#one of my favorite things about the first dune book are the excerpts from the perspective of princess irulan

[wizard-mp4]

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.

—From “Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” By the princess Irulan

[skarsgardedits]

interesting conversation between denis villeneuve and christopher nolan about dune in this podcast produced by the directors guild of america. i love hearing directors talk to each other about the creative decisions of filmmaking. they talk about casting where christopher nolan says it’s a great ensemble and asks specifically about the design of the baron. from that conversation, i learned that: 

stellan was denis’ first choice for the baron (which is aw, that’s pretty cool, because i did wonder a little bit after i heard denis say in an interview that most but not all of the cast members were his first choice picks);

denis wanted to do everything practically as much as possible and limit the special effects. apparently that was fortunate because stellan would’ve said no if he had had to do the role in CGI. (he’d asked denis about the treatment before he said yes to it.) denis says with a laugh, “that's why every morning, [with] the eight hours of make-up, he never complained.” and nolan replies, “oh my goodness. eight hours.” 

then they talk a little bit more about the apocalypse now nods in the film.

after doing six hours in the make-up chair for pirates of the caribbean, which apparently was difficult enough that keira knightley says stellan couldn't really lie down on set because of the prosthetics, he probably thought this was going to be similar. but sounds like it was more difficult aha

for pirates of the caribbean, keira says, "So he had to sit around for hours in all this get-up. I couldn’t believe how he did it all with such good grace." which is very similar to dave bautista saying about stellan that even with the difficult make-up process, "i never saw him bet anything other than pleasant." infinite patience, stellan, my dude.

transcribed the excerpt under the cut (the interview starts at around 24:00 i think).

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN And the rest of the cast... as it fleshes out, it's one of those movies where the scale of the film is greatly enhanced by the scale of the cast. These new faces coming and... whether it's Jason Momoa or Josh Brolin or whatever. It's a great ensemble.

DENIS VILLENEUVE Thank you. The thing is... I had a list and this list pretty close to what we have on screen right now. Of course, some people were not... [there were] problems with schedule or something so there are some surprises for me. Some people that came on board that I wasn't thinking of but frankly, no matter what people think about the film, I think that the description... when you read the book and you read the description of the character, we are pretty close to Frank Herbert's spirit. It's a thing that I'm proud of, the casting for this movie.

NOLAN Tell us about the Baron Harkonnen. This is about Stellan Skarsgård. I mean, it's an extraordinary look. What did that involve technically?

VILLENEUVE I wanted to do as much as possible on the camera and when I asked Stellan, who was my first choice [for the role]... I asked him, "I'd love you to play the Baron." He said, "how do you want to do it?" I said, "Practically. I want to do prosthetic suit." I mean, because he would have refused if I had done it virtually. He loved the idea to be able to portray himself to be a... He didn't want to do anything [virtual]. So we agree on that. And that's why every morning, the eight hours of make-up, he never complained. (laughs)

NOLAN Oh my goodness. Eight hours.

VILLENEUVE Yeah, it was eight hours to get in that suit and the challenge was the shape. I didn't want the Baron to look like a fat baby or a grotesque character. I wanted him to be frightening. To be muscular. So with my storyboard artist, we drew hundreds of shapes. And when it came to the costume... My favorite costume of the Baron was when he was naked. I thought it was so powerful that's why the first scene... I rewrote to start with that steam bath because I need to see him at least one time naked. I thought he was so beautiful.

NOLAN And was there a conversation about Apocalypse Now at all? There's such a wonderful movement of the hand...

VILLENEUVE Marlon Brando was definitely an inspiration for the Baron and, yep. When Greig Fraser and I were brainstorming about the film... it was for us a kind of love letter to the big screen experience, the theatrical experience. The book was calling for that. The landscape. It was the story of a boy that would slowly bring the burden of his heritage and find comfort and make peace with the part of his identity as much as he is going deeper and deeper into a landscape. A bit like in some ways, the character in Apocalypse Now. There was this idea of getting inside the landscape and it becomes a more and more introspective journey. I don't do that usually but there's a lot of homages and winks to movies I deeply love, [that] as a filmmaker I admire. So there's tons of references. It was just an act of pleasure [for me].

