Adieu, Adieu, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow.

Hello readers and friends.

It has been a long time, I figure the last thing you want to hear from someone who hasn’t spoken to you in a while is ‘goodbye’ but here’s the thing, I haven’t had anything to say.

I know crazy right? Someone actually admitting they don’t have anything worthwhile to say so they don’t, and I haven’t. I could tell you the reason why I haven’t said anything in over a year, about how I expect to be let down when I go to the movies, but I won’t.  I could tell you about how I fully embraced the memes and discontent with ‘Cape Crap,’ because honestly how many times can you watch the same movie with different characters,  but I won’t.

And speaking of, I know you all know about the upcoming Avengers Infinity Wars and then Avengers 4 slated to come out in 2019 where they are rumored to kill off a good deal of the current cast sending flurries of excitement through the ranks of fangirls and boys alike…(groan…sigh).

I will not be one of those people, because I don’t care. These characters are two dimensional at best, their deaths like their arrival will be met with raucous fan fair and tears shed by many, but in a few months will anyone remember? Or care? I don’t think so.

So, in honor of the coming demise of this generation’s …heroes… I take a look back at some famous deaths and goodbyes to some of my favorite characters and heroes. Some you will most certainly remember, others might be a bit more obscure, but these on-screen deaths still resonate with me and you can see their influence in a lot of the movies you watch today and you may see shadows of them in the coming years.

So sit back, grab a box of tissues and get ready to relive some of my favorite deaths and goodbyes of heroes and characters.

 

Terminator 2 Judgement day: T-800

I mean what can you say? After all these years it still gets me. It has it all, the reconciliation between the machine and the human. Sarah finds a respect for the machine that has haunted her and plagued her nightmares for years. The sacrifice of the hero to ensure a future where there is no war, giving hope to Sarah and John. Even the thumbs up at the end, it has been parodied and laughed at for the cheesiness of it. But here, it’s solemn and genuine. The music is great and the moment has stayed with me for all this time.

For all you Marvel and DC fans out there, this is how you do it. 😉 Feel free to take notes from what was once one of the great movie makers of all time.

 

Equilibrium: Partridge

This is an archetypal scene where a future hero kills his best friend in the name of honor and duty to an evil State or lord that he’s sworn fealty to. If you haven’t seen Equilibrium, it really is a good movie though some might find it a bit heavy handed on “symbolism”. I say it’s still better than a lot of movies that have covered the same subject matter.

Christian Bale who is using an emotional inhibitor drug called “Prozium” doesn’t feel anything, all he knows is that he is executing an enemy of the state and a criminal “sense offender”. This act will haunt John throughout the film and it is the catalyst for the greater story. A great death scene, one of many for Sean Bean.

Sean Bean really carries this scene. His quotation of Yeats and his attitude and body language. Sean Bean has done a lot of death scenes. I chose this one because of the poem and the solemn nature of the scene itself. It’s no accident that it takes place in a church. “But I being poor, I’ve only my dreams… tread softly for you tread on my dreams.” It’s a friend, asking another to not let the dream of freedom (in the context of the story it also means the freedom to feel and live as feeling human beings as they were meant to) die with him.

 

In Bruges: Ken

The first time I saw this movie this scene got to me so bad I must have replayed it over and over again at least five or six times. A lot of it had to do with the song “On Raglan Road”, by Luke Kelly. I had never heard it before this film and it just seems to fit so perfectly here.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Ken, played by Brendan Gleeson is climbing the bell tower so he can warn his friend Ray (Colin Farrell) that their boss is on his way to kill him. He grabs the gun and climbs the steps so he can beat his boss to Ray. he knows the fall will kill him but its the only way to get to Ray first and warn him.

This is a strange movie with its mood shifts and ups and downs maybe that’s why this scene has stayed with me for as long as it has. Its a strangely triumphant moment of ultimate defiance against death itself, giving one life to save another. Giving us one hell of a heroic death.

 

John Wick: Daisy

OK, we ALL know the story of the death of John Wick’s dog. One of the last things his dead wife was able to give him after she died from her illness. That’s why this messed John up so badly, not that it was just a dog, but because it was a piece of his dead wife, a lasting reminder of how much she loved him. This is a theme through out the movie and ultimately making this one of the saddest animal deaths in film (yes, even over Old Yeller for those of you who remember that movie).

