Dune - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Dune or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Dune

[oscar]

The novel was speculated to be an influence behind the Danish fantasy movie Strings (2004). James McAvoy, who provided the voice of the movie's main protagonist Hal Tara in that movie played Paul and Chani's son Leto II in Children of Dune (2003). McAvoy worked with Sir Patrick Stewart (Gurney Halleck) on Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).

[nina]

In the novels, the three major houses are actually all related. Paul's mother is revealed to be Baron Harkonnen's daughter. The Harkonnens and the Corrinos are both descendants of House Butler. Xavier Harkonnen was married to Octa Butler, with whom he had three daughters. Xavier later put an end to an organ trafficking operation, but in doing so killed himself and a religious leader, and was branded a traitor. His youngest daughter and her husband reverted the family name back to Butler. However, his youngest grandson, who learns from Vorian Atriedes that his grandfather was not a traitor, reclaims the Harkonnen name. The other Butlers are instrumental in ending a century-long war at planet Corrin, and thus rename their branch of the family Corrino.

[brent]

In retrospect, David Lynch acknowledged he should never have directed this movie: "I started selling out on Dune. Looking back, it's no one's fault but my own. I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them in. There was so much room to create a world. But I got strong indications from Raffaella and Dino De Laurentiis of what kind of film they expected, and I knew I didn't have final cut."

[nina]

Although it has been claimed that singer Michael Bolton has a cameo as one of the drummers seen when Feyd and Paul start their duel, Bolton denied this in a 2012 radio interview with Australian broadcaster Joel Rheinberger.

[marc]

Several cast and crew members from this movie worked on David Lynch's series Twin Peaks: Kyle MacLachlan, Jürgen Prochnow, Alicia Witt, Everett McGill, Jack Nance, Frank Silva. Also, Jose Ferrer was the father of Miguel Ferrer, who also appeared on Twin Peaks.

[brent]

Theatrical movie debut of Alicia Witt (Alia).

[jessica]

After finishing work on the film, Paul L. Smith starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja (1985) as Falkon.

[nina]

David Lynch worked on the script for six months with Erich Bergen and Christopher De Vore. The team yielded two drafts of the script before it split over creative differences. Lynch subsequently worked on five more drafts.

[duane]

In the special features of the Twin Peaks (1990) boxset, Everett McGill reminisces about this movie, and says that his experience with David Lynch then was why he was "happy to carry a spear for him" on the series. During the interview, Everett couldn't remember that the antagonists of Dune were called the Harkonnens.

[toni]

At the end of the first meeting between the Guild and the Emperor, the inscription "Law is the ultimate science" is visible above the entrance-way to the Emperor's throne room as the Guild navigator is leaving.

[clayton]

In the extended television version of the movie, instead of Virginia Madsen's opening introduction. A voice-over explains and reveals more behind the history and the universe of the story which illustrations were used to depict the history of the Dune universe, which reveals that before Shaddam IV ruled the universe, thinking machines with human minds, computers, and conscious minds ruled the universe until the machines were destroyed in a great revolt, and after the humans crushed the machines in the revolt, the Mentats, the Bene Gesserits, and the Spacing Guild were established, and their training schools changed the history of the universe.

[sylvia]

With the exception of Francesca Annis, all of the actors and actresses portraying members of the Atreides family later worked with David Lynch on Twin Peaks. Kyle MacLachlan appeared in the movie and both television series. Jürgen Prochnow appeared in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and Alicia Witt appeared in both the original series and (more prominently) in Twin Peaks (2017).

[ray]

While most critics were negative towards this movie, writer Harlan Ellison was of a different opinion at the time. In his 1989 book of movie criticism, "Harlan Ellison's Watching", he says that the $42 million production failed because critics were denied screenings at the last minute after several re-schedules, a decision by Universal Pictures that, according to Ellison, made the movie community feel nervous and negative towards it before its release. Ellison eventually became one of the movie's few positive reviewers.

[lena]

This movie is an adaptation of the first of a series of novels ("Dune" by Frank Herbert) and incorporating some elements from the later novels. Pre-production was slow and problematic, and the project was handed from director to director.