better than all the dull contemporary variations of AI panic for sure. i think we've run out of ideas about the future or what it could be. at least judging by teevee where innovation happens these days. it's all becoming very predictable.

i read the synopsis of the original novel on wikipedia and it seemed a much more interesting concept than the movie adaptation.

No doubt, but something the novel never had was Jenny Agutter prancing around in a barely-there dress.

that was definitely the best of the best

Marone. She was so fine in that.

im inaugurating my criterion channel subscription with MULTIPLE MANIACS



and holy shit denis villeneuve is working on a DUNE version!!

Yah, you didn’t know that? I think I’ve mentioned it. Hmm.

I’m worried that he might be being tapped for too many franchisey sci fi Jobs. Blade Runner 2049 was amazing, but Dune might set a precedent.
He was on the short list of directors considered for a Batman re-re-re-boot (three-boot?) Before Matt Reeves (Blech) was picked.
Anyway, with how Batman stuff is going, it could wind up back in Villeneuve’s hands, and though I think it’s a good fit, I want to see Denis do more passion projects and not get sucked into the Hollywood franchise war.

(you’re not trolling are you? swear...)

No, he was on the shortlist for the ill-fates “THE BATMAN” movie which is still in development purgatory.

It was leaked by Hollywood Reporter or something in

And yeah, I like Batman. WHAT?!

if you mentioned that thing in the same post as dune i might not have noticed. hence i was unaware

anyway... back to the good subject... DUNE!!!!

sweet mother of fuck i hope they do that story complete

the way delaurentiis chopped the david lynch one. agghhhhhh...

yes yes, it made business sense maybe, but damn...

i hope it comes in a bunch of parts. i'll take 9 episodes of it, much better than rat wars. fuck!

that novel is one of the few things i can reread a bunch of times. and no, it's not because there's infinite "depth" in it... but just for the thrills haaa haaa haaa.

goddammit. i wanna read them all again. i have forgotten the latter ones...

The Runaways

I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I love The Runaways and Kim Fowley and Joan Jett and expected that to work against it for me but good casting and some great concert scenes - don't know for sure but it looked like Kristen Stewart was actually playing the guitar - ultimately made this a winner.

fan-fuckin'-tastic

Monomania? That’s extreme, bud. We’re talking about Denis here. The (OK I WONT SAY IT JEEZ) reference was tangential; not the main point.

The main point was Denis is too great to be tapped just for big sci-fi franchise projects and reboots. Way too good.

Now... I agree that Lynch’s Dune — which I’ve never even seen all the way through because bleeech — is atrocious (love good Lynch, hate bad Lynch), so I too am looking forward to seeing the story done right.

That said, I need to re-read Dune and maybe read some of those goddamn sequels I never got around to.

lynch's imagining of arrakis and that whole universe was a glorious thing

the problem is the movie was meant to be 3+ hours and they chopped it down to 2, rammed a voiceover narrative, skipped a bunch of parts, basically, they set up the universe and then... rush to the end.

virginia madsen is quoted somewhere saying that she was going to sign a 3 picture deal to make a "star wars for grownups," but it fizzled out hard. and so... unfortunate.

rewatch the lynch version when you get a chance in a good screen. not for story, but just for the looks (a bit how i feel about eraserhead, ha ha ha). the cast is great too. o well. shit happens. but worth a look, look. you know? an eye thing.

oh, that movie was good yeah. saw it some years ago and was surprised

De Laurentis biggest mistake was hiring Lynch. De Laurentis' only real experience with sci-fi prior to Dune was Barbarella and Flash Gordon and I think he saw Dune running along similar lines: very ott, campy, trippy. The kind of thing he would've no doubt given to Fellini a decade earlier. It wouldn't have been the film devotees of the novels would've wanted but it would've been so different to the books it probably wouldn't have offended them too much, either. and I think it would've ended up a great fun movie. Far better than the one that Lynch (who was never the right man to deliver that vision) ultimately produced.

After Fellini, Jodorowsky was the right man all along but we all know the story there.

oh right, from a delaurentiis perspective it was a mistake in that sense, yeah, it was never gonna be a fun silly movie like those 2. but in that case then dune was the wrong project for delaurentiis.

lynch was as close to frank herbert as you could get those days. jodorowski as you saw in that documentary turned it into his own hallucination with his own son as the star, i mean, changed the story completely.

but lynch, i feel he totally gets the very strong mental aspect of dune. i mean it was lynch who invented the mentat mantra.

he also invented the "weirding module," with the sound energy, which was cool as fuck. that's probably his transcendental meditation influence.

but yeah it was never gonna have men prancing around in tights like flash "gordo."

haaa haaaa haaa imagine fellini doing dune. he'd only be interested in the harkonnens i think. to have seen that would have been glorious. oh damn, what a loss that it never happened.

Fellini would've been great for the more decadent side of it. Sian Phillips' Reverend Mother could've walked straight from the set of Satyricon. My point, though, was DDL had a good vision for the film, as did Lynch. They were just incompatible. That's ultimately down to DDL but persoanlly I reckon I'd have enjoyed a 'pure' DDL Dune more than I would a 'pure' Lynch one. (Although that may be because I've never read the book or had any interest in it.)

oh! the book is great, man. check it out some time. keeps holding as the greatest science fiction novel of all times as acclaimed by nerds everywhere. ok, probably best read as an adolescent, but still...

eta: go straight to the book and skip the synopses, reviews, and other packs of bullshit. just see if it sucks you in from the start.

kaurismaki’s “la vie de bohème”



hilarious, especially if you’ve ever tried making a living as an artiste. a little sad too. but ah, too funny.

saw it aaaaaaages ago and then it was hard to find and now criterion channel has it.

oh yeah, the great sam fuller makes a cameo

Dark Horse directed by Todd Solondz, odd film easy to watch hard to like.