User:TAnthony/Dune Workspace

• For Dune (2020 film):

After filming was completed but before Dune's premiere, Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica) said of the adaptation:

Something that Denis Villeneuve and the writers have really taken into consideration is [that] this book was written back in the day when women were portrayed differently to what we are expecting nowadays—which we call gender equality...Even though [Lady Jessica] is a concubine to [Leto], she's also his bodyguard, his mentor, she can read thought and emotion and she's the best fighter there is. So there's a subtle power that she needs to teach her son, [Paul].^[1]

She added:

[The film] completely and utterly honors the strength of Jessica—the Bene Gesserit that she is, even though she is a concubine and her rights are not as high as the King or what her son becomes. Denis was very much aligned with creating empowerment and powerful moments for her where they were needed. I think Frank Herbert...when he wrote it he didn't really live in an understandably equal environment. And the book is great! It has beautiful moments in it [but] it's not really where we are or where we should be.^[2]

Calling the film "wholly different" from previous adaptations, Isaac said, "There are some things that are—for lack of a better word—nightmarish about what you see ... There's just this kind of brutalist element to it. It's shocking. It's scary. It's very visceral."^[3]

Kim Taylor-Foster of Fandom compared Jessica's role as "breeding partner" but not wife to Leto to the Handmaids of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, though noting the stark differences.^[1]

"The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero's-journey of sorts. He thinks he's going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that." Chalamet said.^[4]

Dune, still set to open on December 18, is one of the blockbusters that hasn't yet shifted back due to the coronavirus outbreak. "Dune was made by people from all over the world. Many of these people are like family to me, and they're very much in my thoughts," Villeneuve said. "I'm so proud to showcase their hard work. I look forward to a time when we can all get together again as Dune was made to be seen on the big screen."^[4]

Discussing the new film in its early stages, Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com noted that Baron Harkonnen presents a challenge for the producers:

Dune was written in the 1960s when certain types of coding were common for villainous characters. In the case of the Baron, there are two primary issues at hand, two characteristics that further argue his odiousness on the story's behalf that are rightly seen as contentious today: the Baron is obese, and he is also queer ... the Baron Harkonnen being the only fat and only visibly queer person in the novel continues to be a problem for Dune. When a villain is the sole character to occupy certain characteristics, the reader or viewer is made keenly aware that those characteristics are being tied to their moral vacancy ... The physical appearance of the Baron is particularly noticeable in part because nearly everyone else in Dune is commonly portrayed as lithe and athletic.^[5]

Asher-Perrin wrote that "Baron Harkonnen needn't be obese for the sole purpose of making misguided points."^[5] She suggests that the film find "a different way to highlight the Baron's obsession with excess", and argues that the character's iconic suspensors could be presented as "an affectation of laziness rather than a physical necessity."^[5] Asher-Perrin adds that "the issue with the Baron Harkonnen being the only openly queer character in Dune can be solved...by making it clear that there are other queer people in this universe."^[5] She argued that the introduction of queer characters "doesn't throw off the gender politics of the story whatsoever because breeding remains a paramount issue in Dune regardless", and it would make the Baron's sexuality "no longer a signal of a lack of morality...equating queerness with evil."^[5]

Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au wrote:

Potential problems hove into view when you consider that, as written, Baron Harkonnen is a predatory homosexual given to pederasty and incest, an unrepentant rapist and murderer. Prior adaptations have leaned into his sexuality to differing degrees, with Lynch's in particular embracing the archetype of the depraved gay sadist. It's not a particularly good look in the cold light of 2019, and this is not an element that the casting news can shed any light on. It's going to come down to the writing and filmmaking as to whether this characterisation will fly in the current era, or will come across as an unfortunate throwback stereotype.^[6]

• Asher-Perrin, Emmet (November 15, 2016). "Rereading Dune series". Tor.com. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
• Dune

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