Pierre Morel says his DUNE adaptation will be 'Faster and more modern'
A couple of days ago we reported on some very cool quotes that came out of an interview MTV did with Taken director Pierre Morel. Morel has taken over the helm of the Dune franchise after Peter Berg's much welcomed departure. Morel revealed that he is a die-hard Frank Herbert fan, having read his series of books repeatedly over the last 30 years. Much to our delight, Morel will be taking a more faithful and "very respectful" route in adapting the original novel and will in no way use the 1984 David Lynch film as reference.
In the recently released second part of the phone interview, Morel expanded on his love of the original movie as a David Lynch film, but his disappointment in it as a fan of Dune:
Like many people, I was not fully satisfied with David Lynch’s movie in 1984. I do respect David, and I think his interpretation and vision was interesting, but not what we [fans] expected. And I thought I’d give it a chance, try to do this, make it faster and more modern. I think that now, in 2010, we have the technology to achieve much more than David could do twenty-five years ago. I think it will be cool to try something different.
The director also revealed specific plans for how he intends to translate the beloved sci-fi series for wide audience. He revealed the first thing he plans to tweak are the clothes, saying with a laugh:
Well, this is supposed to take place 10,000 years from now, so I wonder why people are still dressed like Captain Nemo. It feels very 19th century to me. I think the [character’s clothes] should be much more modern than that. That’s one thing [I’ll change]; that’s a basic thought.
I like the look of old clothes, but IT IS weird that visions of the future often hearken back to the past. Then again I don't get fashion either way, nor would I argue about it with anyone. But one thing harded to argue with is the technology. Morel explained plans for a major tweak in how the technology of the future is presented:
We’ll try to figure out what things may look like 10,000 years from now; it’s all about reconfiguring the entire universe. Everything is going to be very different than [it is] now. And we know from the book that there’s no more computers, no thinking machines. So a lot of the technology is going to be different. We’ll be working with design concepts, futurists and scientists who will give us a vision of how technology may evolve with certain conditions. That might lead us to another vision of the future – it’s not David Lynch’s vision, it’s not ours either, but in-between. We start the writing process in a couple weeks; there’s so much to sort out. [My Dune] is not a sequel to anything. It’s just a re-interpretation of the original novel.
Though the complex storyline will take some time to develop, Morel hopes he can jump right in and get to work on it immediately:
I hope it is the one I’m shooting next, but we’re starting from scratch. We’re re-writing the script, and then we’ll have to figure out the technology [and how it will be depicted], and that’s going to take awhile. But best-case scenario, that will be my next one. I’d love for it to be my next one.
We hope it is his next project as well. Having a director that is devoted to the source material is a pretty amazing prospect. It will also be nice to see the director with whit I assume will be a bigger budget at his disposal.
Morel's crime thriller From Paris With Love-- his follow up to the surprise hit Taken -- hits theaters Feb. 5th and stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.