Table of Contents
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
THE PLAYERS
House Atreides
House Harkonnen
The Emperor
The Fremen
Bene Gesserit
The Spacing Guild
PRODUCTION
Production Design
Costume Design
The Mechanical Effects: KNB
Visual Effects Commentary
Netter Digital
Digital Firepower & E=mc2 Digital
Title House Digital
AI Effects
Area 51
Cinematography
Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison and William Hurt
FOREWORD
RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN
Executive Producer
I would have never thought that I would embrace television the way I have because I started off as a feature film producer. But while my back was turned, television grew up. In addition, I learned from my experience with Stephen King’s "The Stand" that the mini-series format is a major asset for adapting a long complicated novel into a movie. I know writer/director John Harrison felt that way when he adapted Dune into a screenplay for a 6-hour mini-series.
My relationship with Dune began as a reader in the late 60s. It was one of my favorite novels. When I saw the Dino De Laurentiis produced feature adaptation I did not feel like it captured the soul of the book. However, it wasn’t until almost 15 years later that I began to try to do something about giving the novel a second chance on screen. One night, around four o’clock in the morning, I was looking at my "first edition" bookshelf, and my eye gravitated to the spine of Dune. I wondered if I could get the TV rights and produce a mini-series version of the book. The next day I went into the office and found out that there was an ongoing dispute in terms of who owned the television rights. Literally the day that the dispute was resolved was the day that I approved an agreement with the Frank Herbert estate to option the TV rights to Dune and its 5 sequel books.
Even though Dune has received great acclaim as a science fiction novel, it is much more than a science fiction story. Readers or viewers can experience Dune on several different levels having little to do with science in the future. There are universal and powerful themes in "Frank Herbert’s Dune" relating to love, loyalty, and a young man coming of age. Dune is also a big action/adventure epic in the tradition of Lawrence of Arabia. This is not to suggest that we’ve forgotten the high tech and monster fans since "Frank Herbert’s Dune" has some knockout special effects including the giant worms that guard the spice.
Richard P. Rubinstein and Vittorio Storaro
The budget for this mini-series was more than $20 million dollars. It sounds like a lot of money, but given what we wanted to achieve, it wasn't as much as you might think. A great portion of Dune is set on the desert world of Arrakis. It wasn’t until after I spent several days in the Namibian desert where the wind was a steady forty-five miles an hour that I realized you can’t be out in that kind of environment and not have sand get into everything. That kind of experience led us to focus on the practical difficulties of filming in the desert. We looked at our budget and thought, "Can we afford to be sitting doing nothing for three days if the wind comes up?" We didn’t think so. John Harrison then embraced an interior/exterior concept where we would create a unique desert universe for "Frank Herbert’s Dune" on very large soundstages. Mitchell Galin, David Kappes, and John then found Prague’s Barrandov Studios fit the bill.
As the senior Executive Producer, I try to maintain a day to day distance creatively after the birth of the project. This approach allows me to have some perspective and overview during the editing of the movie but puts more importance on having the right director and creative team in the first place. After you see the mini-series, I believe you will feel that my faith in John Harrison, Vittorio Storaro, Theodor Pistek, Miljen "Kreka" Kljakovic, Ernest Farino and Harry Miller among many others was justified. On the producing side I was lucky to have my co-executive producer, Mitchell Galin to represent us in the development of the script and during casting. On a day to day basis I slept well because David Kappes was in Prague running the production. With respect to the cast I’ve said facetiously that we’re not holding it against certain actors that their names are well known. That wasn’t why they were hired. John’s first focus was getting the right actors and I felt he was very successful. John also had the freedom to use more new faces than usual because Dune itself is a well-recognized "brand name" novel and a star in its own right.
I had good timing when it came to finding a TV home for Dune. The SCI FI Channel had decided to make a big statement about its commitment to original programming. Their problem was finding a program that appealed to the SCI FI Channel’s core audience, but also reached out to a broader range of viewers. They saw in Dune the same general audience appeal that I did.
I am very grateful to the past and present execs at the SCI FI Channel and USA Networks, to New Amsterdam’s corporate partner, ABC, and to our international partner, Betafilm of Munich, for giving us enough rope to hang ourselves. I hope The Secrets of Frank Herbert’s Dune will give you a feel for how we avoided the gallows. This book can’t ever stand in for the mini-series itself, but it does give you a view from behind the camera.
My heartfelt thanks go out to all who helped make it happen including the legions of fans of Frank Herbert’s novel that told us they were ready for another adaptation.
New York City
July 2000
John Harrison
INTRODUCTION
"FRANK HERBERT’S DUNE"
THE STORY,THE CAST,THE CREW
By Director John Harrison
Three years ago Richard P. Rubinstein and Mitchell Galin came to me and said that they’d acquired the television rights to Frank Herbert’s novel Dune and would I be interested in writing and directing a mini-series based on it. Richard, Mitchell and I had collaborated successfully many times in the past, both in features and television. I knew we could do it again with this material. An opportunity like this comes along infrequently if ever in one’s career, and I saw in "Frank Herbert’s Dune" an extraordinary opportunity to unite a much-loved and renowned piece of literature with some of the finest filmmaking talents in the business; a chance to create unique and memorable television. How could I not take this project on? I was sure that we could do some-thing with it that hadn’t been done previously.
So, after a moment’s pause (so as not to appear too greedy) I asked how fast I could sign up? Like many of my generation, I’d read the book when I was young and was strongly influenced by it. Reading Dune wasn’t simply an exercise in fun reading; it was a serious, often difficult encounter with ideas, political, social and religious. The chance to translate those ideas to a broad medium like television was both exciting and challenging.
Duke Leto (William Hurt)
I spent several weeks reading and re-reading Herbert’s book, analyzing the characters, the story, making notes on each chapter, trying to outline the action in each one, but most importantly the theme of each. Because in the end, Dune is not simply a book of plot and adventure, it’s a book of philosophy.
I believed from the start that the story of Dune could be accessible even to a wide audience; that even people who might never pick up a science-fiction book could understand and embrace it. After all, it’s a classic myth-story: A young man, Paul Atreides, is uprooted from his cherished homeland, taken by his beloved and honorable father to a distant and dangerous planet to start a new life. But jealous enemies assassinate the father and the son is left with his mother to die in th
e brutal, merciless wilderness. Adopted by seemingly primitive indigenous tribes, the young man learns their ways, adopts their customs, and eventually fulfills the promise of their legends and becomes their Mah’di, their messiah. In so doing, he learns the truth about himself and the meaning of his life. Through that odyssey of his own spirit, the young prince leads the desert tribes to freedom and rids the universe of the corruption that is pulling it apart. But such victory is never that neat and easy. The young prince’s triumph sets off a chain of events not even he can control.
The saga of Dune doesn’t end. It grows.
A classic story. A fable. A cautionary tale. The stuff of myth.
Paul Atreides (Alec Newman)
I decided that Herbert’s own structure could serve quite well as the basis for the mini-series. Each night would reflect one of the three "books" that comprise his novel: "Dune," "Muad’dib," and "The Prophet." Night One, therefore, would be the story of the Atreides family and the vicious, complex conspiracies against it. Night Two would be the story of Paul surviving his family’s defeat, learning the ways of the desert. And finally, Night Three would be Paul’s emergence as the Fremen Mah’di, the messiah that would lead them to victory and freedom, the leader who struggles under the yoke of his own destiny. And tying it all together would be the mystical odyssey of Paul towards the enlightenement to which he was fated.
Saskia Reeves and John Harrison
I was determined to be as faithful as possible to Frank Herbert’s novel. And after about six months I had completed the story adaptation and the over 300-page screenplay. Now of course, novels and television are two different mediums. So there had to be certain adaptations. The narrative structure, for example, had to be more linear. Some subplots had to be subsumed into others. Some characters would never get the detailed attention they got in the novel. But I think those who know the book well will see that what we’ve accomplished is an honest and scrupulous adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel.
Now it was up to Richard and Mitchell to put together the production. And it wasn’t easy. But, thankfully, their dedication and perseverance even during the most difficult periods finally paid off and we head-ed to Europe to start facing the myriad decisions that would have to be made. With the uncompromising help and patient management skills of David Kappes, our producer, we were able to assemble an army of first-rate artists and technicians to bring this novel to life and deliver production values exceeding expectations.
Dr. Kynes (Karel Dobry)
To me, Dune is an adventure novel. It is called sci-fi but I think of it as speculative fiction, a romantic epic in the classic tradition. When we decided to investigate the possibility of creating a completely fantasy-oriented unvierse primarily on sound stages in Europe, I was adamant that we not do it as a "green screen" show. By that I mean I didn’t want to create an environment that had one or two props and the rest of the room simply key green backdrops into which we’d "paint" computer-generated environments. I didn’t feel this method would allow us to accurately portray the world I wanted to see, and secondly I didn’t want the actors performing in a reference-less vacuum. Instead, I was lucky enough to get two wonderful artists to help me create a marvelously unique vision of "Frank Herbert’s Dune," Production Designer Miljen "Kreka" Kljakovic and Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
Gurney Halleck (P.H. Moriarty)
I had been a fan of Kreka’s work for many years, going back to his films Delicatessen and Kusturica’s The Underground. During a scouting trip through North Africa and Europe, I veered off to Paris where he lives to seduce him into designing the mini-series for me. We agreed right away that to make such a project work we’d need specific and remark-able identities for each of the specific environments of "Frank Herbert’s Dune." These locales included the Imperial planet of the Emperor, the dark planet where Baron Harkonnen lives, and of course, the desert plan-et Arrakis, also called Dune, wasteland of the empire. Home of the Spice. Home of the mysterious Fremen. I wanted everyone watching the mini-series to understand instantly the cultural difference between these worlds and communities.
Stilgar (Uwe Ochsenknecht)
I was introduced to Vittorio Storaro by my talented, resourceful right-hand man, Assistant Director Matt Clark. Turns out this master of light had long loved Herbert’s novel. He’d almost worked on Jodoworski’s ill-fated attempt to produce a movie of Dune in the 70s, and had been approached again by Ridley Scott during another effort to bring Herbert’s novel to film. When he heard that I was doing a new version, a longer version to truly capture the book, he asked to meet me. It was like a dream come true for me, of course. I’d been studying Vittorio’s work for years, stealing his ideas, his styles, in even the simplest of my TV work. I knew if I could get him to shoot this production of "Frank Herbert’s Dune," we would have a striking and memorable picture. Sure enough, the evidence is now there for everyone to enjoy. Not only did Vittorio create an incredible, thoughtful and detailed color scheme for every aspect of the mini-series, emotionally and philosophically he helped design and execute the magnificent Translites that complimented Kreka’s production design. Created and rendered with computer graphics by Fabrizio Storaro, these Translites are as large as one hundred feet by thirty feet and covering the entire length of the biggest soundstage in Europe. They allowed me to create environments we never could have had anywhere on location. Sietch Tabr, for example, the primary home of Stilgar’s Fremen tribe deep in the desert on Dune. Kreka, Vittorio and I spent many hours pondering what such a sietch would look like. From the start, I was determined to exhibit the rich cultural life of the Fremen, which is described in great detail in the book. Their desert communities had to visually represent that sophisticated culture. With Vittorio and Kreka’s unyielding encouragement, I settled on a look that was inspired by the mysterious and haunting temples of Petra in Jordan, the esthete communities of the Essenes, and the Holy Land paintings of David Roberts.
Paul Atreides, Duke Leto and Dr. Kynes
Like the production design, I wanted a costume design that was instantly recognizable and stunning. When I came to Prague, I knew of the designer, Theodor Pistek, who had won an Academy Award for Amadeus. I also knew that he is a national treasure in the Czech Republic. We’d be lucky just to have an interview with him. When I told him about "Frank Herbert’s Dune," he wasn’t much interested in the job because he’s not a fan of science fiction. But I said, "No, no. This is not sci-fi. This is epic adventure. It’s classic storytelling, and we have a terrific opportunity to break the mold here. I want you to think of this as Shakespeare . . . as Mallory. I want you to consider a kind of Oriental/Arab/Medieval European design concept . . . because I think Herbert’s novel is infused with ideas and images from all these."
John Harrison and Ernest Farino
Luckily Theodor became intrigued, and within a week, I had a pile of phenomenal drawings for all the principal characters. Then we start-ed working with Vittorio in terms of color schemes. Like the production design, every wardrobe identifies the world that we’re in. Each one gives you a psychological insight into the character, the tribe and the culture with which we’re dealing.
The final pieces of the creative puzzle fell into place when Ernie Farino agreed to handle the visual effects and Harry Miller joined me to edit this epic. Having worked with both many times, I knew the great burden of pulling this six-hour leviathan together was in great hands.
Vittorio Storaro
Ernie was integrally involved with Kreka, Vittorio and myself designing every one of the visual effects in this production. Everything from set extensions to worm attacks. Everything from crowd replication to Heighliners folding space. Without his expert collaboration day in and day out we would have been lost and the scope of "Frank Herbert’s Dune" would have been lost. Furthermore, Ernie took on the difficult task of directing the 2nd unit.
A Fremen girl
Having cut several pictures together already, I knew that Harry Miller wou
ld be able to manage the enormous challenges of this story-telling. He was in Prague for the entire production, cutting as we shot, so that I could visit on weekends and see how we were doing. Because he knew my rhythms, my style, he was able to present me with finely-tuned scenes. Many were the day I looked to Harry to solve a dramatic problem with his editing skills. And as we’ve had to make the inevitable adjustments to structure and pacing, Harry’s keen storytelling sense has been invaluable.
left to right: Stilgar, Duke Leto, Duncan Idaho (James Watson) and Thufir Howat (Jan Vlasák)
Reverend Mother Ramallo (Drahomira Fialkova) and Chani (Barbora Kodetová)
So now the creative team behind the camera was complete. All we needed was a world-class cast to bring the mini-series to life.
When we were talking about casting "Frank Herbert’s Dune," we had to make a choice. Either go after certain stars and try drawing an audience by virtue of their names, or go with gifted talent that would be right for each role regardless of how well-known. My instinct is always to go with great actors, and if they are unknown, so be it. After all, the real star in this case is the story of Dune. So I was insistent that we find the best actor for each of the roles. Luckily for me, everyone agreed that a production of "Frank Herbert’s Dune" cries out for an international cast. Actors of different cultures and backgrounds could only enhance the dif-ferent worlds of the story. I was lucky to have found an ensemble of gift-ed talent to bring each role to life.
The Secrets of Frank Herbert's Dune Page 1