The thing that makes it so sad is that Daisy does not have a quick death. We hear her get hit, but after the fade to black we see a blood trail on the floor leading to Daisy as she died in front of John. She suffered before she died. Old Yeller just got shot once and he died off screen, Daisy’s death is front and center for the audience.

 

Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan: Spock

One of the greatest friendships in the science fiction realm, Kirk, and Mr. Spock. It has been parodied, copied, and homaged. This is one of the great deaths in cinema history.

Spock has just sacrificed himself, exposing himself to lethal doses of radiation to save the Enterprise from the Genesis torpedo self-destruct detonation. What makes this scene so powerful is that Spock is one of the big three, the trinity of Star Trek, without Spock Star Trek doesn’t work. And audiences had to watch and live through him dying.

Fun fact, Paramount wasn’t planning on making another Star Trek, this was going to be the end of the franchise. Imagine if your favorite franchise ended on such a huge downer of a note. There would be internet rage the likes of which well..honestly I don’t know, but I can imagine it would be pretty bad. Like when Mass Effect 3 was first released with the crap ending, something like that only much bigger.

This was averted at the very end as the audience is treated to the famous opening lines from the Star Trek TV show, “Space, the final frontier…” voiced by Leonard Nimoy.

This is scene is so iconic that the hack job that calls itself a movie, Star Trek Into Darkness,  shamelessly copied this scene almost verbatim in order to tap into those nostalgic and powerful memories among the fans. Afterward, you can watch Family Guy’s parody of Spock’s funeral, with Stewie sending Ruppert off in the torpedo tube, to wash the taste out of your mouth. It’s funny and tastefully done, at least as tastefully as a parody can be done.

 

Flight of Dragons: Sir Orrin Neville-Smythe

Here is an animated death scene that belongs up there with the great hero sacrifices of all time.

The knight, Sir Orrin looks around him and see’s his fallen comrades. He is alone at last, looking up at a powerful dragon that has been magically augmented by his owner Ommadon. Sir Orrin knows he’s going to die but in the face of hopelessness he takes his sword and swears an oath to his sword that they will kill one last time before he dies. He faces a blast of dragon fire and sends his sword into Bryagh’s heart and the evil dragon is consumed by his own dragon’s fire and dies.

This is courage. Knowing that you are going to die before you even start but doing what must be done anyway. Also a very archetypal death, the heroe’s sacrifice. And that’s why it still strikes achordd with me, also his oath just sounds so bad ass, “Blade with whom I have lived, blade with whom I now die…” Who doesn’t feel a surge of emotion hearing something like that. Especially since he meant every word and fulfills his promise.

 

Star Wars: Obi Wan

Maybe a bit overdone perhaps, but this death started it all for a lot of children of the 70’s and 80’s. Obi Wan sacrificing himself because he knows he can’t defeat Vader. So he lets Vader kill him in cold blood and he becomes one with the force so he can continue to mentor Luke.

In the EU and I use that term carefully, this would be the book universe before The New Jedi Order. The last book written in this particular epoch would have been the two book series by Timothy Zahn, “Specter of the Past”, and “Visions of the Future”. In one book called, “The New Rebellion” Luke faces a similar situation as Obi Wan. He is facing a former student who has turned to the dark side.

During the fight, Luke feels all the guilt, the sorrow, and fear that millions of people have died because he failed his student. Because of this, during the fight, Luke grows weaker, and his dark side infused former student grows stronger. Luke was on the verge of sacrificing himself in a similar vein to Obi Wan, but was saved and his former student was defeated.

No such luck for Obi Wan though as he is cut down by Vader, only to live on through the force and make appearances in the next two films in the original and really only Star Wars Trilogy worth mentioning.

 

Superman: Lois Lane

Let’s face it, there have been a lot of deaths in the DC and Marvel comics universes over the years, Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne, hell, even Superman himself gets taken out by Doomsday, an event that sent shock waves through the comic fandom for months. Of course, DC couldn’t keep Superman dead for long but when “The Death of Superman” came out it disturbed a lot of people.

But here a decade and a half before Superman’s comic book death, we got the immortal Richard Donner film. And we see here another example of “all those things I can do, all those powers, and I couldn’t even save him”.

You see how hurt Superman is, the pain and anguish but that all turns to rage and a bone chilling roar before he flies off.

There have been a number of times a hero has to bury a loved one, there have been very good performances, and some pretty bad ones. But this one doesn’t feel like I’m watching a performance.  Lois Lane is dead and this is Superman really reacting to that loss, its not acting, this is a reality. And that’s why this scene stands head and shoulder’s above a lot of similar scenes in other movies.