[jane-wei]

3am bordem

1 Favorite place to be?

A quiet cinema with a massive screen

2 Something I can never live without?

Water

3 Hobbies that I’ll never give up?

baking

4 Three words to describe me?

Proffestional, day dreamer, loyal

5 My biggest fear?

ebaressment

6 What makes me angry?

ignorance towards others

7 My inspiration?

creativity and passion of others

8 Favorite wild animal? Why?

any big cats, because they literally are just big cats

9 Favorite food?

pizza, always

10 First memory of life?

probably playing with lego and having my dad make me spaceships out of lego

11 The best advice I got?

write every day

12 Where do I see myself in 10 years?

hopfully own my own flat or house, maybe running my own production company, maybe acting in some plays

13 Books reading these days?

im not a big reader, but when i read i read loads, i must read DUNE soon

14 The fictional character I want to be?

Luke Skywalker

15 My hidden talents?

quiet farts

16 Favorite type of music?

electronic or classical, if its both at the same time its magic

17 When do I feel happy?

when things are going right for collegues or loved ones

18 Which song would I like to hear to be happy?

duran duran ordinary world

19 My favourite word in English?

surety

20 My favorite word in Spanish?

da nada, that count as two?

21 Top 3 things on my bucket list?

visit hobbiton, sky diving, meet mark hamill

22 The most heard song in 2017?

redbone by childish gambino

23 Last book you’ve read?

probably a comic book or an excerpt from a book on how to direct actors

24 Favorite quote?

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

25 If I had a superpower what would it be?

Creating objects, although that has a lot of responsibility, but it would end world hunger

26 Favorite sport?

rugby, its the only one id watch begining to end, but to play definatly badmington, brutal game

27 Biggest Dream?

be a jedi

28 Favorite Singer?

the chap who won x factor uk last year, Dalton Harris, that guy can create magic

29 Favourite Cusine?

italian

30 A positive quality about me?

I want to know what you have to say, i might get  nervous at the answer or speaking other people in general but im interested

31 A negative quality about me?

push down my self confidence

32 Best place I’ve visited?

brecon beacons in wales

33 When do I laugh the most?

when something is funny, but also breaking through social conventions in a dark kinda way, nothing insulting just a little dark here and there

34 When do I get creative?

when travelling, trains and buses are great, but only when i can see a wide vista, so trains goign through the countryside are ideal, or in a creative soace with othe rlike minded creatives. enough of creativity for now eh?

35 Favorite lyrics?

nothing overlly specific, but i like Plan B’s stuff, Radiohead always do somethign interesting, A Tribe Called Quest are geniuses with words

36 The most scary thing I’ve done?

confront people, its tough, especially when you know something has to be resolved by words and talking

37 Biggest accomplished achievement?

going to film school, something i thought was impossible for a working class lad like me

38 What am I horrible at?

not keeping healthy

39 Favorite book genres?

sci fi and fantasy for sure

40 Any adventurous thing I want to do?

travel

41 Something I would like to try?

sports, i feel that if i was encouraged at school in sports id be a real jockey

42 Optimistic or pessimistic?

depends on the day, optimistic is the goal, that way your always looking up

43 Favorite TV show host?

Mel and Sue, old school bake off

44 A talent I want to acquire?

playing the violin and anoy other musical instrument i can egt my hands on

45 Something from my childhood that I still have?

1 teddy bear and 1 fluffy teddy style cat, those are going to be family heirlooms

46 If I had a chance to change something what would it be?

death of family members, but you cant dwell on such things, itll drive you mad

47 What would I do to calm myself?

music and cleaning

48 When do you find yourself singing?

while out walking or home alone

49 What do I consider unforgivable?

any attack on others, physical, psycological, verbal, insinuated

50 Have I ever sleepwalked?

as a kid yes but not since, if i did id definatly wear some kind of body camera and find out where id go

51 If I got a chance to go somewhere, where will it be?

everywhere, every continant at least 5 times

52 What is my dream career?

feature film writer/director

53 An impossible wish?

a real lightsaber

54 Who is my greatest role model?

i like elders who are accepting of others and those who take great joy in heling others

55 If I could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

does the U.S.S ENTERPRISE count?

