Way back in the mists of time, my brother recommended that I read Dune. I was NOT a science fiction reader. I loved the fantasy of Tolkien and Howard, but the wonders of Heinlein and his ilk escaped me. But John KNEW I would love Dune, because it is in its essence a frontier tale.
Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides whose family accepts control of the desert planet Arrakis. As the only producer of a highly valuable resource, control of Arrakis is highly contested among the noble families. After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship to nature as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s control of Arrakis.
Yep. White man of exceptional gifts goes native on a frontier planet, whose resources are exploited by an entire galaxy. My kinda story. And the Fremen, the desert tribesmen of Arrakis, are noted for their skill with the Crysknife, made from the tooth of a dead Sandworm. Wheelhouse.
I devoured the original novel. Didn’t like the subsequent ones nearly as much, but Dune was a seminal tale of my early teen years. It was made into a strange 1984 movie by David Lynch, which I didn’t much care for. Now Legendary Pictures has picked up the rights.
Legendary has gone and done the damn difficult, and acquired the rights to Frank Herbert‘s venerated science fiction classic Dune. The geek-centric movie studio behind blockbuster spectacles like Pacific Rim, Godzilla and Warcraft has reached an agreement with the Frank Herbert estate for the film and television motion picture rights to beloved novel, which has earned a reputation as one of the most sought after and difficult-to-acquire sci-fi properties of all time.
While no specific project is on the docket just yet, any future projects will be produced by Thomas Tull, Mary Parent, and Cale Boyter, with the Herbert estate heads Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, and Kim Herbert serving as executive producers.
It really should be a cable TV miniseries. Perhaps it will become the next Game of Thrones. I will certainly be there. Hopefully, it will look just like the astounding card game art created by fantasy illustrator Mark Zug. Makes me want to read Dune all over again.
John Maddox Roberts’ Crysknife, by http://tinkerswords.com
Matthew says
The Sci-Fi Channel did a miniseries years ago. Opinions are divided but it was closer to the book than the Lynch movie.
JimC says
I never saw that and, as you say, heard mixed reviews. A real-deal, big-budget cable take on it on the scale of GoT would get the job done. We’ll see.
Matthew says
I remember watching it, but it was along time ago.
David Grady says
I’m a big fan of that book!!
Davide Mana says
Check out the work of an artist called Matt Rhodes.
I discovered him thanks to an illustration he did for a Fritz Leiber story, and he has done a series of concept sketches for a Dune comic book or cartoon – basically the Atreides clan on Caladan, the Harkonnen and the Emperor, and the Fremen. Absolutely impressive, in a fun, cartoony way.
JimC says
Will do!
Matthew says
There is also the Space Western. Science Fiction stories that are based on the Western. I know you don’t read a lot of SF, but I always wondered what you would thing of these…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceWestern
http://www.ranker.com/list/best-space-western-tv-shows/reference
Fletcher Vredenburgh says
In the middle of rereading it right now and doing a bunch of related art tweets (lord, I hate that word) about it as well. It remains a terrific, often mind-blowing, tale.
JimC says
How cool is that?
john roberts says
I fell in love with Dune back when it was first serialized in Analog in 1965. When I attended my first Worldcon in 1976 at the Hugo ceremony I was seated directly behind Frank Herbert. A few years back I sent my own design impression of a crysknife to Michael Tinker Pierce and he made it for me. Plain old steel but there was no sandworm tooth to be had. Endangered species, no doubt.
JimC says
Do you have pix of that knife? I’d love to see it.
john roberts says
Let me see what I can come up with. How would I send them?
john roberts says
Ha. I just checked out Tinker’s website and it’s there. Just go to the gallery of daggers. It’s in two columns and mine ix the twelfth one down on the left side. It’s the jambiyah-looking one. For years I’ve tried to trace the interlace work on the handle and it makes my head spin Definitely magical.
JimC says
Outstanding. Will post a link.
Fletcher A Vredenburgh says
Love the knife!
john roberts says
Because of the lighting on the photo you can’t see that the interlace of the handle is continued down onto the flat, triangle shaped part of the blade in engraving.
Jack Buck says
[* Shield plugin marked this comment as “Pending Moderation”. Reason: Human SPAM filter found “audio song” in “comment_content” *]
I visited various sites but the audio quality for audio songs existing at
this site is really wonderful.
JimC says
Glad you got to see Born for the Saber. I wish we could get this whole bunch to the Breaker screening. THAT would be lively!