as more of a tedious (yet murderous) "stage-mother" pushing her child into something he doesn't want, anyway, than anything else. Not "wicked" enough. (Vladimir's (drug-induced) ghost isn't doing it for me, either.) I haven't read any of the books, so I don't know how closely the filmed version follows the books, but it's always a dramatic error, in my view, to so heavily dilute and diffuse the focus of villainy. Weakens the story. Hopefully, the denouement will justify the time spent getting there. So far, it's strictly mediocre.

Daniela Amavia's (Alia) halting and, occasionally, breathless production of dialog seems more than a bit wooden at times. And I know it's an "international" production, but is anyone else put off by the jarring accent differences? How does Paul's son come up with this über-British dialect? ("I am deseht pOWuH!" Ugh!) It's as if the producers totally gave up on any kind of narrative versimilitude in choosing actors for the roles. ("Let's take the money and run!")

Lastly, I have a question for any of the Dune cognoscenti out there. What's with the "spacing-guild" members, by whom I mean the guys in the blue felt outfits with the peaked headdresses that appeared in the original mini-series? What's with the funny attitudes, i.e., the freaky-dramatic hand gestures and the peculiar stances and foot poses? Have they been taking too much of their own drugs?

 

[Lars_J]

Lex, I do understand your points about the lack of a central villain. Personally, however, I am enjoying this mini-series much more, perhaps because the details of book 2 & 3 are not as fresh in my mind as book 1 is. Or maybe I'm just extatic that they are doing such a great job with a source material that I thought was almost unfilmable.

But I am pretty sure that most would agree that the "production quality" has improved in every aspect. (Even acting IMO). This mini-series is just so much more polished than the previous one.

I also prefer the more subdued blue-eye effect in the new one. When listing to the commentary of the first mini-series (and reading interviews), it becomes clear that the struggled quite a bit with the blue-eye effect in the first "mini". It ended up being most practical to go with blacklight reflective contacts, but unfortunately the eyes ended glowed like flashlights in the dark. In this new "mini" they are using post-production computer-aided rotoscoping to color the eyes blue, which gives a more subdued effect, which they were unable to achieve in the first one.

Lastly, I have a question for any of the Dune cognoscenti out there. What's with the "spacing-guild" members, ... What's with the funny attitudes, i.e., the freaky-dramatic hand gestures and the peculiar stances and foot poses? Have they been taking too much of their own drugs?

Yes, to be a spacing-guild member is to be in a permanent state of spice OD. They did look a bit silly, especially in the last scene of the first "mini".

 

[David Forbes]

The birth/death montage from the first part of Children of Dune was breathtaking. Beautiful music through that section, very haunting.

I'm enjoying this far more than the first mini-series, which I thought had a good script that was nearly destroyed by bad acting and TERRIBLE costumes. Thank God the stupid costumes have been toned down for this one. And the sets, which still not completely realistic, are much better than the obvious studio-scenes from the first series.

I'm enjoying this a lot. I hope it does well and they continue with God Emperor of Dune,, though Rex will be even more annoyed because there's really no villain in that book at all!

 

[nolesrule]

How does Paul's son come up with this über-British dialect?

He was raised by Irulan, not Alia.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Well, considering that Shaddam IV had an Italian accent, and Irulan's sister has an American accent, how does that explain Irulan's British accent?

The accents don't make much sense and I too found them jarring.

 

[Lars_J]

The different accents add a welcome exotic flair IMO... Even though who has what accent doesn't always make sense, I think it subtly adds to the impression of the vast size and complexity of Herberts universe.

BTW, for home theater enthusiasts:
"Children of Dune" was actually shot and delivered on digital HD video, so some day I assume that will be able to see it in hi-def...

 

[Kong Chang]

About the accents in Children of Dune, considering that most of the main actors are all British, I don't see anything wrong with it. The only American is Susan Sarandon, and the only Eastern European main actor is the actress who plays Chandi. Otherwise, everyone else is British.

Alec Newman (Paul Altreides) may have toned down his accent to sound like an American but I believe his real accent is from the north side of England (if you watch the interviews on the website). So, to have a son with a British accent, is no biggie really.