Dune: Prophecy

[James.B]

WarnerMedia's forthcoming streaming service is poised to explore the world of Dune.

The yet-unnamed platform has handed out a straight-to-series order for Dune: The Sisterhood, a female-focused take on Frank Herbert's beloved novel. Denis Villeneuve, who wrote, produced and directed next year's new take on Dune, will helm the pilot. Jon Spaihts will pen the script for the TV series, which hails from Legendary Television. Villeneuve and Spaihts will exec produce alongside Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert for the Frank Herbert estate. Kevin J Anderson will co-produce. Spaihts co-wrote the screenplay alongside Villeneuve.

Production on the Dune feature, which hails from Legendary Entertainment and is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, began filming in March. The feature film's cast includes Timothee Chalamet as the lead character, Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac and David Dastmalchian. It's scheduled to premiere Nov. 20, 2020.

Herbert's Dune novel examines a future in which humanity has spread across the galaxy to thousands of worlds, all ruled by the Padishah Emperor, The Imperium. Dune: The Sisterhood takes place in the same universe and explores the future through the eyes of a mysterious order of women: the Bene Gesserit. Given abilities by their mastery of the body and the mind, the Bene Gesserit expertly weave through the feudal politics and intrigue of The Imperium, pursuing plans of their own that will ultimately lead them to the enigmatic planet Arrakis — known to its inhabitants as Dune.

"The Bene Gesserit have always been fascinating to me. Focusing a series around that powerful order of women seemed not only relevant and inspiring but a dynamic setting for the television series,” Villeneuve said.

The TV series and feature film are the tip of the iceberg for Legendary's larger plan for Dune, which also includes video games, digital content packages and comic book series. Legendary CEO Joshua Grode told THRin April that the plan was to split Dune across two movies, though only the first one has been scheduled. To date, there have been more than 20 books in the Dune series, the first six of them written by Herbert. His son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson, continued the series.

 

[flickchick85]

Still wary of Spaihts's involvement (in both this and the film), but hopeful that Villeneuve and Anderson can cancel out his more bone-headed tendencies.

 

[Marvolo]

****ing hell. Another streaming service. With Disney + I'm at my limit. I'm already paying for Prime Video, Spotify/Hulu, Netflix, CBS Access when Trek is in season, Starz, HBO, and Cinemax. That's about $900 a year.

At this point the only thing that could get me to subscribe to WB's app or another movie studios app is if they let me watch their theatrical films on their streaming services the day they are released in theaters. Until they do that they arent worth it.

 

[Sithborg]

Its going to have a lot of sex because of the breeding program, isn't it?

 

[Yowza]

****ing hell. Another streaming service. With Disney + I'm at my limit. I'm already paying for Prime Video, Spotify/Hulu, Netflix, CBS Access when Trek is in season, Starz, HBO, and Cinemax. That's about $900 a year.

At this point the only thing that could get me to subscribe to WB's app or another movie studios app is if they let me watch their theatrical films on their streaming services the day they are released in theaters. Until they do that they arent worth it.

This is going to be the future like it or not. Unfortunately, all studios and major distributors are catching on to this as well as perplexingly finding it profitable to create original content that isn't available to rent on other platforms until a certain time has passed...

The age of early streaming days is beginning to pass and video rental like we had in the 90's will almost be a better option. Still though, original content that most will see sooner or later is a plus in my book.

I just utilize rental sites to rent what I want and pretty much just do 1 subscription based VOD site at a time purely to watch original content if something is appealing.

 

[flickchick85]

It's all a conspiracy to get people to go running back to cable.

 

[Marvolo]

I think at some point in the next decade it's going to collapse back into a few streaming services. Some services will fail because of poor pricing models, some will fail because they dont offer enough unique and competitive content, some will fail because of poor management. And when these specific studios fail theyll have to turn back to third party streaming services.

Either that or studios will have to team up under a few streaming locker services sort of like Disney's MoviesAnywhere being a locker service for FandangoNow, Google, Vudu, Disney, Fox, Universal, Sony, Marvel, Buena Vista etc.