 

The Thing: MacReady

I have only included this particular death scene out of a number of horror movies. MacReady has just blown up the Thing with a stick of Dynamite and now their Antarctica Camp site has been blown to hell as well. There’s no shelter from the oncoming cold.

MacReady simply sits down and see’s that he’s not the only survivor. Childs (Keith David) walks up and tells him that they’re pretty much screwed because there’s no shelter and the fire from the various explosions wont last. He assures MacReady that he hasn’t been changed by the Thing. MacReady just smiles and says, “Why don’t we just sit here awhile…see what happens.”

This is another one of those hero moments. He knows he doesn’t have anything left. If Childs is part of the Thing he can’t do anything about it, but he’s done everything he can, he’s got nothing left. I choose to believe that the Thing was killed even though both MacReady and Childs dies, at least they saved the planet from an alien takeover/ infection.

Of course if you were a fan of Spoony (Noah Antwiler) then you know they made a video game that I suppose is canon and (Spoiler Alert) when you beat the game MacReady fly’s you out of Antarctica in his helicopter. I choose not to buy that crap though. MacReady died a hero’s death defeating the evil that had to be killed, even though in doing so he created the circumstances for his own death.

 

Top Gun: Goose

This is a popular motif in a lot of movies. We see a similar thing in Days of Thunder except then the friend doesn’t die he’s just sick and can’t race anymore.

But here we see the tragic death of a friend in what is essentially a training accident. The military is hard, and accidents happen. The fact that Top Gun is willing to add that to its story and make this a defining moment for Maverick must have struck a deep chord with a lot of military people.

Top Gun is a seminal film and I believe that this death and the scene that shows it is a big reason for it’s success and longevity.

 

Braveheart: Father

I could have shown a hundred different scenes of parental character’s deaths. I mean Bambi’s mom is practically a internet meme, the mention of her is synonymous with dying. Who didn’t shed a tear a two when Littlefoot’s mom died after her battle with Sharptooth, in The Land Before Time? Johnathan Kent from Superman was a very poignant death as I explained above.

But here its not just the death, it the final goodbye from his kinsmen and fellow Scotsmen. “Playing outlawed tunes, on outlawed pipes”. He died in a fight for Scottish freedom from the tyrannical control of England. This is such a powerful moment. That even in death he has inspired his countrymen to defy the law and hold to their values and traditions.

This is something not a whole lot of people are willing to do, a sign of courage in itself. That and the music itself is so powerful and moving on its own.

So, I know some heavy stuff. Death isn’t something that most people like to think about. It reminds us of our own frailty and mortality, the only guarantee in life is death. It’s something we all must face in the end. I do believe that when you die it reflects upon you as a person of how you have lived. I don’t intend to die alone and when it’s my time, I hope that I can show as much courage as some of these characters were able to convey in their final moments.

Till next time

 

 

New Casting: Dune 1984, David Lynch.

 

So being that I am a huge fan of movies in general…not so much now a days but that’s another post, and will be told another time.

But, anyway I thought it would be a fun exercise for me to go through older movies and recast them for a contemporary remake. I’m not saying the movies that find their way onto this category should or shouldn’t be remade. It’s just a fun mental exercise  for you all out there to see my pics for who gets cast as what character. These castings are how the actors are now in age and appearance, not what they were ten years ago (even though sometimes I may bring up something like that for reference).

Before I start this casting there is one thing I’d like to address before someone gets their panties in a bunch. This going to be a racially diverse cast call. So yes you are going to see major characters being recast with ethnic actors. I repeat major characters, not a few token people in the background or minor characters. If you are the sort to have a problem with that leave now… Of course this being the internet you won’t leave, probably, and will continue reading in order to piss yourself off.

So let me explain this, with the exception of a few characters, the physical descriptions in Dune ( the originals NOT the ones written by Brian Herbert) are very broad and not very specific. Frank Herbert generally seemed to let the story infer what Paul, Jessica, the Baron Harkonnen et al look like. I recall him usually mentioning only a handful of physical attributes about anyone. Jessica has dark blonde hair and both the Duke and Paul have green eyes, black hair and with some vague references to the “Atreides nose” and Greek features. Hell, we didn’t find out Chani had reddish hair until the 3rd book, and even then its a bit vague if Herbert is referring to Ghanima tossing her hair over her shoulder like her mother, or that she has red hair like her mother, or both.