56 Favorite song currently?

Tiny Dancer by Elton John

57 Advice to people?

try to be understanding of others, dont put yourself or your skills down, make every day count, give yourself some credit for what youve done so far, make sure you get a little tlc every now and again

58 How do you handle jetlag?

sleep

59 Describe your style?

nerd

60 Favorite makeup product?

i dont use any, but i do get asked if i use mascara, all natural

61 What’s a guilty pleasure you have?

early naughties action movies, Van Heling with Hugh Jackman the main culprit

62 Favorite Star Wars Character?

The crew of the Ghost, you could never pick one over the other

63 Any pet peeve?

laughs with high pitches

64 If you could die your hair, what color would it be?

red

65 What’s your schedule these days?

in need of a job so a lot of job hunting, school is 2 days a week(ish) got a few writing jobs so putting pen to paper, need to start learnig lines for a play in the summer

66 Have you ever cut your own hair?

only the fringe and i didnt think it was that bad but when i got into school EVERYONE laughed #embaressmentismykryptonite

67 Who’s your style icon?

my friend zach, simple gorgeous colors

68 Do you consider yourself a good liar?

if the lie is a simple one

69 Favorite movies as a child?

star wars, star trek, lord of the rings, predator which i watched way before i was supposed to, i was also in the spy kids generation

70 Last show you’ve binge watched?

star wars rebels and the eric andre show

71 First toy you’ve had?

probably my teddies, but i do remember having star wars actions figures and lego very early on

72 What can you see from your window?

a main road which many buses travel down, a bus stop, a residential row of houses leading to a park, a betting shop

73 What’s for dinner today?

my other half makes great tempe and gyoza

[mousieta]

Tagged by my co-mod over at @0penb00k​ mod lily, so here we go!

1. YEET – which book would you yeet out of existence?

Fifty Shades series. I’ve never even read them, but have read enough excerpts to know it gets very little right and my BDSMy self just….wishes it didn’t exist. There is so much GOOD BDSM fic in the world… why was this one the one chosen to go mainstream (yes I know the reasons but still whyyyyyy)

2. CRYING KIM K – which book gives you lots of feelings?

I finished A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki this summer and …. well there were times I had to just. stop. because my emotions were too wound up I couldn’t focus properly. The major truth I took from that book is that rights and autonomy, the lifting of oppression is  never granted benevolently by those in power, it is demanded or forced by political and economic necessity and that fact alone is enraging enough.

3. AMERICA, EXPLAIN – favorite book set outside the US?

All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith, a travel memoir about a woman (Amy) who sets off to South America to spend a year doing book clubs of Jane Austen novels. It is poignant and insightful and thoroughly fascinating to see how women (and some men) experience and interpret the works of Austen through their own cultural lenses. I mean we do it to, but it’s intriguing to see it thru a different lense.

4. RIP VINE – your saddest character death?

Ok so this is a memory, but when I was about 12 I read a Morgan Llywelyn book (pretty sure it was Red Branch because I remember it being about Cuchulain) and in one part he has to kill a friend and I remember just being…. Devastated. I sobbed and sobbed and my little middle school girl heart was broken. I’m sure there are sadder deaths, but I don’t remember reacting to any so powerfully.

5. WHAT ARE THOSE? – a book that left you confused?

I remember having a copy of Gibson’s Neuromancer shoved at me to read, so I tried. I …. Was confused almost the whole time. I think I was just in the wrong point in my life for that book. Sometimes my focus is really really bad and I don’t process things well. I keep meaning to try again.

6. BIG DICK ENERGY – favorite character with BDE?

Man…. i read so little fiction… I dunno… I’m scraping my brain and staring at my bookshelves…. Surreal SaDiablo from the Black Jewels trilogy. Man that chick gives zero fucks and I love it.

7. I WON’T HESITATE BITCH – favorite book with a morally grey protagonist?

I’m gonna go with A Clockwork Orange. Is Alex morally grey? I am not sure. He was terrible, and yet at the end he changes, he grows. Does that redeem him? I don’t know. Does the growth at the end balance out who he was? What is morality anyways? What is redemption? What is growth? I wrestle with these ideas and this book teases out that tension of good and bad and motivation and action in ways that leave me thinking about it occasionally, even years after I first read it.