The markets only going to tolerate so many separate subscription services before customers reach their limit. And America's internet infrastructure is garbage by first world standards and most internet providers will throttle your internet speeds after a certain amount of data use. The service(s) that figure out how to stream 4K content at a markedly reduced bandwidth are going to be the ones that come out on top.

 

[Kuwolski]

Disney (Hulu), Netflix, Warner will likely be the big players as the major content producers in the streaming game. Apple and Amazon will be the big players with much less original content because of their core business being huge. That's 5. Out of those AT&T has a massive debt load at the moment and Netflix's business strategy seems to be to out-subscribe theirs. I think Warner has the second most prized (or1A) content library in the world and Netflix, well, doesn't. Far from it. Despite Netflix's big head start I'd ride with WarnerMedia long term.

 

[flickchick85]

Netflix is still over $12 billion in debt from all the money they've sunk into their shows, and they haven't even really begun to shrink that number after several years, while their lead over their competitors is shrinking every day. I'm not entirely sure they don't get bought out in the next couple years. Warner and Disney have deep enough pockets to begin with that it should ensure their longevity.

 

[Marvolo]

Another thing Netflix has going against it is it's ever increasing subscription price. I'm currently paying $17 a month for 4K Netflix. And I'm sure it's going to increase again in 2020. Theres no reason other than pure greed and piss poor management for that subscription price. Netflix has enough subscribers to charge less and maintain a good content production budget every year. And their subscription price is especially irritating when I consider how much money they spend on absolute garbage movies and shows.

 

[flickchick85]

Yeah, my attachment to Netflix is hanging on by a thread. The Marvel shows are about to be completely done with JJ, and I can live with or without Stranger Things, so I'm really only hanging onto it for The Crown and Mindhunter. And frankly, their price is making it tough to justify for two shows. Next time it goes up, I'm pulling the plug.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Nice.
I wonder when it will take place in Dune time line.

 

[Yowza]

Anyone remember nook video and a later digital purchasing site called cinemanow? I think streaming services that support a separate digital storage locker site that WON'T go kaput is something to be considered. Who wouldn't want to purchase a digital copy of their favorite streaming show if it includes added scenes or compelling content extras?

IF overlapped to a degree with a subscription streaming site like we have now, this could keep streaming costs down and provide an outlet for added revenue as physical discs become more obsolete. Perhaps as Smart TV's get more and more advanced, larger add-on internal storage drives for a digital library will become more common to couple with a cloud storage site for added reliability.

 

[green]

A beginning is a very delicate time...

 

[James.B]

'Dune: The Sisterhood' Showrunner to Exit HBO Max Series (Exclusive)

Sources say Legendary TV was not happy with the early work Spaihts turned in and opted to remove him as showrunner on the production so he can instead focus on the yet-to-be formally announced film sequel to the forthcoming Dune feature.

Spaihts co-wrote the screenplay for the first film — also from Legendary — alongside Denis Villeneuve, who also produced and directed. (The first film is currently in postproduction.) Villeneuve is attached to direct the pilot for Dune: The Sisterhood.

 

[Filmfreak]

I like that they're focusing on the second movie, which I hope it will eventually get made, and honestly I'd prefer it if it wasn't the same guys from the films that worked on the show. But the fact that they didn't like his script on this one and yet they're keeping him around for the sequel concerns me a bit.

 

[Sawyer]

'Dune' HBO Max Series Enlists New Showrunner (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety

It had been such a lengthy period of no news regarding this thing, I wasn’t even sure it was still going to happen.

 

[Albright]

will this be connected to the new movies or will Warner **** the shared universe up as usual…

 

[Dr.]

‘Dune: The Sisterhood’ Series Taps ‘Chernobyl’ Director Johan Renck – Deadline

 

[Filmfreak]

I'm bummed that Villeneuve won't shoot the pilot after all, but I guess they probably wanted to develop this and Part Two at the same time and he wanted to focus his energy on the film.

 

[antsman41]

I'm bummed that Villeneuve won't shoot the pilot after all, but I guess they probably wanted to develop this and Part Two at the same time and he wanted to focus his energy on the film.

 

[Albright]

ok, this sounds promising

 

[Filmfreak]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Drizzle]

I don't know why I thought this was cancelled in the wake of Zaslav's axe but I'm glad to see that it isn't.