I believe this was purposeful on Herbert’s part. The Dune series is set in the far-flung future where the majority of Earth’s ethnic and religious groups have mingled and mixed in a way that is unrecognizable to us now. You have ZenSunnis, Buddhislamics, and the Orange Catholic Bible that was intended to unite the world under one religious umbrella along with a whole host of other references to racial, linguistic and religious matings.

It would be incredibly naive to assume that anyone in the Dune universe is “white” by the standards that we define “white” to be. In other words there are no hard and fast rules to assume anyone is a particular race in Dune. Yeah you have the Atreides, and the Harkonnens, either claiming or inferring some kind of descent from an ethnic group we would recognize today but really what exactly does that mean?

The Atreides claim descent from Agamemnon, a Greek royal house that’s ancient as shit even by our standards let alone ten thousand years from now on. Green eyes, black hair, and aquiline noses aren’t unique to Greek people or the Mediterranean. People in the Middle East, Africa and Asia sport these features in significant enough numbers as well.

Aishwarya Rai courtesy http://www.arogundade.com.

Furthermore just because someone can trace their lineage back to a particular ethnic group doesn’t mean that this ethnic group has remained unchanged. Case in point European Jews who are of Semitic descent. A blonde haired and green-eyed European Jew reads white to us whereas a Semitic Jew (and Arabs as well in this case) read brown or ethnic. Yet no one is going to debate the “Semitic-ness” or the uh.. “Jewness”  of a European Jew though they might look different from other Semites and Jews. Modern day Greeks have also undergone significant change, anthropologically speaking, that mirror this phenomenon among European Jews.

There is no reason to assume that House Atreides hasn’t undergone even more significant changes to what the concept of being “Greek” is. And let’s not get in to the racial classification of Mediterranean people to begin with as that is guaranteed to be another giant can of worms and bound to suck everyone into a black hole.

But…But.. What about hair color! Brown people don’t have red and blonde hair therefore XYZ character must be white!!!!111!!!

Bzzt! Wrong! Yes ‘brown’ people can and do sport blonde and red hair. And here’s the evidence:

And no these people didn’t get these traits from white people (though I fail to see how that would deflate my fanciful notions). Most of the physical characteristics of white people, as I understand it, developed as adaptations to colder environments. White physical characteristics are a beneficial genetic mutation. Occasionally you get rare cases like this.

It would be perfectly plausible for someone like the Lady Jessica to be of either a racial mix with blond hair or a non white ethnic group that expresses blond hair phenotypes.  And if you’re all still hung up on the hair color thing I would remind everyone that neither the film nor the mini series really paid very much attention to what Lady Jessica’s hair color should be what with casting brunettes and red-heads like Francesca Annis, and Alice Krieg.

Now that I’ve practically written an essay to justify why Dune doesn’t have to read as a story about white people I have one last thing to say in my defense. The vast majority of the geek and sci fi community doesn’t seem to give a damn when the ethnicity of a non-white character is subverted so long as they are entertained. No one really seemed to kick up a stink when Khan’s ethnic identity was subverted nor did anyone seem to care when the Prince of Persia movie was whitewashed to ridiculous lengths. And if The Last Airbender had been a good movie with only problematic casting choices nobody would have said a word, I hazard.

Yet, Idris Elba gets hate mail for playing a minor character like Heimdall, and Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White is a problem. God forbid there should ever be a Superman movie where Clark Kent is a black man because all hell would break loose.

Since everyone thinks its okay to do it to the few major franchises that prominently featured non white characters then I don’t see why it would be a problem for me to respond in likewise.  And unlike some of those other casting choices the actors I’ve chosen here are people whose performances I’ve enjoyed immensely.

So let’s get this train wreck-a-rollin’ with one of my favorite sci fi books put through the ringer one too many times. Here is my casting for the modern remake of Dune.

Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam: Angelina Jolie

Courtesy Marie Claire Magazine.

