Editors Page-Fall 2000

"The Dune That Was, The Dune That Will Be..."

By: Eric Anderson, Vice President/Editor

For someone who enjoyed the Frank Herbert books centered around the world of Dune, I find this time rather interesting. At the time of this writing, I am finishing up on the last book in the Herbert collection, Chapterhouse: Dune, and finding a hard time in doing so. It is not that it is a hard read, hardly at all. As the Dune series went along, each book I found was easier to read then the original book released in 1965. Dare I say that much less detail and cryptic meanings gave way to a conventional story telling as each book came out. Not that this is a bad thing or that it became sloppy writing, it just evolved as any story does. Just look at Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and one can truly see a big difference from the first three books released in the 1950's to the last four that where written in the mid to late 1980's. The reason I am finding this last book hard to finish is that it is the last one written by Herbert on a story that was not quite finished.

Why this is interesting times is that there seems to be a resurgence in the interest in the Dune universe that is giving way to new doors opening on what was thought to be done and finished. To be honest, Frank Herbert originally intended the Dune series to end with the forth book God Emperor of Dune, but started a new storyline with Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune. Now if you may not know, Frank Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson have started a new series of books (three in all) that is a prequel to the 1965 classic. The first book released in time for Christmas 1999 was Dune: House Atreides with Dune: House Harkonnen (said to be over 800 pages long - - Take that Harry Potter IV) and Dune: House Corrino to follow. What made me read Dune:House Atreides (my personal belief is not to read books set in a universe where the original writer has died) was the fact that Brian Herbert was one of the co-authors and had worked with his father before and knew the style in which the book must be written. Brian Herbert also knew that he could not do this alone and took the time to find someone to write with, finding Kevin J. Anderson to partner up with. With that, I received the book for Christmas, and devoured it in a scant time after that, enjoying every written word.

Out of the whole reading experience, I found the afterword by Brian Herbert rather interesting. It seems that he found the notes that his father had for Dune 7, the sequel to Chapterhouse: Dune. I only hope that Herbert and Anderson team up for that story, and maybe the story on the mythical Butlerian Jihad.

Now by the time December rolls around this year, the Sci Fi Channel is going to deliver something they have been promising for years, a Dune mini-series! A six hour event spread over three nights and promising to be faithful to the book, this could truly be called the most ambitious project that network has ever done. But this fan is just a little nervous.

Back in 1984, David Lynch tried to give the fans of Dune a motion picture on the book, and had both failed and succeeded at the same time. The film was made with six hours of material and was for many reasons cut down to a four hour movie. It was then cut down further to the two hour movie that was released into the theater, with lack luster results. It was confusing, hard to follow and missing on many key points that the book gave us. But it succeeded in the costuming (except for the Stillsuits, which needed more work) sets and the fine actors and actresses that they brought together for the project. Yes, the talented José Ferrer was far too old to play the Emperor Shaddam IV but that was very easy to overlook. What is interesting to note, when they released the movie to TV in the four hour format, David Lynch was so angry that he had his name taken off the credits as the director. Maybe it was because it was far better and easier to follow in that format then the movie release. It is also sad to note that many of the footage that made up the six hour format of the film has been lost, and will probably never be seen again.

So with that, I have seen photos from the mini-series and clips in promos on the Sci Fi Channel and am worried about several points that made the 1984 movie's good points. The costumes do not seem as nice as the film, with the Fremen Stillsuits looking like a silver skin tight body suit with a giant tube running to the mouth (all you really needed to finish the Stillsuit in the film was the robe and face mask). The choice of actors also have made me some what worried. The biggest shock of all was casting William Hurt in the role of Duke Leto Atreides. Hurt is a fine actor, but is the last person I would have seen playing Duke Leto. Finally the sets. Now I know what we have seen is not fully complete and the special effects are not added, but the sets look just like that - - sets. Not the grand majestic sights we saw in the 1984 film.

But will this drive me away? No! The promise is that the mini-series will be very faithful to the book, with each night taking one part of the book. Plus, if this is a successful venture, they may do the other books as mini-series also. So when that cold December night comes around, I will have a big tub of popcorn all popped and buttered and the VCR taping, waiting for this latest effort to make a classic into an event.

'Father, the sleeper has awaken!'

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