It is the day we’ve been waiting for, Fremen. Just mere minutes ago, the very first images of the upcoming Denis Villeneuve-directed reimagining of “Dune” were released. There are some surprises to be sure, but very pleasant ones.
If you’re behind a bit on your news from Arrakis; Villeneuve is helming and co-writing the script with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. Villeneuve and Mary Parent are producing, along with Cale Boyter, with Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Thomas Tull, and Kim Herbert serving as executive producers. Greig Fraser (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) is cinematographer on the film. David J. Peterson, who created the spoken languages of Dothraki and High Valyrian on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones“, was brought on to possibly [we assume] building Azhar for the Bene Gesserit or Chakobsa for the Fremen (among others).
Hans Zimmer will be composing the score for the film, and we can’t think of anyone better to create the sounds of that far-future Spice Planet.
Three-time Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (“The Revenant,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Quills”) and co-costume designer Bob Morgan, stunt coordinator Tom Struthers (“The Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception”), two-time Oscar-nominated production designer Patrice Vermette (“Arrival,” “Sicario,” “The Young Victoria”), two-time Oscar-nominated editor Joe Walker (“Blade Runner 2049,” “Arrival,” “12 Years a Slave”), two-time Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert (“First Man,” “Blade Runner 2049”), and Oscar-winning special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer (“Blade Runner 2049”).
For more about “Dune,” read this piece here.
ON TO TODAY’S GOODIES!
All images from Vanity Fair:
Directly from the Vanity Fair piece:
Dr. Liet Kynes, the leading ecologist on Arrakis and an independent power broker amid the various warring factions. Although always depicted as a white man, the character is now played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), a black woman. “What Denis had stated to me was there was a lack of female characters in his cast, and he had always been very feminist, pro-women, and wanted to write the role for a woman,” Duncan-Brewster says. “This human being manages to basically keep the peace amongst many people. Women are very good at that, so why can’t Kynes be a woman? Why shouldn’t Kynes be a woman?”
Bonus photo just posted by Zendaya:
And another new photo of Chen Chang as Dr. Wellington Yueh!
“Dune” is still scheduled to release on December 18th, 2020.
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Why make this an issue AT ALL? Why not just cast Keynes as a woman, black or otherwise, and move on? Why trumpet it, especially in such a divisive manner. For the record, I don’t buy the “punching up/punching down” arguments such statements as “women are very good at that” are usually defended with. There’s punching and that’s the end of it. Gurney Hallack would agree.
Because “Scott,” there will always be complaints and questions for casting, end of story. Why not head off some of the latter part with acknowledging it? Maybe don’t be such an insufferable misogynist.
Regards.
Behold, as a wild ass on the internet, goes Scott forth to proclaim.
– Gurney Halleck
“May your modem chip and shatter!”
– Everybody else
Well “Mary”, premature obedience in the face of possible criticism to defend a creative decision (like casting a woman) devalues the decision and leads to exactly the opposite: people are encouraged to dissect the decision and the person playing the role is forced into a defensive position before anyone actually sees the performance. There are countless examples where a gender swap caused controversy (e.g. Battlestar Galactica) and the outcome was positive (it wasn’t a big deal in retrospect). On the other hand, 999 out of 1000 people would have never even known that they swapped the gender on that character.
Perhaps you should not be so hasty with your sweeping accusations of misogynism in order to demonstrate an imaginary moral superiority, and allow others to have different opinions. Maybe we should judge a performance, not a gender?
Defender of Scott-
I’m the author of the above piece.
I’m the author of numerous pieces about casting, gender, science fiction, “BATTLESTAR FRAKKING GALACTICA,” and “Dune.”
Regards,
The Management.