This is an easy pick for me. The Reverend Mother in the subsequent books are all young and in their prime. Except in the first book. I would want Jolie because of her acting chops, and regardless of what you may think she does have a great range and resume. She can be seductive and threatening at the same time. And there is no one she can’t stand toe to toe with on-screen. This accomplishes two things, it gives the studio producers a big name to give some credence to the project as a whole, and it gives marketing someone big to get behind and market. Also by casting a younger woman I feel it makes the climax when Paul finally overcomes her that much more poignant. Being younger and more in her prime it makes the Reverend Mother more formidable.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

Oh and we are dumping the shaved heads from the Lynch version and the stupid Pope hat from the SciFi channel’s mini series. Neither make any sense as I highly doubt Bene Gesserit would shave their heads so as to be easily spotted by everyone around them. The Pope hats just looked ridiculous and were a bad design decision overall. And they’re a secret society for crying out loud wouldn’t shaved heads and giant Pope hats be a huge friggin’ liability?

The books support an image of the Bene Gesserit sisters generally wearing black abaya robes anyways:

Courtesy http://www.girlfromarabia.com

Far more intimidating than this:

The Revered Mother courtesy wikipedia and SyFy.

Ugh…

 

Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV: Frank Langella

Courtesy Esquire Magazine.

This may not be in strict keeping with the chronology and ages from the book (should be obvious from my first pick). I love Frank and his performance in The Box was the highlight of the movie. He has presence and a quiet strength that is everything you could want from a ruling Monarch.

 

Duke Leto Atreides: Faran Tahir

Faran Tahir courtesy of http://tvbythenumbers.za

I wrote a whole post on this guy. He has a delivery that is always amazing to watch. I have loved him in everything he has done. For the guy who has the moxy to stand up to the Imperium itself and deny a rival House truce talks even amidst threats of “Vendetta” there is no other man to play this role.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

No where is Leto’s skin color mentioned in the books as I’ve mentioned. I imagine the whole Dune Universe as a mishmash of modern races and cultures, as was inferred through the history of the Butlerian Jihad. So him being brown sets up an immediate visual contrast with the Emperor and his rival the Baron Harkonnen. And speaking of…

 

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: Tim Curry

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris – © WireImage.com – Image courtesy WireImage.com

When I think of an older fat man who revels in making those around him uncomfortable just by being fat, but also how suave he comes off as when he manipulates Alia in Children of Dune, I can think of no else other than Tim Curry for this role. His delivery is always amazing and with roles like Mr. Body from Clue and The Darkness from Legend it’s easy to see why I name him as the Baron. Him being white will also play into the fact that even though House Atreides is popular, the Baron and the Emperor, feeling threatened by said popularity, work together to bring the Duke down. It adds a nasty racial undertone without being too explicit.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Thufir Hawat: Patrick Stewart

Photo by John Shearer – © 2011 Getty Images – Image courtesy gettyimages

Now I know what you’re going to say. “But he was already Gurney in the David Lynch version.” And I say to you, exactly. I did not make this choice lightly. I like the idea of the remake connecting to the previous version through some minor casting. Patrick Stewart has a great presence on-screen. He is intelligent enough to play a living computer and he is still in great shape for an old guy. I would also be able to buy from his performance everything that would be needed. Imagine being betrayed by the wife of your Lord, being drugged and brain washed, then coming to the realization that you were wrong and helped your enemy, leading you to beg Paul to kill him at the end of the film.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

If Patrick Stewart can’t do it, than I don’t believe anyone could (sans weird poofy eyebrows of course). Now about his previous role..?

 

Gurney Halleck: Ron Perlman

If you can name another actor who can pull off being a veteran smuggler who is a little older but still manages to survive and implant himself in his old smuggler camp as if he never left, I’d love to hear it. Also, would you have any trouble at all believing him leading his smuggler camp in raids on Harkonnen Spice collectors and transport convoys? Have you seen Sons of Anarchy?

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Duncan Idaho: Michael Ealy

Still of Michael Ealy in Almost Human (2013)

Again this is me having fun with, racial norms. I loved Michael in Almost Human. He has a great sense of humor and he is a very good-looking guy. I also like the idea of him being the one to introduce the Fremen to House Atreides before they arrive. Michael is a great actor and I feel that he could pull off everything that is required of Duncan, even being a completely lost, arrogant relic from generations past in God Emperor of Dune.

Ealy also sports the “curly black goat hair” and deep-set blue eyes that Herbert characterizes Idaho with.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Lady Jessica: Megan Boone

 

Courtesy galleryhip.com.

This casting was agonizing for me. I needed a woman who is a woman, not an immature girl trying to be a woman, and who could hold her own against Angelina Jolie. This girl holds her own against James Spader, so no problem there. She can be very elegant and she has an inner strength that she brings to her performance on The Blacklist that would serve her well here. I could be made to buy her as a powerful woman who could hold her own in a knife fight if need be as well…oh yeah she does get into a knife fight doesn’t she?