8. MOVE, I’M GAY – favorite book featuring a lgbp+ romance?

Exiles: The Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn featured the first example of a loving, deeply passionate and healthy queer relationship I ever read, at age 12 (seventh grade was a formative time for this little mouse, y’all). It didn’t end happily but the relationship Rawn showed me was pivotal to my baby queer self.

9. STREET SMARTS – favorite book featuring a protagonist whose strength is their intelligence?

Tie: Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince series (bit dated but man I loved it) - Rohan was a political mastermind and I lvoed it.

And Shana from The Elvenbane by Norton/Lackey

(man can you tell I haven’t read much fiction since the 90s/mid 00s?) lol

10. ALEXA PLAY DESPACITO – character death you were happy about?

I remember enjoying the death of Baron Harkonnen in Dune

11. THEN PERISH – a book you DNFed?

Lord Foul’s Bane by Donaldson… not down for rape in the first 100 pages …. Especially not when I’m supposed to feel sympathetic to the rapist because their life is just. so. Hard. I remember some handwaviness to justify it and some mumbledy dumbledy to make it a big deal but it was written to make it sympathetic and I just… didn’t give a fuck anymore about the protagonist, so I quit.

12. KERMIT SIPPING TEA – a book that makes a statement?

The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr. (see my latest review, we’re being taught King wrong, y’all)

13. SAME HAT – the character you relate to the most?

I got nothin, fam. I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself reflected in fiction. I can’t remember reading a character and being #me

14. OH WORM – a book you didn’t expect to love?

The Black Jewels. Picked it up on a whim and fell in instant love.

15. SHREK – favorite book featuring mythical creatures?

Another tie: Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series because Dragons in the Napoleonic Wars, come on! And Sharon Shinn’s Samaria series, because angels.

…aaand I’m gonna tag @jamaicastation

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Moon Pool, Talismans, Sea Wolf, Jerry Pournelle, New Heinlein

Fiction (DMR Books): One hundred years ago today, A. Merritt‘s novella/short novel, “The Conquest of the Moon Pool,” was unleashed upon an eager public. The story which spawned it, “The Moon Pool,” had been met with such an outpouring of enthusiasm by the readership of All-Story Weekly that the pulp’s legendary editor, Robert H. Davis, practically demanded that A. Merritt write a sequel. Seven months later, Merritt delivered the goods.

  Fiction (DMR Books): Welcome to Part Two of my re-read of A. Merritt’s classic and influential novella, “The Moon Pool.” In Part One, I posted a brief excerpt from the “Introductory Letter” which prefaced the original publication of “The Moon Pool” in All-Story Weekly. The letter is supposedly from the president of the International Association of Science, explaining why the story was appearing in an American pulp magazine and also thanking A. Merritt–who actually held a fairly prestigious position in the newspaper industry at the time–for arranging the facts into a publishable narrative.

      Fiction (Black Gate): The very first Campbell Award, in 1973, went to Jerry Pournelle. Writers are eligible for the award for the two years after their first professional SF/Fantasy publication. While Pournelle had published a thriller, Red Heroin, in 1969 under the name Wade Curtis, his first SF story was “Peace With Honor,” under his own name, in the May 1971 Analog. This was the first story in his Co-Dominion future history, and the first to feature John Christian Falkenberg, one of his primary heroes. His nomination was based on that story, on another Falkenberg story, “The Mercenary,” and on the novel A Spaceship for the King (set much later in the Co-Dominion universe), as well, perhaps, on three stories that appeared in Analog under the “Wade Curtis” name: “Ecology Now!”, “A Matter of Sovereignty,” and “Power to the People.”

  Cinema (Future War Stories): On December 14, 1984 one of the most ambitious science fiction films was released: DUNE. This unique science fiction film saw the merging of the young talented director in David Lynch, the experienced hand of the De Laurentiis family, the music of Toto and Brian Eno, a wealth of talent behind the camera that designed the universe of 10,191 AG. All of this was built on the foundation of the legendary 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert that has been praised as the best science fiction book of all time. To breathe life into the pages of the book was one of the best casts were assembled for a sci-fi film ever.

