56 years later, science fiction book comes to theaters

Based on a book from 1965, the movie Dune debuted  on October 22 with $40.1 million in ticket sales just in the first weekend.

The original book was written by American author Frank Herbert, and just a year after release the book won the Hugo Award and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Following in the book’s footsteps, the movie won the Saturn Award for best costume design.

Senior Maddie Conrad says she “loved the movie,” and also “thought the actors did an amazing job playing their roles.” However, she has one small critique.  “The only thing I did not like was it felt like it took forever for the plot to build up and I was confused on what was happening.”

Director of Dune, Denis Villeneuve, pledged on not changing too much about the book while filming when he said to the crew, studio, and actors “the bible is the book. We will, as much as possible, stay as close as possible to the book.” Villeneuve also says that he wants people who love the book to feel like we put a camera in their minds.

Senior Alyssa Sparacco-Ireland read the book after they found out that the movie was coming out, “the movie lived up to my standards, it gave me a lot of Star Wars vibes.” She also adds that “[the book and movie] were both confusing, however, the movie was really good. The CGI, the plot and the casting were all amazing.”

As for differences between the book and the movie, there weren’t many, according to Sparacco-Ireland. However, they added that “since they planned it out to be a trilogy, it ended in a weird spot where the main plot was just beginning.

The only thing that Sparacco-Ireland says they would’ve changed about the movie is to “give Zendaya a bit more screen time because they used her a lot in the promos but she was only in the movie for about five minutes.”

Conrad also has a small critique which would be to “shorten the build up to the main plot. Right now the audience has to sit there in confusion and wonder what is going on.”

The casting of Dune was done by Villeneuve who says “the casting of Paul Atreides played a vital role in putting together the rest of the lineup.” The director has a different approach to casting, revealing to Newsweek that he built the cast one piece at a time, starting with Timothee Chalamet as the main character, Paul Atreides.

“We built the family,” Villeneuve says, “that family, and from there we expanded and went to explore the characters around this family.” He also adds that “it was like building slowly a world but starting with Paul as the center of everything.