Megan Boone seems to be also exude a grace that will only grow as she ages. As it stands she might be a bit too young but this is accurate as far as the books go since Jessica, after you calculate the ages from the appendix in Dune, was about 18 when she birthed Paul. The Duke was in his 30s when he brought her home from the Bene Gesserit to be his concubine.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Piter De Vries: Billy Boyd

 

Still of Billy Boyd in The Flying Scotsman (2006)

Now here is a bit of a dark horse casting. Boyd is the right age. Piter is full of confidence but is a bit young and inexperienced, this is what cost him his life if you remember. Billy would fit in great next to Tim Curry. For the younger of two mentats I think he would play well as an opposite for Patrick Stewart’s Thufir.

Boyd also has, no offense meant, or is capable of affecting Piter di Vriese’s characteristic effeminate voice and looks. With the proper lighting and makeup Boyd’s soft features could be accentuated for effect.

 

Stilgar: Hrithik Roshan

 

Courtesy Indicine.com. Still from Krrish 3. Photo credit Dabboo Ratnani.

One look at this guy and all I see is bad ass. This guy is massive and would look great in a still suit. I would have him clean-shaven and unfortunately I would want to close crop his hair. I don’t believe the Fremen would let moisture be wasted by collecting in hair and beards. I look at him and I see someone strong enough to hold the position of sietch leader.

While Bollywood hasn’t allowed him to express all of his acting range and true to Bollywood conventions and stereotypes some of the films he’s starred in are just.. bad. Roshan has been a highly disciplined actor who does put a lot into his performances when he’s allowed to. This would be a great opportunity to see Roshan in the role of a dignified warrior with gravitas.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Paul Atreides: Suraj Sharma or ???

 

Courtesy JustJared.com

I really liked his performance in Life of Pi and think he has matured into a fairly attractive looking young man without being a stereotypical hearth throb. Paul Atreides was never said to have been a hunk one way or the other. In fact the only one waxing on about his looks was the pedophile Baron…Christ…

Suraj Sharma’s physical presence also lends itself well to Herbert’s descriptions of Paul as being of unremarkable height but imbued with a whip like athleticism and musculature. His lean, lithe body is supposed to stand in heavy contrast with the muscular, heavier, Feyd.

However, I’m open to other actors on this as well since given the racial dynamic of casting Faran Tahir and Megan Boone opposite each other would necessitate that both Paul and Alia would have to reflect that.

Both of the actors for the mini series and the Lynch movie were WAAAAY too old to play Paul. Kyle Maclachlan was okay but he was so not a 15-year-old cum an old beyond his years 18-year-old Kwisatz Haderach.

That’s one of the hardest aspects of casting Paul and Chani is that they would both have to be able to pull off young teens and then young, seasoned, adults. James MacAvoy, Leto II in the miniseries, would actually have made a great Paul at that time given his youthful looks.

 

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

The Beast Rabban: Vin Diesel

Despite my initial reservations about this guy when he first hit the screens in Fast and the Furious and XXX I have grown to like and appreciate his style of acting. He could never do Shakespeare and he will never have the kind of charisma that Stallone or Schwarzenegger has but I like his Riddick performance, he was actually pretty good. I think he pulls off the not quite so quiet brute pretty well, and that’s all that’s needed from the Beast Rabban. He’s not nearly as sophisticated as his contemporaries, which is exactly why the Baron sent him to rule Arrakis in the first place.

Courtesy http://www.cinematallica.com.

 

Princess Irulan: Dakota Fanning

I know she has kind of disappeared save for her Twilight performance. But she still can act as proven by her performance in Push. I really like her as the Princess and according to my wife she was the only actor with any kind of magnetism in Twilight. Even being on screen for a few minutes was enough to make it painfully obvious that she was above being in that film and she outclassed the majority of her costars.  She has the resume and the acting chops to pull off the pampered princess who only paid her Bene Gesserit tutors enough attention to learn about seduction and regal appearance and how to carry herself.

From what I gather from her track record Fanning can only get better as she ages and progresses in her career and I’m confident she would be able to play the jilted wife and thwarted mother figure to the twins in books 2 and 3 of the Dune Series.

Courtesy http://www.superiorpics.com
Still from Twilight: Eclipse.