  Cinema (Kairos): Last night I made a special appearance on Geek Gab to discuss my new mecha mil-SF book Combat Frame XSeed and its impending sequel. During the show, I was asked if I’d seen Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures. I hadn’t, because I know that Star Wars’ current owners secretly hate me. Doing some cursory research, I discovered that their hatred is no longer secret.

  Fiction (Pulpflakes): Phoenix Pick recently announced that, working with the Heinlein Prize Trust, they have been able to reconstruct the complete text of an unpublished novel written by Robert A. Heinlein.

Heinlein wrote this as an alternate text for THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. This text of approximately 185,000 words largely mirrors the first third of the published text, but then deviates completely with an entirely different story-line and ending.

Science Fiction Fandom (Between Wast & Sky): Last time we talked about the beginnings of genre fiction and how everything you read emerged from the same place and only split apart due to preferences of those who seized control of the industry in order to mold it in their image. Before the 20th century all stories gelled in very straightforward genres. That is, until self-proclaimed experts decided to redefine words and meanings to fragment out what they didn’t like from their chosen genre and lock them all to isolated islands. Things had changed hard in mere decades.

    Science Fiction Fandom (Pulp Archivist): Curious in reading Lundwall and Lewis, it is the post-Campbellian magazines of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Galaxy that appealed to European critics more than the drab technical work of Gernsback and Campbell.

I have previously noted that the Campbelline Revolution never thrives where and when Campbell is not present, and that attempts to graft cuttings from the Campbelline tree onto French and Japanese science fiction inevitably wilted.

  Fiction (HiLoBrow): In this grown-up version of Kipling’s Captains Courageous, an effete young intellectual — Humphrey van Weyden, whose favorite philosophers are Nietzsche and Schopenhauer — is rescued from a shipwreck in the San Francisco Bay by a brutal schooner captain, Wolf Larsen, who takes his unwilling passenger along on a seal-hunting voyage. Larsen is a quasi-Nietzschean cynic who believes in nothing but the pursuit of pleasure and the triumph of strength over weakness; he thoroughly enjoys browbeating “Hump” while forcing him to do menial work and learn how to defend himself.

  Cryptozoology (A Strange Manuscript):  In February 1899, a cargo ship brought to Sydney, Australia, the skeletal remains of a huge “two-headed sea serpent” – said originally to weigh seventy tons and extend sixty feet in length – that was found on a beach on Rakahanga island in the Solomons. The find was significant enough to reach the newspapers in the United States. On April 5 of that year, the Los Angeles Herald described the discovery as follows:

  Comic Books (Gaming While Conservative): Every time another issue of “Chuck Dixon’s Avalon” hits my inbox, my heart skips a beat.

Don’t get me wrong, I like “Alt-Hero: The Series Not Written By The Legend Chuck Dixon”, well enough.  Each issue’s strategy of introducing hordes of named characters that you’d like to see more of but never do because the next issue also has to add six more names to my already overtaxed memory is an exciting and bold new approach to story-telling.

    Fiction (Black Gate): The 1930s Golden Age of Weird Tales was in full force with the three main first stringers present: Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and C. L. Moore. Carl Jacobi, while not a headliner author, always produced good-to-excellent horror stories. The Arthur J. Burks story is a reprint from 1927. Burks was the sort of middling writer along the lines of Otis Adelbert Kline and Seabury Quinn that editor Farnsworth Wright was comfortable publishing. The only real weak story was by Dale Clark. Farnsworth Wright has a penchant for barely competent and unmemorable stories of this sort.

  RPG (RPG Pundit): One way to tell a faker from someone (potentially) genuine is to look at the magical accouterments they use.  Are they going around with a fancy-looking crystal-encrusted rune-marked perfectly-straight wand that may have been store-bought or ordered from Etsy?  They’re 99% likely to be frauds.

    Sensor Sweep: Moon Pool, Talismans, Sea Wolf, Jerry Pournelle, New Heinlein published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames