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actors in dune movie vs miniseries


Emperor Harkonnen

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So which actors in the movies or the miniseries do you think are the closest to how you imagined the characters from the book?

For my part I guess it would be a mix, but generally I prefer the actors in the miniseries. They look more how Frank Herbert described them, and personally I also thought they seemed more like this when I read the book.

What about you guys?

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I prefer the actors in the miniseries. They look more how Frank Herbert described them,

Yeah, especially the voluptuous Barbara What's-her-name looks very "elfin", just like Chani rolleyes.giflaugh.gif

Generally, I prefer the cast from the film, with the notable exceptions of Ian McNeice as the Baron, and Karel Dobry as a suprisingly excellent Dr. Kynes.

Maybe it is not the miniseries' actors' fault, but rather the peculiarities of the script, but most supporting characters somehow fade into background and are generally very flat IMO. Brad Dourif's performance of Piter in the film remains uncontested, and even though Patrick Stewart is nowhere close to Gurney's description in the book, he just rules :laugh:

BTW, I suppose there has been a similar thread in the past somewhere, too lazy to look for it now though.

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I clearly need to watch the miniseries again to understand everyone's hatred of William Hurt as Leto. I liked the Leto from the film decently, but dammit, "hurt" is in the actor's name! (j/k, mostly ;) ) I really liked the casting of both, though I think Chani in the movie is definitely more "elfin". I generally preferred the costumes in the miniseries, and though the costumes don't make the characters, it goes a long way. I think I just mostly hold the miniseries close to heart because it was my first exposure to the universe.

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Alec Newman did an average characterisation of portraying Paul in his younger years. In the director commentaries, John Harrison and others comment on how Alec's was criticised for portraying Paul as basically a "petulant spoiled rich brat who thinks he is a god" The directors then go on to comment on how the book characterises him this way which couldn't be further from the truth. For example, in the book when Paul learns that he is being called Mahdi by the fremen it gives him a sense of terrible purpose rather than elation. Alec's characterisation of the Preacher was a vast improvement tho.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Upon rewatching part of the miniseries, I will say that I preferred the mentats from the film, and you can't really argue with Kyle Maclachlan as Paul. I like both Pauls, actually.

The portrayal of the mentats and Paul was much better in the film rather than the miniseries. As far as Paul is concerned one criticism is that the actors were much to old to convincingly portray an initial 15 year old boy. It would be interesting if the director for the new film would decided to cast a much younger actor to portray Paul in the interest of being more accurate to the book.

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Personally overall I prefer the miniseries to the Film.

What I could see in the film, since everything was so damn dark the whole time was meh. I just really liked the costumes more in the mini series, the only thing I really liked about the lynch film was the score.

And Patrick Stewart was pretty cool too.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jurgen looks Greek, even though I think he's German. Kyle MacLachlan looks French descent or something like that.

But Bill Hurt and Alec Newman definitely do not look Greek. Neither does Jame McAvoy look like the son/grandson of a Greek. Both Newman and McAvoy are Scot descent, so they do look like they are related to each other.

If they had dyed Giancarlo Giannini's hair reddish, he might have been passable as Shaddam. But they may have just been going with his last name sounding Italian like Corrino.

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I don't think it is said anywhere in the books that the Atreides looked Greek. Besides, there's absolutely no reason for them to look Greek in the first place, even being direct descendants of Agamemnon, taking into account how far in the future Dune is set.

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It seems that neither the film nor the miniseries con boast consistency of portrayal of every character in accordance with the book. Sir Patrick Stewart's Gurney just rules in any case though, as does Brad Dourif's Piter (both film and miniseries miss the "feminine look" of Piter's, although it's a little more arguable in Brad Dourif's case, but on the other hand, he's noticeably taller than FH's description implies).

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I really liked the Duncan from the first miniseries. I don't really remember Duncan from the movie, and the Duncan in the second miniseries seemed too... unemotional? I realize that he was a Tleilaxu puppet, but I didn't really get the feeling that, hey! there's Duncan Idaho!

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That is true. I guess as a person whose lineage is from the Central/Eastern Meditteranean Sea-area, I would have liked to see more of what I perceive to be the Greek lineage. But I may be just being one-sided, and Leto II could have been envisioned by Frank Herbert resembling someone looking like McAvoy.

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  • 1 month later...

Ivo Novak did a rather good portrayal of Farok in the Children of Dune miniseries --especially his account of being cured of the jihad after his “baptism” in the ocean. My only criticism would be how the screenwriter scripted his death. In the film, Farok is able to grab his neck, struggle, and ultimately fall face down on the table quite loudly. In the book, Farok is seemingly frozen in time after being hit by Scytale’s dart and dies less than a minute later. IMHO, this latter stealthy portrayal of Farok’s death is much more sinister than the film’s action orientated depiction of Farok’s demise.

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