 

Shadout Mapes: Michelle Yeoh

 

© 2011 – EuropaCorp
Titles: The Lady
Names: Michelle Yeoh
Characters: Aung San Suu Kyi
Still of Michelle Yeoh in The Lady (2011)

She is perfect for the Shadout Mapes. She play well to my visual pallet of having all the Fremen being a melting pot of cultures and ethnic groups.  She is a veteran actor that brings a sense of danger to the role that is so crucial to the Shadout Mapes. She needs to be intimidating when she confronts Jessica with her crysknife. This is not what happened in the David Lynch version. Michelle is a perfect fit here and her physical presence alone makes her an on screen match for whoever gets to play Jessica.

 

Dr. Yueh: Ken Watanabe

 

Photo by Kimberley French – © (c) Legendary Pictures Productions LLC & Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.

Do I even need to explain why I chose this guy? With his performances in Batman Begins, The Last Samurai, and Inception I just love his delivery and his control. You can see how he works through scenes and how he grasps the inner workings of the persona he’s assumed, you can almost follow his line of logic as he delivers his lines. Yueh being played by a Japanese man is the least jarring conceptually since a lot of the art from John Schoenherr depicts him as Asian or with Asian features.

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://johnschoenherr.blogspot.com

 

Doctor Liet-Kynes: Roshan Seth

 

Courtesy fanpix.net

This role was played by the great Max Von Sydow in the David Lynch version and I want to keep that grizzled old guy trend. If you don’t recognize the name, that’s OK. He played Chattar Lal in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom. He also played Dhalsim in Street Fighter. He is also an accomplished veteran Bollywood actor. This would give Kynes the same weight and importance to the character that Max Von Sydow brought to it. He only has a few scenes but those scenes need to be nailed and I have no doubt that he would deliver a memorable performance in every one.

 

Wife of guy Paul kills, Jamis; AKA Harah : Sahar Biniaz

 

I have to put her in here somewhere. After she was Kali I would want her in every one of my movies. She is beautiful, elegant, and everything you would want from a Fremen wife and mother, beautiful as a sunset, but hard and as harsh as the sand itself. No one else would embody this role as well as she does.

 

Chani: ????

 

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

 

Whoever is cast I do not want some twig or pin-up model. This is a girl who should be able to match Paul in terms of exuding an athletic physical presence. Given that her father Liet Kynes is Roshan Seth in my dream cast I would imagine that she too would be of some kind of Southeast Asian descent.  My search for a young actress that would fit that description turned up nothing. With the exception of Japan I noticed that Hindi Cinema, and most Asian pop culture tends to fixate on young adults in their early 20s.

 

Feyd Rautha: ???

 

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

I have no idea. This is a character that might need two actors to play it as Feyd Rautha grows up to be a formidable gladiator. Contrasting that with a smaller, skinnier, child Feyd who is raised under the tutelage of the Baron would serve as reminder of the Baron’s horrific sexual predations of which Feyd suffered along with the slave children.

We all know Sting had this part in the David Lynch version. But going by the book, Feyd is a bodybuilding gladiator and so I would want someone who is big but also young enough to play off of Paul who is only in his late teens. So no, Channing Tatum wouldn’t work at all, not that I would ever cast him, I think he is a horrible actor.

 

Alia: ???

 

By John Schoenherr featured @ http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com.

I would want a child like Kirsten Dunst circa Interview with the Vampire and she would have to be ethnic, in keeping with the whole, her dad is brown and mom is white thing. I would have to scour both Hollywood and Bollywood all over to find a child actor who could pull off this role. I really hate not using the actor’s own voice and the dubbing is always just a hair off which pulls me out of the experience.

 

I think Frank Herbert, if you know anything about the man from the biography and his interviews, would be tickled pink by the idea of a racially diverse casting of Dune. I don’t think for a moment that Herbert was constrained by some of the hang ups that plague sci- fi, fantasy, and geekdom in general.

Well hope you enjoyed my list. Keep checking back I’m sure I’ll have more for your perusal and angry messaging later.

See you guys next time.

Note:

I didn’t cast Count Fenring and Lady Margot as they didn’t appear in the movie. So that’s up for grabs as I really don’t have an opinion on it. I felt the same way about Jamis.

All artwork here is property of the Schoenherr estate. I don’t own any of it. I highly recommend visiting John Schoenherr’s tribute blog run by his son if you are interested in any of his other Dune and non-Dune art work.  I also pulled a lot of stuff from this blog as well.

 

By John Schoenherr.
Rest in Peace…